MARSBUGS:  
The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter
Volume 5, Number 17, 18 August 1998.

Editors:

Dr. David Thomas, Department of Biological Sciences, University of 
Idaho, Moscow, ID, 83844-3051, USA.  Marsbugs@aol.com or 
thoma457@uidaho.edu.

Dr. Julian Hiscox, Division of Molecular Biology, IAH Compton 
Laboratory, Berkshire, RG20 7NN, UK.  Julian.Hiscox@bbsrc.ac.uk

Marsbugs is published on a weekly to quarterly basis as warranted 
by the number of articles and announcements.  Copyright of this 
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in which instance copyright exists with the author/authors.  E-
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The purpose of this newsletter is to provide a channel of 
information for scientists, educators and other persons interested 
in exobiology and related fields.  This newsletter is not intended 
to replace peer-reviewed journals, but to supplement them.  We, 
the editors, envision Marsbugs as a medium in which people can 
informally present ideas for investigation, questions about 
exobiology, and announcements of upcoming events.

Astrobiology is still a relatively young field, and new ideas may 
come out of the most unexpected places.  Subjects may include, but 
are not limited to:  exobiology and astrobiology (life on other 
planets), the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), 
ecopoeisis and terraformation, Earth from space, planetary 
biology, primordial evolution, space physiology, biological life 
support systems, and human habitation of space and other planets.
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CONTENTS

1)	CHEMICAL REACTION BELIEVED TO SUPPORT UNDERGROUND MICROBES IS 
NOW UNLIKELY-- FINDINGS COULD HAVE IMPLICATIONS FOR LIFE ON 
MARS AND OTHER PLANETS
National Science Foundation release 98-43

2)	MICROBES BENEATH OCEAN FLOOR COULD SIGNIFY LIFE ON MARS
By Mark Floyd

3)	IS "MARTIAN" METEORITE LUCKY 13?
Planetary Science Research Institute release

4)	A ROCK FROM THE RED PLANET:  A NEW MARTIAN METEORITE FOUND IN 
THE SAHARA
Max Planck Institute for Chemistry release

5)	THIS WEEK ON GALILEO
JPL release

6)	1998 MARS SURVEYOR PROJECT STATUS REPORT 
By John McNamee
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CHEMICAL REACTION BELIEVED TO SUPPORT UNDERGROUND MICROBES IS NOW 
UNLIKELY-- FINDINGS COULD HAVE IMPLICATIONS FOR LIFE ON MARS AND 
OTHER PLANETS
National Science Foundation release 98-43

13 August 1998

A critical chemical reaction previously thought to support 
microbial life deep below Earth's surface, and possibly on Mars, 
is in fact highly unlikely.  The findings are reported in this 
week's issue of the journal Science by researchers funded by the 
National Science Foundation's (NSF) Life in Extreme Environments 
(LeXeN) program and affiliated with the University of 
Massachusetts at Amherst.

"This is an important step forward in our continuing efforts to 
understand the processes that sustain life deep beneath the 
earth's surface," says Mike Purdy, director of NSF's LeXeN 
program.  "Negative findings like this are as important as 
positive ones in their importance to our understanding of the 
processes that determine the limits to life."

Scientists had generally accepted that hydrogen gas produced from 
rock could provide energy to support the growth of microorganisms 
living below Earth's surface, says U. Mass. microbiologist Derek 
Lovley.  The hydrogen was thought to be produced when basalt, a 
common form of rock, reacts with water.

However, a research team led by Lovley has found that this concept 
is incorrect.  Although hydrogen gas can be produced from basalt 
under artificial laboratory conditions, there is no hydrogen 
production under the conditions actually found in Earth's 
subsurface.  Lovley and his colleagues found that hydrogen could 
only be produced from the basalt when the rock was exposed to 
acidic conditions--but environments containing basalt are never 
acidic.

"The idea that hydrogen produced from rocks could support large 
subsurface microbial ecosystems on Earth and possibly other 
planets was fascinating and was accepted by most microbiologists," 
Lovley says.  "Unfortunately, this concept can not be supported by 
the available data."

From analyses of chemical and microbiological data, Lovley and 
collaborators Robert Anderson, University of Massachusetts 
graduate student, and Francis Chapelle, a hydrologist at the U.S.  
Geological Survey in South Carolina, suggest that the 
microorganisms are probably living on organic matter associated 
with the rock, not hydrogen.  This is similar to the way that 
microorganisms grow in soil on Earth's surface.

The scientists emphasized that even though the microorganisms 
living deep in the Earth may make a living in a manner similar to 
that of surface microorganisms, they may have other unique 
characteristics.  For example, Lovley's recent research has 
demonstrated that microorganisms from the earth's subsurface can 
be used to remove radioactive metals, as well as hydrocarbons from 
polluted groundwater.
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MICROBES BENEATH OCEAN FLOOR COULD SIGNIFY LIFE ON MARS
By Mark Floyd, Oregon State University

13 August 1998

Scientists at Oregon State University have discovered evidence of 
rock eating microbes living nearly a mile beneath the ocean floor 
in conditions which suggest similar life could exist on Mars or 
other planets.  The discovery was announced Friday in the journal 
Science.  Microbial fossils were found in abundant quantities in 
miles of core samples taken during various research projects by 
the Ocean Drilling Program in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian 
oceans, according to Martin R. Fisk, an associate professor of 
oceanography at OSU and lead author on the study.

Where the basalt was glassy, having quickly been cooled by 
seawater, the scientists found a series of tracks and trails.  
"Whenever we looked at those tracks for DNA, we found it," Fisk 
said.

Fisk said he first became curious about the possibility of life 
after looking at the swirling tracks and trails that were etched 
into the basalt.  The rocks have the basic elements for life 
including carbon, phosphorous and nitrogen, and needed only water 
to complete the formula.  Groundwater seeping through the ocean 
floor could easily provide that, he pointed out.

"Under those conditions, microbes could live beneath any rocky 
planet," Fisk said.  "It would be no problem to have life inside 
of Mars, or within a moon of Jupiter, or even on a comet 
containing ice crystals that gets warmed up when the comet passes 
by the sun."

Fisk said scientists know a lot about the interior of Mars from 
meteorites that have been blasted off the planet.  "They've got 
everything you need for life," he said, including carbon, 
phosphorous, small amounts of nitrogen, and minerals that contain 
water, or evidence of water.

The temperatures required to create life are less of a concern, he 
pointed out, as scientists find more and more evidence of life in 
some of Earth's most desolate and extreme conditions--from 
Antarctic ice to deep ocean vents.  Microbes have been found near 
temperatures reaching 113 degrees C, and in freezing brines some 
15 degrees below zero, Fisk pointed out.

"The surface of Mars may be too cold to find life unless there is 
a hot spring bubbling up," Fisk said.  "But every planet has a 
temperature gradient; they get hotter as you go down.  Within the 
next few years, we'll probably find life on Mars.

"But we may have to dig to find it," he added.

Fisk said the evidence of microbial activity could be bacteria, or 
archea--which are the same size, but "as different from bacteria 
as humans."  A third, more distant possibility, the scientists 
say, is that the tracks and trails are a new, undocumented 
chemical process.

The glassy, outer inch of the basalt is the only place evidence of 
microbial activity was found.  Fisk thinks the looser chemical 
structure of the quickly cooled rock makes it easier for the 
microbes to break it down than the more tightly bound inner rock, 
which cooled more slowly.

"The microbes would make these little tubes, and inside them were 
germ-sized bodies," Fisk said.  "They are either eating the rock 
or excreting some kind of acid that is doing it.  One theory is 
that they are seeking micronutrients in the rock--iron, potassium 
or sulfur--which they need in small amounts.

"They may also be dissolving the rock to get a certain chemical 
reaction to provide them energy."

The researchers believe the microbes were originally carried 
beneath the ocean floor in seawater, seeping into the basalt and 
settling in fractures created by cooling.  Inside of dying, 
however, the microbes found the necessary ingredients within the 
basalt to continue living.  The DNA was found in the most far-
reaching tubes within the fractures, Fisk said, indicating that 
the microbial activity took place on site, beneath the ocean 
floor.

The researchers say the next step is to bring up fresh core 
samples and try to extract the microbes while they are still 
alive.  The core samples were from drilling studies that were 
months, even years old, and had been stored at Columbia 
University, Texas A AND M and the Scripps Oceanographic Institute.  
Future drilling studies are being proposed that would include an 
effort to extract and preserve living bacteria.  The project is 
funded by the Ocean Drilling Program and the National Science 
Foundation.

Stephen Giovannoni, an associate professor of microbiology at OSU, 
says preserving live microbes from rocks found a few feet to 
nearly a mile beneath the ocean floor will not be easy.

"It is possible, but it will be difficult," Giovannoni said.  
"Other scientists are working to provide better samples of the 
subsurface microbial world, and there are efforts under way to 
develop new 'clean' drilling techniques.  The drill itself can be 
a source of contamination.

"There also are huge pressure differences between the deep sea 
floor and the ocean surface," he added.  "That makes it unlikely 
that these organisms will be cultured in a lab anytime soon."

Researchers Paul Johnson, of the University of Washington, and Jim 
Cowen, of the University of Hawaii, are collaborating with the OSU 
researchers to collect samples from hot springs on the deep sea 
floor using the Alvin, a deep sea submersible.  The scientists 
hope their discovery opens the doors to further research of 
potential living organisms beneath the ocean floor.

"For the moment, the problem remains providing even stronger 
evidence, including gene sequences, that would conclusively prove 
there are living organisms down there," Giovannoni said.
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IS "MARTIAN" METEORITE LUCKY 13?
Planetary Science Research Institute release

10 August 1998

Open University researchers will announce on Monday if meteorite 
samples flown to the UK for analysis this week did originate from 
Mars.  If authenticated, it could provide the next breakthrough in 
the search for evidence of life on the red planet and will almost 
certainly make its prospector finder a millionaire.  Out of the 
worldwide collection of 20,000 meteorites, only 12 have been 
proven to come from Mars.  Museums or the US Government owns all 
of the dozen.  A private prospector who, if his find is proved 
genuine stands to earn US $1000 (or 620 English pound), found the 
meteorite being analyzed by the Open University in the Sahara 
Desert a gram on the commercial market from the 2.2kg rock.

The Sahara Desert find was announced at a Meteoritical Society 
conference in Dublin last week.  A specimen was dispatched 
immediately to the Planetary Sciences Research Institute (PSRI) at 
the Open University who are able perform the definitive test of 
authenticity, a sort of geochemical version of DNA typing 
involving oxygen isotopes.  The experiment involves heating a 
sample with pulses of a laser beam in the presence of fluorine 
containing gas to displace oxygen from the silicate for 
measurement in a mass spectrometer.  There is global scientific 
interest in the test results.  An affirmative report would pave 
the way for further analysis that could unlock the secrets of 
Martian climatic history and provide evidence of conditions 
capable of supporting life.

PSRI are the UK's leading research group on meteorites and Mars.  
They are championing the idea of Beagle 2, a British-built robot 
explorer that would be flown to Mars in 2003, carry out soil and 
rock analysis on the planet surface and transmit data back to 
Earth.  Beagle 2 is being designed by an international consortium 
led by the Open University's Professor Colin Pillinger, and a 
full-scale model of the lander vehicle will be on display at 
Monday's media conference.  Further information about the Beagle 2 
project is available from the Web site at 
http://beagle2.open.ac.uk/

150 mg of the new martian meteorite was made available for 
analyses at the PSRI.  Less than 1% of this material is used for 
an oxygen isotope analysis.
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A ROCK FROM THE RED PLANET:  A NEW MARTIAN METEORITE FOUND IN THE 
SAHARA
Max Planck Institute for Chemistry release

14 August 1998

The discovery of a new Martian meteorite was announced by Dr. 
Jutta Zipfel from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz.  
Members of the institute' staff classified this meteorite based on 
results from mineralogy, chemistry, and inert gas analyses.  An 
official announcement was made during the 61st Meteoritical 
Society meeting in Dublin 1998, which took place two weeks ago.

Several observations make this finding exciting news and are an 
enrichment of meteoritical sciences.  This meteorite is the first 
Martian meteorite found in the hot desert climate of the Sahara.  
It is the first one found since 1994 and also the first since the 
discussion whether there is life on Mars began two years ago.  
Now, the number of Martian meteorites has increased to a total of 
13, a small number if compared to the total of more than 20,000 
meteorite specimens known so far.  A private finder gave a 
fragment of the meteorite to the Max Planck Institute for 
Chemistry in Mainz for scientific purposes.  The rock weighs a 
little over 2 kg and is shaped like a loaf of bread.

During a five-minute speech, Zipfel presented results from inert 
gas, chemical and mineralogical studies.  The inert gas inventory 
of the atmosphere of Mars is very characteristic and well known 
from the Viking mission measurements on the surface of Mars in 
1976.  This is, so far, the strongest evidence that meteorites 
having this inert gas fingerprint must come from Mars.  Inert 
gases present in this meteorite clearly put it in the group of 
Martian meteorites.  Typical elemental ratios obtained by bulk 
chemical analyses of a chip of the new meteorite soon confirmed 
this finding.  In addition, mineral chemistry and petrographic 
observations, such as the presence of feldspathic glass, rounded 
out the picture.  'We had no doubt that this was a Martian 
meteorite,' said Zipfel, who made the announcement at the MSM in 
Dublin.

During the meeting, Zipfel gave British scientists from the Open 
University a 150 mg sample for analysis of the oxygen isotopic 
composition of the meteorite.  These measurements were carried out 
one week after the Dublin announcement and their results are 
consistent with findings obtained by the Max Planck scientists.

Inert gas analyses show that this meteorite was ejected from Mars 
about 1 million years ago, marking an ejection event unknown from 
other Martian meteorites, said Zipfel in her presentation.  After 
that, the meteorite took its time to travel through space before 
it was captured by the gravity of the Earth and landed in Northern 
Africa.  It was collected there in May of this year and 
immediately brought to the German Max Planck Institute for 
classification.  The meteorite is the first find of its group in a 
hot desert environment.  Clearly, it carries along with it its 
desert history, in that veins filled with terrestrial weathering 
products penetrate it throughout.  "The search for past evidence 
of life in this meteorite will be severely impeded because it was 
lying in the hot desert for probably thousands of years and not in 
a relatively sterile environment such as Antarctica," said Zipfel.  
However, it will give scientists the opportunity to gain further 
knowledge about geochemical processes on Mars and new insights 
into its evolution as a planet.

The chemical study of Martian meteorites and their implications 
for the bulk composition of Mars has a long tradition with 
scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz.  
Their development of the APXS instrument was selected by NASA's 
Mars "Pathfinder Mission".  Measurements with this instrument made 
it possible for the first time to analyze rocks sitting on the 
surface of Mars.

PHOTO CAPTION:  [http://www.mpg.de/news25_98.htm]
Bread-loaf shape of the new Martian meteorite.  Clearly visible 
the sandblown surface crosscut by cracks.

[NOTE:  Two images showing the sample given to the Open University 
are available at http://psri.open.ac.uk/News/NewMarsIMAGES.html .  
Below are the image captions:

(Image 1)
150 mg of the new martian meteorite was made available for 
analyses at the PSRI [Planetary Sciences Research Institute].  
This is shown on the small square of foil on the left of the 
image.  A one pound coin (22mm diameter) is shown for scale.  Less 
than 1% of this material is used for an oxygen isotope analysis.

(Image 2)
A close up of the largest chip above (top left corner of the foil 
square) is shown below.  The chip is approximately 5mm across.]
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THIS WEEK ON GALILEO
JPL release

17-23 August 1998

Several activities are on Galileo's to do list this week as the 
spacecraft reaches the farthest distance from Jupiter for this 
orbit and starts heading back closer to Jupiter again.  Playback 
of science pictures and other information stored on the 
spacecraft's onboard tape recorder continues this week, but is 
interrupted twice to perform engineering activities.  On Monday, 
the spacecraft performs a turn to keep its antenna pointed toward 
Earth.  In addition, regular maintenance of the tape recorder is 
scheduled for Sunday.

This week's playback schedule continues with data gathered during 
Galileo's May encounter with Jupiter's icy moon Europa.  The near-
infrared mapping spectrometer returns two observations of Io that 
target the volcanic regions of Pele, Marduk and Reiden.  A 
regional map of Europa obtained by the spacecraft camera follows 
these and a part of a global map of Europa also performed by the 
near-infrared mapping spectrometer.  The final observation of the 
week was obtained by the spacecraft camera and looks at a region 
of Europa that is unusually rugged, containing a series of pits 
and mounds.  The observed area is located just east of the Tyre 
Macula region.

Concurrent with playback, data is collected by the spacecraft's 
six fields and particles instruments which provides a second look 
at the deep magnetotail region of the Jovian magnetosphere.  The 
first survey of this region was conducted during Galileo's primary 
mission in July and August, 1997, approximately one year ago.  
Information obtained during the current orbit will add to our 
understanding of how plasma escapes from the inner portions of the 
magnetosphere, and will help identify changes in the magnetosphere 
over the period of a year.

For more information on the Galileo spacecraft and its mission to 
Jupiter, please visit the Galileo home page.  
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo
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1998 MARS SURVEYOR PROJECT STATUS REPORT
By John McNamee, Mars Surveyor 98 project manager

14 August 1998

Mars Climate Orbiter

Orbiter integration and test activities continue to proceed on 
schedule.  The repaired optical chopper assembly for the Pressure 
Modulator Infrared Radiometer (PMIRR) has been reinstalled on the 
instrument and is operating nominally on the orbiter.  The orbiter 
pre-ship review was conducted successfully on August 14 and the 
spacecraft will be shipped to Kennedy Space Center on September 10 
as scheduled.

Mars Polar Lander

The flight entry, descent, and landing sequence ran successfully 
during lander mission system testing.  The lander is on schedule 
to begin cruise thermal vacuum testing on September 3.  The lander 
pre-ship review is planned for September 15.

For more information on the Mars Surveyor 98 mission, please visit 
our website at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/
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End Marsbugs Vol.  5, No.  17



