MARSBUGS:  
The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter
Volume 5, Number 23, 6 November 1998.

Editors:

Dr. David Thomas, Department of Biological Sciences, University of 
Idaho, Moscow, ID, 83844-3051, USA.  Marsbugs@aol.com or 
davidt@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 
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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)	UW PREPARES FOR FIRST GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ASTROBIOLOGY TO 
TRAIN THOSE WHO WILL HUNT FOR LIFE IN OUTER SPACE
UW release

2)	GALILEO TAKES A CLOSE LOOK AT ICY EUROPA
From the NASA Space Science News web page

3)	ANTARCTIC OZONE DEPLETION SETS NEW SIZE RECORD
NASA release 98-178

4)	NASA DEVELOPING COMPUTERIZED BREAST CANCER DIAGNOSTIC TOOL
NASA release 98-184

5)	SATELLITE TECHNOLOGIES TO HELP MANAGE B.C. FOREST FIRES
CSA release

6)	NASA SPACE SHUTTLE TO CARRY EXPERIMENT BY NC STATE BOTANY 
STUDENT
NCSU release

7)	CU-BOULDER CENTER TO FLY HARDWARE, EXPERIMENTS ON OCTOBER 29 
SHUTTLE MISSION
University of Colorado release

8)	GLENN TO PERFORM PURDUE SOYBEAN EXPERIMENT IN SPACE
Purdue University release

9)	CALLISTO MAKES A BIG SPLASH
From the NASA Space Science News web page

10)	SPACE TRAVEL INCREASES SOME HEALTH RISKS:  INTERIM MIR 
SCIENCE RESULTS SYMPOSIUM
From the NASA Space Science News web page

11)	1998 MARS SURVEYOR PROJECT STATUS REPORTS
By John McNamee
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UW PREPARES FOR FIRST GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ASTROBIOLOGY TO TRAIN 
THOSE WHO WILL HUNT FOR LIFE IN OUTER SPACE
UW release

30 September 1998

The University of Washington is poised to become the first 
institution anywhere to launch a doctoral program specifically 
geared to train scientists to search for life on celestial bodies 
such as Mars or Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter.

The astrobiology program will be financed by a 5-year, $2 million 
grant announced today by the National Science Foundation and 
supplemented by $500,000 from the university.

The highly interdisciplinary curriculum will involve 11 UW degree 
programs--Oceanography, Astronomy, Aeronautics & Astronautics, 
Genetics, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Microbiology, Atmospheric 
Sciences, Geophysics, Geological Sciences and History.  Graduates 
can receive degrees in any of those areas, with an endorsement 
noting an emphasis in astrobiology.

The School of Oceanography will provide dedicated laboratory space 
for students to study organisms that live in extreme conditions.  
Oceanography professors John Delaney and Jody Deming and associate 
professor John Baross have closely studied organisms living in 
high-temperature, high-pressure conditions in ocean environments 
where little light penetrates.  Baross is trying to relate the 
conditions in which those organisms live now to conditions when 
life began on Earth 3.5 billion years ago.  

Two entities outside the university also are participating.  The 
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland will offer 
students a chance to study microbial life in the subterranean 
basalt formations in Eastern Washington.  ZymoGenetics Inc. of 
Seattle, a subsidiary of Novo Nordisk A/S of Denmark that is 
interested in enzymes from unusual bacteria, is offering summer 
internships so students can pursue that work.

"We recognize that there is a good possibility that life exists in 
the solar system outside Earth, but if that life does exist it 
would be microbial, not the higher forms," said James Staley, a UW 
microbiology professor who is the principal investigator for 
astrobiology.

Likely sites for such life are Mars, where there is evidence of 
water, or the ice-clad moon Europa.  The key to finding life in 
such forbidding environments is understanding how life exists in 
extreme conditions on Earth--such as hot springs in Yellowstone 
National Park, undersea vents where no sunlight penetrates and 
temperatures reach several hundred degrees, pools of brine within 
polar sea ice, and volcanic basalt formations.

"We have microbial systems on Earth that are good models for those 
on Mars or Europa, and those systems are poorly studied," Staley 
said.  He added that such life forms were the precursor to 
advanced life on Earth, so their presence on other planets could 
signal the eventual evolution of advanced life there, as well.

The idea for an astrobiology program grew out of a special 
seminar, Planets and Life, offered at the university in 1996 
shortly after the discovery of planets orbiting nearby stars and 
an announcement that NASA scientists possibly had found microbial 
fossils inside a Martian rock.  That claim since has drawn much 
scientific skepticism, but the success of the seminar--it was 
attended by 30 graduate students and 20 post-doctoral researchers 
and faculty, and it sparked much campus excitement--laid a 
foundation for a program in astrobiology.

Woodruff Sullivan, a UW astronomy professor and adjunct history 
professor, spearheaded the seminar and is an astrobiology co-
investigator.  He expects about a dozen students when the program 
begins in the fall quarter of 1999.

But there is much to be done before then.  Five new courses must 
be designed to complement existing courses that will be included 
in the curriculum, Sullivan said.  Departments involved will have 
to devise different ways of testing and grading students involved 
in astrobiology, since an astrobiology student pursuing a degree 
in astronomy, for instance, will have significantly different 
course demands than other astronomy students.  One-third of 
astrobiology course work will be in areas not closely related to 
the student's home department, so an astronomy astrobiology 
student might spend a great deal of time studying microbiology.

Students also must take part in an annual workshop, three days of 
work in the field.  It could be looking for microbes at the 
Hanford Nuclear Reservation, Sullivan said, or using an electron 
microscope to study comet dust.  "Everyone will have to get their 
hands dirty."

Conway Leovy, a UW atmospheric sciences professor and also a co-
investigator, expects the program to be an education for faculty 
members as well as students.  But he said the students will be 
particularly challenged as they blaze a new path, and it will be 
some time before the first doctoral degrees in astrobiology are 
awarded.

"Astrobiology students will have to learn rigorously as well as 
more broadly than most other science graduate students," Leovy 
said.  "We probably can't expect to see the fruits of our efforts 
in the form of many Ph.D.  graduates sooner than five years from 
now."

Richard Gammon, who is a UW chemistry and oceanography professor 
and also is an adjunct professor of atmospheric sciences, helped 
write a financing proposal for the astrobiology degree program.  
He believes the approach of breaching traditional barriers between 
different science disciplines was a key to National Science 
Foundation support.

"All of these efforts are to meet the needs of students of the 
future, who are going to need training across fields," Gammon 
said.

The UW is one of 17 universities sharing in $40.5 million in 
National Science Foundation graduate education and research 
training grants.  For more information about the NSF program, 
visit http://www.nsf.gov/igert/ on the World Wide Web.
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GALILEO TAKES A CLOSE LOOK AT ICY EUROPA
From the NASA Space Science News web page

2 October 1998

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory reports that the Galileo 
spacecraft completed a close-up flyby of Europa on schedule and on 
target.  On Friday, September 25, at 8:54 PM PDT, Galileo skimmed 
over the icy moon at an altitude of only 2,226 miles.  The flyby 
was performed in cruise mode without Galileo's gyroscopes, because 
the gyros activated a fault protection program last Thursday, 
September 24.  The on board star scanner was used instead as the 
primary reference for determining the spacecraft's orientation in 
space.  Nevertheless, the flyby was considered a success.

Europa is one of the most intriguing bodies in the solar system 
because scientists are increasingly confident that it harbors a 
deep, underground ocean of liquid water.  Europa's icy surface has 
intrigued scientists ever since the Voyager spacecraft missions 
flew through the Jupiter system in 1979.  At -260F, the moon's 
surface temperature could deep-freeze an ocean over several 
million years, but it's possible that warmth from a tidal tug of 
war with Jupiter and neighboring moons could be keeping large 
parts of Europa's ocean liquid.  Tidal friction from Jupiter is 
also thought to be responsible for volcanic activity on Europa's 
neighbor Io.

Images of Europa from the Galileo spacecraft reveal a complicated 
terrain of grooved linear ridges and crustal plates, which seem to 
have broken apart and rafted into new positions.  That could 
indicate subsurface water or slush.  In the image above, blue 
tints represent relatively old ice surfaces while reddish regions 
may contain material from more recent internal geological 
activity.  White splotches are bright material blasted from the 
young impact crater Pwyll located about 600 miles south (to the 
right) of this area.

[More information on this subject may be found at 
http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast02oct98_1.htm]
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ANTARCTIC OZONE DEPLETION SETS NEW SIZE RECORD
NASA release 98-178

6 October 1998

NASA and NOAA satellites show that the Antarctic ozone thinning 
covers the largest expanse of territory since the depletion 
developed in the early 1980s.  The measurements were obtained this 
year between mid-August and early October using the Total Ozone 
Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instrument aboard NASA's Earth Probe 
(TOMS-EP) satellite and the Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet 
Instrument (SBUV) aboard the NOAA-14 satellite.

"This is the largest Antarctic ozone hole we've ever observed, and 
it's nearly the deepest," said Dr. Richard McPeters, Principal 
Investigator for Earth Probe TOMS.

Preliminary data from the satellites show that this year's ozone 
depletion reached a record size of 10.5 million square miles (27.3 
million square kilometers) on September 19, 1998.  The previous 
record of 10.0 million square miles was set on September 7, 1996.  
The ozone level fell to 90 Dobson units on September 30, 1998.  
This nearly equals the lowest value ever recorded of 88 Dobson 
Units seen on September 28, 1994, over Antarctica.

Scientists are not concerned that the hole might be growing 
because they know it is a direct result of unusually cold 
stratospheric temperatures, though they do not know why it is 
colder this year.  The decrease in ozone, however, could result in 
more acute solar or ultraviolet radiation exposure in southern 
Chile and Argentina if the ozone hole were to pass over that 
region.  One of the primary concerns with an ozone hole of this 
size is that as the hole "breaks up," the ozone-depleted air will 
diffuse and reduce the overall ozone levels in the mid-latitudes 
of the southern hemisphere.

Chlorine and bromine compounds released by chlorofluorocarbons 
(CFCs) and halons cause these ozone losses.  Year-to-year 
variations of size and depth of the ozone hole depend on the 
variations in meteorological conditions.  Scientists believe that 
the decrease in Antarctic ozone is attributed to unusually cold 
(by 5-9 degrees Fahrenheit) temperatures in the southern middle 
and polar latitudes.  "This year was colder than normal and 
therefore enables greater activation of reactive chlorine that 
ultimately causes more ozone loss and lower ozone levels," said 
Dr. Alvin J. Miller of the National Centers for Environmental 
Prediction (NCEP).

This decrease in ozone was observed earlier than usual with the 
hole opening in mid-August about two weeks before a typical year.  
This is consistent with expectations, since chlorine levels have 
slightly increased since the early 1990s.  As a result of 
international agreements known as the Montreal Protocol on ozone-
depleting substances (and its amendments), chlorine levels from 
CFCs already have peaked in the lower atmosphere and should peak 
in the Antarctic stratosphere within a few years.  As we move into 
the next century, chlorine-catalyzed ozone losses resulting from 
CFCs and other chlorine-containing species will be reduced.

"An ozone hole of substantial depth and size is likely to continue 
to form for the next few years or until the stratospheric chlorine 
amount drops to its pre-ozone hole values," said Dr. Paul Newman 
at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD.  "The 
decrease in chlorine in our atmosphere is analogous to using a 
small air cleaner to recycle all of the air in a large indoor 
sports stadium--it will take a very, very long time."

Scientists and others have a keen interest in ozone depletion, 
given that the increased amounts of ultraviolet radiation that 
reach the Earth's surface because of ozone loss have the potential 
to increase the incidence of skin cancer and cataracts in humans, 
harm some crops, and interfere with marine life.

NASA and NOAA instruments have been measuring Antarctic ozone 
levels since the early 1970s.  Since the discovery of the ozone 
hole in 1985, TOMS and SBUV have been key instruments for 
monitoring ozone levels over the Earth.  Analysis of TOMS and SBUV 
data have traced in detail the annual development of the Antarctic 
"ozone hole," a large area of intense ozone depletion that occurs 
between late August and early October.  Analysis of the historical 
data indicated that the hole has existed since at least 1979.

A Dobson unit measures the physical thickness of the ozone layer 
at the pressure of the Earth's surface.  The global average ozone 
layer thickness is 300 Dobson units, which equals three 
millimeters or 1/8th of an inch, and while not uniform, averages 
the thickness of two stacked pennies.  In contrast during these 
annual occurrences, the ozone layer thickness in the ozone hole is 
about 100 Dobson units (1/25th of an inch or 1 millimeter thick), 
approximately the thickness of a single dime.  Ozone shields life 
on Earth from the harmful effects of the Sun's ultraviolet 
radiation.  The ozone molecule is made up of three atoms of 
oxygen; ozone comprises a thin layer of the atmosphere, which 
absorbs harmful ultraviolet radiation from the Sun.  Most 
atmospheric ozone is found in a thin layer between 6-18 miles up.

TOMS ozone data and pictures are available on the Internet at 
http://toms.gsfc.nasa.gov or through links at 
http://pao.gsfc.nasa.gov/

TOMS-EP and other ozone-measurement programs are key parts of a 
global environmental effort of NASA's Earth Science enterprise, a 
long-term research program designed to study Earth's land, oceans, 
atmosphere, ice and life as a total integrated system.  Goddard 
developed and manages the operation of the TOMS-EP for NASA's 
Office of Earth Science, Washington, DC.
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NASA DEVELOPING COMPUTERIZED BREAST CANCER DIAGNOSTIC TOOL
NASA release 98-184

13 October 1998

A NASA-Stanford University team is in the preliminary stages of 
developing a smart probe that can be used for breast cancer 
detection and analysis.  The probe is designed to 'see' a lump; 
determine by its features if it is cancerous; and then quickly 
predict how the disease may progress.  Researchers say surgeons 
may be able to insert the computerized tool's needle-like tip into 
breast lumps to make instant diagnoses and long-term cancer 
predictions.

"This device will permit us to make real-time, detailed 
interpretations of breast tissue at the tip of the needle," said
Robert Mah of NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA.  Mah 
works in the Ames Neuroengineering Laboratory.  "The instrument 
may allow health care providers to make expert, accurate diagnoses 
as well as to suggest proper, individualized treatment, even in 
remote areas."

"To enable the instrument to recognize cancer and predict its 
progress, we use special neural net software that is trained and 
learns from experience," he said.  Scientists can teach the breast 
cancer diagnosis device to predict how aggressive the disease may 
be.

"We hope to use this device not only to detect cancer, but to 
understand the nature of an individual cancer," said Dr. Stefanie 
Jeffrey, Assistant Professor of Surgery and Chief of Breast 
Surgery, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA.  
"This information may help us determine the distinctive features 
of a malignancy and how the disease may progress; more knowledge 
about the cancer may guide us to better individualizing 
treatment."

Jeffrey and Mah are working together to develop the new device.  
The researchers say that, once the smart probe has been adequately 
tested in the laboratory, Dr. Jeffrey will begin testing the 
device on human beings, perhaps by early 1999.

"Ultrasound will help guide the doctor to properly insert the 
smart probe into a breast lump," said Dr. Robyn Birdwell, 
Assistant Professor of Radiology, Breast Imaging Section at 
Stanford.

"The computer software uses pattern recognition to look for tell-
tale characteristics of the lump," Mah said.

"The same technology used in the portable, smart probe could be 
used in other instruments to help in diagnosing and treating 
cancers found in other parts of the body, including the prostate 
and colon," neuroengineering team computer engineer Alex Galvagni 
said.

The breast cancer tool is a spin-off from a computerized robotic 
brain surgery assistant that was previously developed by Mah and 
neurosurgeon Dr. Russell Andrews.  The larger brain surgery device 
is a simple robot that can "learn" the physical characteristics of 
the brain and may soon give surgeons finer control of surgical 
instruments during delicate brain operations.
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SATELLITE TECHNOLOGIES TO HELP MANAGE B.C.  FOREST FIRES
CSA release

16 October 1998

MacDonald Dettwiler, Canadian and European Space Agencies will 
demonstrate the use of satellite technologies in cooperation with 
the B.C. Forest Service Protection Program.  The Canadian Space 
Agency (CSA) announced today that MacDonald Dettwiler and 
Associates Ltd.  has entered into an agreement with the European 
Space Agency (ESA) and the B.C. Forest Service to undertake demo 
testing of the use of satellite technologies for emergency 
planning and management of forest fires in the province.  The 
contract has been made possible through the Canada-ESA Partnership 
Program of the CSA.

ESA's Real-time Emergency Management via Satellite (REMSAT) 
project is focussed on bridging the gap between technology and 
users.  MacDonald Dettwiler and the B.C. Forest Service will work 
with ESA to provide a pilot demonstration of multiple technologies 
that prove the value of space data and services for emergency 
management.

The Honorable Raymond Chan, MP for Richmond B.C. and Secretary of 
State (Asia-Pacific) stated that:  "This year was particularly bad 
for forest fires in the province of British Columbia due to the 
dry weather.  The opportunity that Canada's Space Program is 
providing to MacDonald Dettwiler to advance cutting-edge space 
technologies is not only good for industry, but will prove 
instrumental in assisting the B.C.  Forest Service in emergency 
management operations."

The Honorable David Zirnhelt, B.C., also expressed enthusiasm for 
the project.  Minister of Forests.  "B.C.'s forest protection 
program is world-class.  Together with MacDonald Dettwiller, ESA 
and CSA, we can demonstrate to the world the necessity and 
importance of applying satellite technology like REMSAT in 
fighting forest fires."

The B.C. Forest Service Protection Program is tasked with fighting 
forest fires in B.C.  Managing timber resources in an area of over 
1 million square kilometers, the Forest Service responds to on 
average over 3,000 fires annually.  B.C.'s timber resources, which 
represent $15 billion of annual economic activity, must be 
protected with a reliable emergency management information system.

The B.C. Forest Service Protection Program is internationally 
recognized as one of the world's leading emergency management 
programs.  Teaming with MacDonald Dettwiler and ESA, themselves 
leaders in the satellite technology markets of the world, it is 
anticipated that the B.C.  REMSAT program will bridge the gap 
between satellite service providers and emergency management end-
users.  In addition to enhancing the level of emergency management 
in B.C. while protecting a primary environmental resource, the 
program will advance Canada's technology export capabilities.

MacDonald Dettwiler has identified several key requirements for 
more effective emergency management:  enhanced local field 
communications (between fire crews in the field and firefighting 
control centers), augmented with data, video images and geographic 
location capabilities; up-to-date position and status information 
for all resources, including aircraft, heavy equipment and fire 
crews for fire attack planning; high-speed communications between 
mobile fire control centers and the B.C.  Provincial Fire Center 
for enhanced management and suppression of large fires; and 
additional background information on the fire area, in the form of 
satellite or air photo imagery for aid in fire modeling, 
prediction and suppression of large fires.

The resulting REMSAT-based system will be a model for other 
emergency management systems, capable of being implemented 
anywhere in the world.  The field simulation and tests are 
scheduled to be conducted in the summer months, when an average of 
25 new fires occur across B.C. each day.  On completion of the 
pilot demonstration and evaluation, the system will be fully  
tested through deployment to support fighting a major fire.

The opportunity for MacDonald Dettwiler to bid on the ESA project 
is a result of the CSA's cooperative agreement with ESA.  The 
Canada-ESA Partnership Program, managed by the CSA, provides 
opportunities to Canadian companies to bid for and obtain 
technology development contracts from ESA and to participate in 
major European space projects.  The competition for the REMSAT 
project was open to all Canadian suppliers.

1998 marks the 20th anniversary of the partnership between ESA and 
Canada.  For more than 60 Canadian companies and organizations, 
this co-operative agreement has resulted in over 400 ESA contracts 
worth in excess of C$250M.  In addition to the industrial, 
economic, and technological benefits of this co-operation, 
Canada's long-standing participation in ESA programs has provided, 
and continues to provide, a window into an organization composed 
of 14 European Member States holding a budget of C$4.9 billion and 
employing some 1800 people (1996 figures).  The Canadian Space 
Agency is committed to leading the development and application of 
space knowledge for the benefit of Canadians and humanity.
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NASA SPACE SHUTTLE TO CARRY EXPERIMENT BY NC STATE BOTANY STUDENT
NCSU release

21 October 1998

A North Carolina State University junior will send a science 
experiment into space on NASA's shuttle Discovery, which is slated 
to lift off on October 29 from Kennedy Space Center.  Twenty-six-
year-old Reathel Geary of Raleigh is one of a handful of college 
students nationwide who will have an experiment on the shuttle 
mission.

Geary hopes his experiment--to see whether fractured strands of 
plant DNA can repair themselves in space--will yield new clues 
about how weightlessness and other forces encountered in space 
flight affect plant growth and health.  That's important, he says, 
because for long-distance space flights in the future, NASA 
proposes growing plants on board for food, to purify water and to 
help filter carbon dioxide out of the air.

Geary's project was selected for the mission through a national 
competition sponsored by Instrumentation Technology Associates 
(ITA) of Exton, PA, and the American Society for Gravitational and 
Space Biology.  His experiment will be contained in automated 
research hardware produced by ITA.  The opportunity highlights a 
personal turnaround and a science career in the making for Geary, 
a former shoe salesman and part-time community college student.  
Now, he has set his sights on graduate school, possibly for a 
career in ecology or environmental law.

To add hands-on experience to his NC State training, Geary works 
in the lab of Dr. Dominique Robertson, a member of the NASA 
Specialized Center of Research and Training (NSCORT) team at NC 
State.  The NSCORT group has a five-year, $5 million grant to 
study gravitational biology, do secondary school outreach and 
train all levels of university students.

It was in the NSCORT lab that Geary learned about the ITA 
competition for space experiments.  "It's the research opportunity 
through NSCORT that has provided all the other opportunities," 
Geary says.  "That was the single most important thing that's 
happened to me so far in college."

Only in recent years has Geary become so focused on his goals.  
After graduating from Atlanta's Henderson High School in 1990, he 
put off going to college and went to work.  He knew he had 
potential, he says, but he wasn't confident yet about leaping into 
higher education.  A few years later, when he was living in 
Asheville and working in a shoe store, Geary and his wife, Angie, 
decided to try their hand at college.  Reathel kept his full-time 
job, and the couple enrolled at Asheville-Buncombe Technical 
Community College.

"For me, the community college system was a really important step 
in my progress," Geary says.  "I had wonderful instructors there; 
they were very encouraging.  I'm a huge supporter now of the 
community college system.  It worked for me."

In January of 1998, Reathel and Angie Geary moved to Raleigh and 
transferred to NC State--he for botany and she for horticultural 
science.  Soon after, Reathel Geary landed a research job in 
Robertson's NSCORT laboratory.  Dr. Sarah Wyatt, a research 
associate in the lab, hired Geary and later helped him prepare a 
proposal for the ITA student experiment competition.  

"He asks good questions," Wyatt says about Geary's scientific 
skills.  "It's important for a researcher to ask good questions.  
If you don't ask good questions, you'll never find the answer."

In the research lab and in his own space experiment, Geary has 
taken the initiative to get things done, performing extensive 
background work and seeing projects through from beginning to end, 
Wyatt says.  Geary rose to the challenge of meeting the strict 
technical parameters of the research hardware and of the space 
flight environment, she says.

In space, microgravity--or extremely low levels of gravity--can 
affect biological processes.  Geary will send into space fractured 
molecules of DNA, the basic genetic material of all organisms, 
along with an enzyme that usually repairs, or ligates, DNA on 
earth.  An automatic process is expected to combine the materials 
in an attempt to ligate the DNA.  Geary and some NASA researchers 
will orchestrate a control experiment on the ground with the same 
materials.

Back at NC State after the shuttle lands, Geary will transform 
both the space-exposed and control DNA into bacteria, and will 
then reproduce it.  The bacteria should grow if the DNA was 
successfully ligated.  Ligation is an important function for long-
term plant growth in space; Geary's hypothesis is that it will be 
as successful in space as it is on earth.

The results could have implications for both plant and animal 
reproduction in space, says Dr. Chris Brown, associate director of 
the NSCORT group at NC State.  Brown teaches a Space Biology 
course in which Geary works closely with NASA researchers.  With 
sponsorship from the NSCORT group, Geary will travel to Florida to 
prepare his experiment and work in Brown's lab at Kennedy Space 
Center.

Sending an experiment into space, working in a top-notch research 
facility, and meeting NASA scientists will be great opportunities 
for Geary, Brown says.  "I hope Reathel will bring home the 
excitement of being involved in the space program and communicate 
to other students that there are opportunities for biological 
scientific research with the space program," he says.

ITA, an entrepreneurial firm that makes and leases space 
processing hardware to perform microgravity experiments, has 
sponsored student experiments on NASA shuttles and vehicles since 
1991.  The student space education program gives young people a 
unique hands-on learning experience and communicates the benefits 
of space research.  On the current STS-95 shuttle mission, 16 
different student experiments will be housed in ITA's automated 
laboratory.
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CU-BOULDER CENTER TO FLY HARDWARE, EXPERIMENTS ON OCTOBER 29 
SHUTTLE MISSION
University of Colorado release

21 October 1998

A University of Colorado at Boulder-based space center will fly 
eight experiments on the October 29 mission of NASA's space 
shuttle Discovery, which marks the return to space of former 
Mercury astronaut John Glenn.  BioServe Space Technologies, a 
joint venture between NASA, CU-Boulder and Kansas State 
University, will undertake a variety of industry-driven, life-
science experiments on the 10-day space flight of Columbia, said 
David Klaus of aerospace engineering sciences, BioServe's mission 
manager for the flight.  The experiments will take place inside 
the Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus, or CGBA, a 
suitcase-sized device designed and built at CU-Boulder that has 
flown on 11 space shuttle missions, including two four-month 
stints on Russia's Mir Space Station.  The CGBA contains hundreds 
of syringe-like devices for mixing fluids in space, as well as 
other project-specific devices.

One of the most intriguing experiments by the CGBA will be the 
production of microbial antibiotics, said Klaus.  The antibiotics 
experiment is being flown for the third time on the shuttle in 
collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb in an attempt to learn why 
antibiotic production increases in the low-gravity environment 
provided in space.

"This is an exciting project," said Klaus.  "Our past two shuttle 
experiments with Bristol-Myers Squibb have shown that 
microorganisms produced greater quantities of antibiotics in 
space.  We want to learn how and why this growth stimulation 
occurs in microgravity, then take that knowledge and apply it to 
production facilities on Earth."

Although previous bacterial growth experiments by BioServe were 
carried out in test tubes, CU faculty and students have modified 
the apparatus by adding a new gas exchange fermentation device.  
"This should provide more optimal growth conditions for 
microorganisms and provide additional insight into the causes of 
increased antibiotic productivity," he said.

The CGBA also will be used for a wide variety of other biomedical, 
agricultural and drug development investigations, including water 
purification.  Since bacterial growth is more difficult to control 
in space, a BioServe experiment has been designed to test a new 
water purification resin to combat microorganisms that have become 
resistant to iodine disinfection.

Other experiments flying on the CGBA involve research designed to 
accurately control the growth of protein crystals, as well as 
experiments on plant fertilization with legumes in an attempt to 
increase crop yields on Earth.  BioServe researchers also will 
attempt to manipulate growth hormones in plants through gene 
manipulation to increase the quality of vegetable crops on Earth, 
and perform unique research on a magnetic species of bacteria that 
has applications for immunology, Klaus said.

Ground-based technological upgrades include a control room in CU-
Boulder's aerospace engineering science department to send 
commands up and receive data from the shuttle directly from NASA's 
Johnson Space Center in Houston, he said.  "We needed to develop 
this capability to support future payloads now being designed by 
BioServe that are expected to be in operation onboard the 
International Space Station in the year 2000."

Additional experiments being flown on the BioServe payload include 
investigations of plant cell tissue cultures, said Klaus.  "In 
microgravity, plants may produce less lignin, which creates their 
structure in nature," he said.  "We want to see whether the 
available metabolic energy normally used to make the lignin can be 
channeled into the increased production of secondary compounds 
that have potential pharmaceutical applications."

The CGBA also will carry a number of fish eggs, including those of 
tilapia--also known as Nile River perch--and killifish, said 
Klaus.  "We flew a payload with brine shrimp eggs on an earlier 
mission and saw accelerated development from eggs to larvae," he 
said.  "We are hoping to see the same phenomenon with these fish 
eggs, then determine what causes it in order to mimic these 
conditions on Earth and perhaps even stimulate increased growth of 
commercially farmed fish."

While shuttle flights already have produced valuable data on the 
effects of microgravity in life sciences, agriculture and 
medicine, "it will be a new ball game when we have a permanent 
presence on the space station," said Klaus.
------------------------------------------------------------------

GLENN TO PERFORM PURDUE SOYBEAN EXPERIMENT IN SPACE
Purdue University release

21 October 1998

Rick Vierling may have the oldest and most famous lab assistant in 
the world when the Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off from the 
Kennedy Space Center on Thursday (10/29).  If all goes as planned, 
77-year-old John Glenn, current U.S.  senator who in 1962 became 
the first American to orbit the earth, will perform an experiment 
designed by Vierling to assess the ability of pathogens to 
incorporate foreign DNA into soybeans in microgravity.  The 
experiment is a modification of a technique that is successfully 
used on earth.

"How many people can say an American hero and U.S. senator is 
acting as their technician in space?" says Vierling.  "John Glenn 
performing my experiment came as a complete shock to me.  If I had 
written a scenario myself, it would not have been this good."

Vierling, an adjunct associate professor of agronomy at Purdue 
University and director of the Indiana Crop Improvement 
Association's genetics program since 1992, says the experiment 
should take 22 hours to complete and is scheduled to begin October 
30.  Vierling approached NASA's Commercialization Center in 
Madison, WI, in February 1997, with an eye on a shuttle flight 
sometime in 2000.

"It was just an idea.  I didn't even have any preliminary data 
when I pitched it to the Commercialization Center," Vierling says.

In January, NASA told Vierling his experiment had been bumped up 
and was now listed on the manifest for STS-95, Glenn's historic 
return to space.  That gave Vierling less than six months to get 
his experiment approved and in a format that would allow the 
payload specialist (Glenn) adequate time for training.

"I had to do two years worth of research in six months to meet the 
earlier deadline," says Vierling, who was amazed to find his 
experiment was moved up in such a short period of time.

"I didn't know the federal government could move that fast," 
Vierling says.  "It really put me under the gun.  I had planned on 
about 18 to 20 months to get the background information so we 
could correctly design the experiment." 

Weightlessness poses unique parameters and problems that had to be 
overcome.  The final experimental design is vastly different from 
what he had originally envisioned.  The abbreviated preparation 
time has exacted a personal toll on Vierling, who got help from 
Steve Goldman, a professor of biology at the University of Toledo.  
Goldman is a key patent holder of related technology.

"I've had to spend more than a few nights and weekends to get this 
project ready to go," Vierling says.  "Steve gave me a lot of 
help.  I don't think I could have done all of the preliminary work 
in my lab alone."

Vierling says he hopes the experiment will lay the groundwork for 
additional experiments on future shuttle flights and perhaps even 
the space station.  "If this shows some positive results, I would 
hope that I could have an experiment a year on board the shuttle."

Vierling says 1,000 soybean seeds, of a variety named after 
retired Purdue plant pathologist Kirk Athow, will occupy a mid-
deck locker about the size of a large safe deposit box (18x12x7 
inches).  Given the short amount of preparation and the lack of 
available background information, Vierling says he is cautiously 
optimistic about the success of the experiment.

"Something like this has never been performed in microgravity.  
There isn't a wealth of background information for us to go to and 
say this may happen, or this might not happen.  Things may not go 
as we expect, so we can't get too excited yet," he says.

The seeds will be returned to Purdue and cultivated in 
greenhouses.  The progeny of those seeds will be analyzed as part 
of Vierling's experiment next spring.
------------------------------------------------------------------

CALLISTO MAKES A BIG SPLASH
From the NASA Space Science News web page

23 October 1998

Until now most scientists thought Jupiter's moon Callisto was a 
dead and boring moon, an unchanging piece of rock and ice.  Data 
reported in today's issue of Nature could change all that.  It 
appears that Callisto, like another of Jupiter's moons Europa, may 
have an underground liquid ocean and at least some of the basic 
ingredients for life.  

The most distant of Jupiter's Galilean Moons, Callisto shows the 
highest density of impact craters in the Solar System, but harbors 
no volcanoes or even any large mountains.  It is thought that the 
surface is billions of years old.  The first hint that something 
interesting might be happening beneath the surface came from 
Galileo's measurements of Callisto's magnetic field.  Dr. Krishan 
K. Khurana of UCLA and colleagues discovered that the magnetic 
field fluctuated in time with Jupiter's rotation.  The best 
explanation was that Jupiter's powerful magnetic field was 
creating electrical currents somewhere within Callisto, and those 
currents in turn created a fluctuating magnetic field around 
Callisto.  But where could currents flow on Callisto? The icy 
surface is a poor conductor and the atmosphere is negligible.  Dr. 
Kivelson suggests that "there very well could be a layer of melted 
ice underneath [the surface].  If this liquid were salty like 
Earth's oceans, it could carry sufficient electrical currents to 
produce the magnetic field."

Lending further credence to the premise of a subsurface ocean on 
Callisto, Galileo data showed that electrical currents were 
flowing in opposite directions at different times.  "This is a key 
signature consistent with the idea of a salty ocean," Khurana 
added, "because it shows that Callisto's response, like Europa's, 
is synchronized with the effects of Jupiter's rotation."

Callisto is the second moon of Jupiter thought to harbor a sub-
surface ocean.  The other is Europa.  As evidence mounts for at 
least one and possibly two liquid oceans in the Jovian satellite 
system, scientists are cautiously optimistic that life could exist 
there.  Europa and Callisto aren't the only places in the solar 
system where the building blocks of life have turned up.  

Scientists have recently discovered water on the moon, and right-
handed amino acids in carbonaceous chondritic meteorites.  If 
these basic ingredients have indeed combined somewhere in the 
solar system to produce extraterrestrial life forms, the 
conditions that they live in are likely to be harsh compared to 
the gentle climes of Earth.  

In recent years researchers have discovered a new class of  
microorganisms here on Earth that can live or, at least remain 
viable, under very extreme conditions--from volcanic vents deep in 
ocean trenches, to ice more than 400,000 years old, to Siberian 
permafrost more than 5 million years old.  These microbes called 
archaeabacteria, or simply "archaea", constitute a third branch of 
life on Earth, along with prokaryotes (normal bacteria) and 
eukaryotes (plants and animals).  Like prokaryotes, the genetic 
material of archaeabacteria float freely throughout the cell--they 
are not contained within the cell nucleus like eukaryotic 
organisms.  However, the DNA of archaeabacteria more closely 
resemble that of plants and animals than normal bacteria.  They 
are truly in a class by themselves, and if life is discovered 
elsewhere in the solar system it may be similar to the 
archaeabacteria of Earth.

If the putative oceans on an alien planet are truly salty, then 
the microscopic life forms that live there might be similar to 
salt-loving extremophiles here on Earth.  The picture [left] shows 
the nearly-dry lakebed of Owens Lake, California.  A bloom of 
halophilic ("salt-loving") bacteria in the muddy brine causes the 
pink colors.  Conditions in the lakebed, where the water is 
saturated with salt, are truly harsh.  The air temperature at the 
surface is over 100 degrees F and the water just below the salt crust 
is 130-150 degrees F.  Yet Owens Lake is teeming with life.  

Dr. David Noever, a member of NASA's Astrobiology Institute, had 
this to say about the possibility of a salty sea on Callisto:  
"One way to visualize Callisto's proposed ocean is to imagine a 
battery, which is run by electrochemistry (meaning charged ions 
like sodium and chloride), that can generate currents and thus 
drive magnetic fields.  That's the potential physics.  As for the 
potential biology, who knows?  All we know is that there are 
examples of salty brines in warmer spots in the solar system, 
Earth, that are teeming with life where it is least expected."

Europa may still be a better prospect for extraterrestrial life 
than Callisto simply because it's the warmer of the two 
satellites.  "The basic ingredients for life--what we call 'pre-
biotic chemistry'--are abundant in many solar system objects, such 
as comets, asteroids and icy moons," explains Dr. Torrence 
Johnson.  "Biologists believe liquid water and energy are then 
needed to actually support life, so it's exciting to find another 
place where we might have liquid water.  But, energy is another 
matter, and currently, Callisto's ocean is only being heated by 
radioactive elements, whereas Europa has tidal energy as well," 
from its greater proximity to Jupiter.  

The strongest clues to life on Callisto and Europa may lie right 
here at home.  In 1996, radio sounding and altimetry measurements 
revealed the presence of an underground lake in Antarctica near 
the Russian Vostok Station.  Lake Vostok is overlaid by about 
3,710 meters (12,169 ft) of ice and may be 500,000 to 1 million 
years old.  Since the discovery, drilling has gone slowly while 
procedures are worked out to keep it pristine.  No one has seen or 
sampled the lake--the deepest ice sample is from 100 meters (328 
feet) above the liquid surface--nor is anyone sure why it is 
liquid, hence the scientific curiosity.  Scientists are hopeful 
that Lake Vostok can one day serve as a terrestrial laboratory to 
help us understand better the oceans on the distant moons of 
Jupiter.

[More information on this subject may be found at 
http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast22oct98_2.htm]
------------------------------------------------------------------

SPACE TRAVEL INCREASES SOME HEALTH RISKS:  INTERIM MIR SCIENCE 
RESULTS SYMPOSIUM
From the NASA Space Science News web page

4 November 1998

Almost a half century after the first human explored space, 
doctors are still exploring how the human body reacts to space.  
The latest round of results from those proddings, samplings, and 
probings were discussed today at the opening session of the third 
interim science results symposium for the Shuttle-Mir program.

"When we planned the first Space Shuttle-Mir docking mission, we 
saw great potential for science experiments," said Joel Kearns, 
manager of the Microgravity Research Program Office at Marshall 
Space Flight Center, as he spoke at the opening session.  During 
1996-98, NASA used the Shuttle-Mir program to gain experience in 
space station operations and how best to conduct experiments under 
a range of conditions.  "Now we look back with great happiness" at 
the data coming from the program and "we know how much we needed 
to know to get ready for the International Space Station."

High on the list of experiments is the same concern that doctors 
had when Yuri Gagarin became the first human into space on April 
12, 1961.  How do the human body and its functions change when 
gravity is effectively removed? Gravity still holds the space 
traveler and spacecraft in orbit around the Earth, but the net 
effect is often called zero-g or microgravity.  Gagarin, a Marine 
Corps pilot named John Glenn, and dozens of other people since 
quickly demonstrated that space travel poses no immediate threat 
to your health.  But scientists know that serious changes can 
result from subtle effects, so medical scientists have asked ever 
more detailed questions of the human body in space.  For example, 
what is the risk of getting a kidney stone as a result of space 
travel since the body quickly dumps a lot of fluid when gravity is 
no longer drawing blood down into the legs and the elastic vessels 
squeeze it upward? The population at greatest risk on Earth is 
people aged 35 to 50--precisely the age span of most U.S. 
astronauts.

"The greatest risk appears early in flight [in 3 to 5 days] and 
immediately thereafter," said Dr. Robert Pietrzyk of Krug Life 
Sciences at Johnson Space Center.  Pietrzyk and other researchers 
assayed urine samples passed by astronauts before flight, during 
their stays in space, and several times after the return to Earth.

They were looking for various compounds of calcium, a metal 
important to the structure of bones and to the biochemical 
mechanisms that make muscles contract.  Certain calcium compounds 
can form kidney stones--crystals growing in urine rich in the 
right chemicals--that block the kidneys or the bladder.  In 
addition to increased risk during flight, Pietrzyk noted that the 
risk can increase after landing, as noted in increased calcium 
output as the body readjusts to gravity.  To date, though, only 
three astronauts have developed kidney stones, two preflight and 
one post-flight.  None has appeared in flight.

Another important marker is the quantity of proteins lost, said 
Dr. Peter Stein of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New 
Jersey.  Proteins are the basic machinery of the body, he 
explained, an important to muscle function, cell structure, immune 
responses--in fact, he said that the body has no spare proteins.  
So, the loss of proteins--as measured by certain markers in urine 
and blood samples--is of great concern.  One of the effects he has 
measured is a 45 percent decrease in protein synthesis as compared 
to a 15 to 20 percent decrease expected from bed rest studies.

"This looks very odd," he said, "it looks too high."

After checking several related factors, he said that it appears 
that one of the keys is the individual's energy balance in space 
where the energy demand on a person at work can sometimes be less 
than on a person sitting upright on Earth.

"It's not the intake, it's the energy balance that counts," he 
explained.  "Are you taking in enough protein to meet your needs? 
.The decrease in energy intake explains much of the decrease in 
protein synthesis."

Unraveling the problem will take more detailed study partly 
because of the human body's remarkable ability to adjust to sharp 
changes in food.

Tomorrow the symposium covers what space life is like if you 
happen to be the space station:  vehicle dynamics and the external 
environment are on the menu.

[More information on this subject may be found at 
http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/msad04nov98_1.htm]
------------------------------------------------------------------

1998 MARS SURVEYOR PROJECT STATUS REPORTS
By John McNamee, Mars Surveyor 98 project manager

5 October 1998

Mars Climate Orbiter:  
The Pyro Initiation Unit (PIU) interface reverification was 
completed successfully.

Mars Polar Lander:
Planetary Protection inspection and assay tasks were completed.  
The lander is on the Pathfinder rotation fixture, however 
mechanical tear down activities required to replace the Power 
Distribution and Drive Unit (PDDU) and Command and Data Handling 
(C&DH) boxes have been slowed due to questions regarding safety 
procedures.  Expect these issues to be worked on October 6.

7 October 1998

Mars Climate Orbiter:  
The Deep Space Network (DSN) end-to-end compatibility testing was 
completed successfully.  Procedures to support the mission profile 
test using Flight Software (FSW) build 8.0.1 are complete.

Mars Polar Lander:
The lander solar arrays, parachute cone, and bipod assembly were 
removed as scheduled.

19 October 1998

Mars Climate Orbiter:
Pyro Initiation Unit (PIU) aliveness testing was conducted and an 
anomaly discovered when operating side A of the orbiter PIU ATLO 
Test Unit (ATU) is being investigated.  This anomaly is evident 
only on the Assembly, Test and Launch (ATLO) test unit and not on 
the flight units and will not delay powered on testing of the 
orbiter.  A full investigation will be conducted when the ATU is 
replaced by the flight PIU after diode rework on October 28.  The 
flight PIU was examined and 19 cracked diodes and 180 coating 
defects were discovered (out of approximately 200 total diodes).

Mars Polar Lander:
Radio frequency testing of the landed and direct links was 
completed.  Flight PIU electrical mate was completed and 
electrical checkout is in process (with no anomalies as described 
under the orbiter report) with completion scheduled for tomorrow 
morning.  Science walkdowns prior to closeout are in process.

30 October 1998

Mars Climate Orbiter:
Orbiter launch processing activities are proceeding on schedule in 
the Spacecraft Assembly and Encapsulation Facility (SAEF-2) at 
Kennedy Space Center (KSC) with launch 41 days away.  However, 
several days of schedule margin were consumed due to a problem 
with flight software build 8.1, which prevented the "B" side of 
the spacecraft from booting during testing.  The cause of the 
problem was determined and the fix will be incorporated into build 
8.2 scheduled for delivery on November 2.  Software build 8.0.1 
was used to continue electrical testing of the orbiter while 
waiting for 8.2.  The down time caused by this software issue was 
used to accomplish mechanical closeout tasks required to configure 
the orbiter properly for launch and to troubleshoot various 
anomalies which occurred in previous testing.

The reworked flight Pyro Initiation Unit was reinstalled on the 
orbiter and all functions and interfaces will retested and 
reverified next week.  This completes the glass body diode rework 
effort for both the orbiter and lander vehicles.

Mars Polar Lander:
Lander launch processing activities are proceeding on schedule in 
the SAEF-2 facility at KSC with launch 65 days away.  This was a 
major week of testing activity on the lander with the following 
tests completed very successfully:  rocket engine module 
functional test; entry, descent, and landing "plugs out" test; 
mission profile tests on side "A" and side "B" of the lander using 
new flight software build 8.0; and attitude control subsystem 
phasing verification test.  In addition, the backshell and harness 
assembly and cruise stage were installed on the lander vehicle.

6 November 1998

Mars Climate Orbiter:
Orbiter launch processing activities are proceeding on schedule in 
the Spacecraft Assembly and Encapsulation Facilit (SAEF-2) at 
Kennedy Space Center (KSC) with launch vehicle 3rd stage mate 18 
days away and launch 34 days away.  The reworked flight Pyro 
Initiation Unit functions and interfaces were retested and 
reverified successfully on the orbiter.  Flight software build 
8.2.1, the final planned load containing all functionality and 
fault protection required for the entire mission, was loaded on 
the orbiter.  Attitude Control System (ACS) phasing testing was 
completed successfully.  The final pre-launch test of the launch 
and initiation flight sequence was completed successfully.  Flight 
ordnance was installed on the orbiter.

Mars Polar Lander:
Lander launch processing activities are proceeding on schedule in 
the SAEF-2 facility at KSC with launch vehicle 3rd stage mate 39 
days away and launch 58 days away.  Mission system testing of the 
launch/initialization phase was conducted successfully.  The Deep 
Space Network End-to-End compatibility test was completed 
successfully.  

For more information on the Mars Surveyor 98 mission, please visit 
our website at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98
------------------------------------------------------------------

End Marsbugs Vol. 5, No. 23

