Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletterweb.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/2004/20040622.pdf · Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 26, 22 June

Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 11, Number 26, 22 June 2004 Editor/Publisher: David J. Thomas, Ph.D., Science Division, Lyon College, Batesville, Arkansas 72503-2317, USA. [email protected]

Marsbugs is published on a weekly to monthly basis as warranted by the number of articles and announcements. Copyright of this compilation exists with the editor, except for specific articles, in which instance copyright exists with the author/authors. Opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of the authors, and are not necessarily endorsed by the editor or by Lyon College. E-mail subscriptions are free, and may be obtained by contacting the editor. Information concerning the scope of this newsletter, subscription formats and availability of back-issues is available at http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs. The editor does not condone "spamming" of subscribers. Readers would appreciate it if others would not send unsolicited e-mail using the Marsbugs mailing lists. Persons who have information that may be of interest to subscribers of Marsbugs should send that information to the editor. Articles and News Page 1 WHAT'S IN A NAME? IT DEPENDS ON WHO'S DOING

THE NAMING NASA/JPL release

Page 3 EARTH HAS "BLUEBERRIES" LIKE MARS—"MOQUI

MARBLES" FORMED IN GROUNDWATER IN UTAH'S NATIONAL PARKS University of Utah release

Page 5 GREAT TERRAFORMING DEBATE, PART IV: WALKING

NAKED ON THE RED PLANET From Astrobiology Magazine

Page 6 MOON TO MARS: WHAT'S BEYOND?

Report of the President's Commission on Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy

Page 7 GREAT TERRAFORMING DEBATE, PART V: THE

UNITED NATIONS OF MARS From Astrobiology Magazine

Page 8 GREAT TERRAFORMING DEBATE, PART VI:

QUESTIONS ABOUT LIVING ON MARS From Astrobiology Magazine

Page 9 GREAT TERRAFORMING DEBATE, PART VII:

QUESTIONS: ABOUT THE MARTIAN FUTURE From Astrobiology Magazine

Page 10 EARTH HIT BY NEIGHBOR IN MAKING OF MOON

By Robert Roy Britt Page 10 SCIENTISTS DISCOVER TWO NEW INTERSTELLAR

MOLECULES: POINT TO PROBABLE PATHWAYS FOR CHEMICAL EVOLUTION IN SPACE National Radio Astronomy Observatory release

Page 12 SPACESHIPONE MAKES HISTORY: FIRST PRIVATE

MANNED MISSION TO SPACE Scale Composites release

Page 13 NASA ADMINISTRATOR LAUDS SUCCESSFUL HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT NASA release 2004-199

Page 13 ORBITING ASTRONAUT CALLS SPACESHIPONE

FLIGHT "FANTASTIC" NASA/JSC release 2004-200

Page 13 NOVEL CAMERA SET TO PRODUCE THE FIRST

DIRECT IMAGES OF EXOPLANETS By Lori Stiles

Announcements Page 14 WORKSHOP ON LOW-FREQUENCY RADAR

INVESTIGATIONS Lunar and Planetary Institute release

Page 14 NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX

By David J. Thomas Mission Reports Page 14 CASSINI STATUS REPORTS

NASA/JPL releases Page 17 MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES

NASA/JPL/MSSS release Page 17 MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES

NASA/JPL/ASU release Page 17 SMILE! ROSETTA'S SELF-PORTRAIT

ESA release Page 17 NASA'S STARDUST SPACECRAFT REVEALS

SURPRISING ANATOMY OF A COMET NASA/JPL release 2004-154

WHAT'S IN A NAME? IT DEPENDS ON WHO'S DOING THE NAMING NASA/JPL release 2 June 2004 Less than two weeks after Spirit landed on Mars, rover engineers and scientists were already planning Spirit's itinerary on the surface. "Go to That Crater and Turn Right" read the headline of a January 13 press release. Needless to say, generically referring to features as "that crater," "this rock," or "these hills" could quickly become confusing. "That Crater" was soon named Bonneville Crater. Why? And How? Those are some of the most frequent questions from visitors to NASA's Mars Exploration Rover site. In Bonneville Crater's case, scientists searching for the record of past water on Mars wanted to see a little bit of Utah on the red planet. Prehistoric Utah, to be precise, when today's Great Salt Lake was once the mega-Lake Bonneville.

Geologists can still find signs of its ancient shoreline terracing Utah's mountains and valleys—and hoped to find signs of past water in the martian rock record as well. International rules for naming features on Mars "We give names to features near the rovers for convenience," said Dr. Tim Parker, a JPL geologist working on the rover mission. "But it's important to remember they're all unofficial." The International Astronomical Union (IAU), which fosters international cooperation in astronomy among its member countries and individual scientists, is ultimately responsible for naming land features on planets and their moons. In fact, the IAU already has a set of guidelines for names on Mars, explained Parker.

Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 26, 22 June 2004 2

IAU guidelines for naming craters on Mars Craters less than 100 kilometers (62 miles) in diameter are named after towns on Earth with fewer than 100,000 people. For example, a rural school in New Plymouth, Idaho (population under 1400) submitted their town's name to the IAU. New Plymouth Crater was formally accepted as the official name of a small crater coincidentally near Gusev Crater where Spirit landed. Craters wider than 100 kilometers are named after late planetary scientists. Using that scheme, a large crater might someday be named after Carl Sagan or Eugene Shoemaker. One has been named after Hal Masursky, a geologist who spent his career at NASA and the US Geological Survey studying lunar and planetary surfaces and the best places for landing. IAU guidelines for naming mountains and plains on Mars Mountains and plains are named after the nearest feature described on the basis of its albedo, or brightness, by the astronomers Schiaparelli, Antoniadi, and others who first began mapping Mars in the 19th and early 20th centuries. An example is the name Nix Olympica, the classical albedo name, which exists side by side with the geographic name Olympus Mons, used by the U.S. Geological Survey, to designate the largest volcano in the solar system. That volcano just happens to be covered with snow (nix means snow in Latin) like the famed Mount Olympus of Greek mythology. Both names are official. Another example is Sinus Meridiani, which means "Middle Bay," applied by the 19th-century astronomer Flammarion to the area where the Opportunity rover landed, on a plain called Meridiani Planum. Unofficial feature names for the Rover Mission Meanwhile, back at JPL, scientists have devised a system of names that serve as labels for the time being. After the two robotic rovers landed on Mars in January, Dr. Jim Rice, a geologist at Arizona State University and a rover science team member, suggested that features studied during the mission should be named according to a theme. Principal investigator Dr. Steve Squyres, a geologist at Cornell University, said, "OK, you're in charge." Rice was the perfect choice for the task. He is practically a walking encyclopedia of interesting historical facts about geological exploration. He also has a friendly way of talking in a deep Southern drawl from his native Alabama that puts other people at ease when they're under pressure to get a thousand things done and are being asked to do just one more thing. Rice suggested some themes and names and had team members take a vote. They decided to name craters near Spirit's landing site after lakes on Earth and craters near Opportunity's landing site after famous ships of exploration. Rice and Squyres then began assigning names from a list that Rice created. Craters named for lakes near Spirit's landing site Naming Bonneville Crater started the trend in naming craters encountered by Spirit for lakes on Earth. Another crater at the Spirit site is named "Turkana," after a lake in the African Rift Valley. "That's the kind of name I like because that's where anthropologists found the earliest hominid fossils, in the Olduvai Gorge region," said Rice. "Let's see, then we also had Lake Vanda," said Rice. "That's an ice-covered lake in Antarctica." "That was kind of neat," Rice adds, "because both Steve and I have done scuba diving in ice-covered lakes in Antarctica. Opportunity recently discovered that a lake once existed in the Meridiani Planum region. I think that martian lakes most likely did have ice covers on them." Also at the Spirit site, there's "Lahontan Crater," after an ancient lake that was once in Nevada and California. On Earth, Lake Lahontan no longer has any water as a result of climate change since the Pleistocene Epoch, when much of North America was covered by ice sheets. Some scientists think that Mars, too, may have undergone climate change and loss of surface water. Similarly, "Missoula Crater" was named after glacial Lake Missoula, which occupied portions of present-day Montana and Idaho. Lake Missoula periodically breached its ice dam 13,000 to 15,000 years ago and unleashed a series of catastrophic floods that created the channeled scablands in Washington.

Unofficially, there's now a "Tecopa Crater" on Mars after an ancient lake near Death Valley in California; "Huron Crater" after one of the Great Lakes; and "Baikal Crater" after the world's deepest lake in Russia. Famous ships of exploration At the Opportunity site, craters are about the only thing to be seen on an otherwise wind-swept plain. In fact, the rover managed to land in a tiny crater in a vast sea of flatness. That crater was named "Eagle Crater" after the Apollo 11 lunar module that carried Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the surface of the moon for the first human lunar landing on July 20, 1969. There's also "Fram Crater," named after a ship used by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. Fram means "forward" or "onward" in Norwegian. "Fram was a famous scientific vessel that conducted an awful lot of important work in the Arctic," said Rice, "but it's most famous for taking Amundsen and his team to Antarctica where he led the first team to reach the South Pole on December 14, 1911." "Endurance Crater," a spectacular crater that features several meters of a layered rock outcrop and debris, was named in honor of the famously ill-fated expedition of Ernest Shackleton to Antarctica aboard the Endurance. "Endurance is a fitting name because at the time, we were thinking, 'It's going to be a long haul to get there. It's going to test our endurance,'" said Rice. "Plus it was Shackleton's ship." Commemorative, colorful, and historical names On occasion, the names reflect other human considerations, both serious and fanciful. Heroes remembered NASA Headquarters named the "Columbia Hills," a mile or so from Spirit's landing site, in honor of the lost space shuttle Columbia. Each of the seven peaks bears, at least for now, the last name of one of the Columbia astronauts: Husband, McCool, Anderson, Chawla, Brown, Clark, and Ramon. Similarly, three hills near the Spirit landing site were named for the three Apollo 1 astronauts Grissom, White, and Chaffee, who died in a flash fire during a dress rehearsal on the launch pad one month before their scheduled launch. A travelogue of place names By the time Mars rover team members got around to labeling individual features in the craters, such as individual rocks studied by the rovers, they were no longer following a particular theme. Basically, whoever got to work on analyzing a feature first got to christen it, said Rice. Many of the nicknames are place names: "Route 66" after the famous interstate highway; "Mazatzal" after a mountain range in Arizona and piece of the North American continent that is more than 1 billion years old; "Guadalupe" and "McKittrick" after mountains in Texas and New Mexico that are famous for fossils, caves, and, in this case, rocks left behind after the evaporation of a shallow sea. Similarly, there's "Adirondack" (New York), "Tamamend Park" (Pennsylvania), "Camelback" (Arizona), "Stone Mountain" (Georgia), and "Zugspitze" (Germany), to name a few. There's also "Namib" and "Kalahari" after deserts of the same name. A few of the names are hard to pronounce. John Grotzinger of MIT, a science team member, gave the name "Karatepe" to one of the outcrops in Endurance Crater. It turns out Karatepe (pronounced care-uh-tep-pee) is an archaeological site bearing a bilingual inscription in Phoenician and Hittite. The Phoenician inscription enabled historians to translate Hittite hieroglyphics for the first time. Similarly, the rock outcrop first studied by Opportunity may one day provide "a translation code" for understanding rock layers and climate on Mars overall.


Rock and mineral "flavors": blueberries and ice cream Often, team members name surface features for objects that they resemble. "Early one Saturday morning back in February, I suggested the name blueberries to describe the hematite-rich spherical particles and it has stuck ever since then," said Rice. The spheres appeared "bluish" due to the camera filter that was used for one of the false-color images. One day, team members named soil textures after flavors of ice cream. They stocked the martian freezer with names like "Mudpie," "Coconut," "Cookies and Cream," and "Chocolate Chip." Chocolate Chip refers to the dark, BB-size spherules ("blueberries") of hematite scattered on the martian surface and perhaps to the fact that team members longed for refreshment during a record-breaking heat wave in Southern California. Some animal references While the science team hasn't been reminded of many animals in the shapes of rocks, they did nickname one rock "Shark Tooth" given its pointed shape. They also nicknamed a sand drift "Serpent," which unfortunately later looked something like a smashed serpent where the rover's wheels scuffed the surface to reveal the underlying sediment. People In a few instances, features are named after people. An example is "Burns Cliff" at Endurance Crater, named after the late Roger Burns, an MIT mineralogist who predicted people might one day find jarosite on Mars. Opportunity actually did find jarosite, an iron sulfate mineral that typically forms when water circulates through and alters iron-rich sediments and rocks. Jarosite was one of the clues that Meridiani Planum was once a water-soaked place. There's also "Larry's Leap," informally named after science team member Larry Soderblom, a veteran of planetary missions who first suggested taking a rover "toe-dip" (or, wheel dip!) inside Endurance Crater on a relatively shallow slope. (Soderblom, however, did not suggest the name.) Naming: it's something humans do Given that none of the names are official and most will probably not survive IAU scrutiny, why bother to give names at all? As Rice noted: "Whenever explorers go somewhere, we always want to name things. Everybody on this team has named at least one thing, I think it's safe to say, on this mission, one way or the other now. It just makes it more personal. It allows one to leave their little mark on the surface of another planet." Plus, in a world of technical reports to peers, names have a practical application. "When I was working at the U.S. Geological Survey in grad school, I was mapping a quadrangle on Mars," said Rice. "When it comes to writing scientific papers, you don't want to keep referring to a crater or other landmarks by their latitude and longitude coordinates. It gets boring and you get tired of writing those coordinates. So you give it a name. It's just something we humans like to do." Read the original article at http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/spotlight/spirit/a24_20040602.html. An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1028.html. EARTH HAS "BLUEBERRIES" LIKE MARS—"MOQUI MARBLES" FORMED IN GROUNDWATER IN UTAH'S NATIONAL PARKS University of Utah release 16 June 2004 Even before marble-shaped pebbles nicknamed "blueberries" were discovered on Mars by the Opportunity rover, University of Utah geologists studied similar rocks in Utah's national parks and predicted such stones would be

found on the Red Planet. In a study published in the June 17 issue of the journal Nature, the Utah researchers suggest both the martian and Utah rocks—known as hematite concretions—formed underground when minerals precipitated from flowing groundwater.

University of Utah geologists say marble-shaped rocks known as concretions from Utah (left) formed millions of years ago in groundwater-soaked rocks, providing clues to the origin of similar concretions or so-called "blueberries" (right) discovered on Mars by NASA's Opportunity rover. The Utah concretions shown on the left range in diameter from one twenty-fifth of an inch to 2 inches, while the Martian versions on the right all measure less than one-fifth of an inch in diameter. (Scale of photos is different.) Image credits: left image by Marjorie Chan and Brenda Beitler, University of Utah; right image by NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Cornell University. "We came up with the 'recipe' for blueberries," says Marjorie Chan, chair and professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Utah. "Before Opportunity landed, we thought there might be hematite concretions on Mars. That was based on our study of hematite-rich regions of southern Utah, where hematite balls are found in national parks and have long been a geological oddity that shows up in many rock shops." The round rocks are found in southern Utah in Zion and Capitol Reef national parks, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Snow Canyon State Park and the Moab area. Their diameters range from one-25th of an inch to 8 inches or more. They are known to New Agers as "moqui marbles." Some are the size of small blueberries like those on Mars. Chan and her colleagues believe the Utah concretions formed perhaps 25 million years ago when minerals precipitated from groundwater flowing through much older Navajo sandstone, the spectacular red rock in southern Utah.

Marble-like rocks known as hematite concretions litter the surface of Navajo sandstone at Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. The rocks accumulated after softer surrounding sandstone eroded away. They are similar to the so-called "blueberries" found on Mars by NASA's Opportunity rover. Image credit: Brenda Beitler, University of Utah. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Opportunity robot rover vehicle landed on Mars' Meridiani Planum on January 25. Five days later, it detected hematite within gray pebbles dotting the landing site, and such pebbles later were spotted embedded in a rock outcrop. Cornell University scientist Steve Squyres, who heads the Opportunity science team, said February 9 the small spheres look "like blueberries in a muffin" and might be concretions. In their Nature paper, Chan and colleagues say the martian "blueberries" may have formed in a similar manner to those in Utah, namely,


when significant volumes of groundwater flowed through permeable rock, and chemical reactions triggered minerals to precipitate and start forming a layered, spherical ball. "Given the similarities between the marbles in Utah and on Mars, additional scientific scrutiny of the Utah concretions and how they form will probably shed further light on the similar phenomenon on Mars," University of Washington scientist David Catling wrote in a Nature commentary accompanying the University of Utah study. The concretions may bear on the search for evidence of past life on Mars because bacteria on Earth can make concretions form more quickly. Chan and colleagues plan to analyze whether there is evidence of past microbial activity in Utah concretions. Chan conducted the new study with geology graduate student Brenda Beitler and emeritus professor of geology Bill Parry, both at the University of Utah; geologist Jens Ormo of the National Institute of Aerospace Technology in Madrid, Spain; and planetary scientist Goro Komatsu of the International Research School of Planetary Sciences at G. d'Annunzio University in Pescara, Italy.

Closeup of hematite concretions from Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. University of Utah geologists say the mostly round rocks formed millions of years ago underground in porous, water-soaked sandstone, and may provide clues to similar stones found on Mars by the Opportunity rover. Image credit: Brenda Beitler, University of Utah. Martian blueberries and marbles of the spirits The Utah and Mars hematite concretions have similarities and differences. In Utah and likely on Mars, "you have rocks that had iron in them originally," says Beitler. "Fluids travel through these rocks and leach out the iron. The water moves through cracks, holes, layers or pores until it reaches some place where the chemistry is different and causes the iron to precipitate out of the water as hematite." A major difference is that the martian "blueberries" probably are pure hematite—a form of iron oxide that is gray because it has a larger crystal structure than the reddish form of iron oxide, commonly known as rust. The Utah concretions are mostly sandstone, cemented by hematite that makes up a

few percent to perhaps one-third of the rock. The martian concretions likely precipitated from acidic groundwater. Those in Utah precipitated when hydrocarbon-rich, briny fluids encountered oxygen-rich groundwater. After the Utah concretions formed in groundwater, the surrounding Navajo sandstone slowly eroded away over millions of years, so the hard, erosion-resistant concretions accumulated on the ground, often in great numbers. "The loose Utah concretions roll like marbles into depressions, forming 'puddles,' just like their martian counterparts," Catling wrote. "The Hopi Indians have a legend that 'moqui,' or spirits of their ancestors, played games of marbles with the hematite concretions in the American southwest. Although anthropologists discourage use of the word 'moqui' to be respectful to Native Americans, New Age gem collectors sell concretions as 'moqui marbles' and claim that they are endowed with metaphysical powers." Hematite, water and life In 1998, the Mars Global Surveyor orbiting Mars detected what appeared to be a large area of hematite on Meridiani Planum. The broad plain was picked as Opportunity's landing site because scientists wanted to study the hematite, which almost always forms in water. Scientists are interested in whether water once existed on Mars (or now exists beneath its surface) because water is necessary for life—and the possibility of life beyond Earth is one of the great questions long pondered by humanity. "On Earth, whenever we find water, we find life—in surface water or underground water, hot water or cold water—any place there is water on Earth there are microbes, there is life," says study co-author Bill Parry. "That's the bottom line: hematite is linked to life." While other evidence from Opportunity suggests there once may have been standing water on Meridiani Planum, the Utah team's study strongly indicates the martian "blueberries" probably formed in groundwater and not in surface water. "The 'blueberries' easily could have formed in groundwater before there was standing water, if that did exist," Chan says. Other scientists previously offered various explanations for Meridiani Planum's hematite, including that the mineral precipitated in large lakes or in hot springs when Mars' ancient volcanoes were active, or that hematite was left when water leached away other minerals, or that it formed when volcanic ash deposits were altered chemically. Like Southern Utah, like Mars Chan says her team long suspected concretions like those in Utah might be found on Mars. The idea first was suggested by Ormo and Komatsu in a 2003 scientific abstract that got little if any attention. Ormo contacted Chan in spring 2003 and they started collaborating. The researchers completed a much broader but yet-unpublished study last year indicating that several geological features were seen both in aerial photos of southern Utah's hematite-rich areas and in images of Mars' hematite regions taken by orbiting spacecraft. These features include large rocky landforms shaped like knobs, pipes and buttes, and places where bleached-looking rock forms white sediment beds or ring-shapes on the surface. Some of the pipes and other features are tens of yards long or wide. The geologists determined the processes responsible for these large-scale features in Utah involved the flow of briny groundwater saturated with natural gas that bleaches sandstone, and that such groundwater flow, the precipitation of hard hematite-cemented rock and the later erosion of surrounding softer rock also would explain the formation of the erosion-resistant pipes, buttes, knobs and concretions. They concluded a similar process could have formed concretions and larger landforms on Mars. Chan says studying concretions from Utah and Mars "will help us learn more about the history of Mars. When we have something to compare it to, it's a lot easier to figure out." Read the original news release at http://www.utah.edu/unews/releases/04/jun/marsmarbles.html. An additional article on this subject is available at: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/utah_blueberries_040616.html http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0406/16blueberries/


http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/earth_blueberries_too.html GREAT TERRAFORMING DEBATE, PART IV: WALKING NAKED ON THE RED PLANET From Astrobiology Magazine 17 June 2004 At the Astrobiology Science Conference on March 30, scientists and science fiction writers faced off in front of a packed audience to debate the promise and pitfalls of terraforming Mars. In part 4 of this 7-part series, Greg Bear ponders the evolution of humans into martians. The Mars Terraforming Debate is co-sponsored by NASA's Astrobiology Magazine, the SciFi Museum (Seattle), and Breakpoint Media. Donna Shirley: Let's say that we've decided to go to Mars, we're going to terraform Mars, we're going to terraform it so people can live on it. What kind of people are going to go to Mars? Greg, you had people going to Mars (in your book). Could you talk about them? Greg Bear: Well, my people weren't by and large genetically modified, although they did have biochemistries installed so they could survive the lower gravitational fields or weightlessness. Mostly they looked like me and you, but I think if we're going to go to Mars I think it's a cheaper option to fix ourselves up rather than fix Mars up. We could generate ourselves so that we don't need that extra flora, that biota, that occupies our intestines and our skin and everything else, and that way we won't leak too much when we go there. But that might be a real fantasy. Humans leak—that's pretty much a universal truth. So my people in "Moving Mars" are pretty much like you and me, as Mr. (Robert) Heinlein would imagine them. I think what we're going to see is that when we get to Mars in a serious way, we're going to want to change ourselves, just so we can do what Stan would like to do, and that's walk out on the surface of Mars and climb a rock, naked. That's a pretty good idea, isn't it? Just your fingers—no suckers allowed; you can't put suckers on your fingers—just the few extra scales or whatever, to keep yourself from drying out, and a way to recover your oxygen quickly. The Maui effect—you just really want to get out there with nature and touch Mars directly. That's tough to do when you're in a NASA suit, but we've seen very skinny space suits being designed, and that might be adequate for Mars. But that's getting off the point. The point is that I think we'll be genetically modified very soon after we get there. It'll be more economical. You could propagate faster. And if we're going to do this thing of being fruitful and multiplying, then we can multiply in a different form. And the question then becomes, will they be martians, as Ray Bradbury says? I think they will. Will they be respectful of any other life forms we find buried tens of kilometers deep on Mars? Perhaps. But for economic reasons, almost certainly they'll preserve them and start studying them. And the whole process will go on. I don't actually think we've ruined the Earth. I think we're transforming the Earth. We're Earth's gonads, and we're about to do what comes natural. Donna Shirley: So Lisa, when you're down in the mine somewhere... Lisa Pratt: I can't believe you're going to ask me to say anything after that! Donna Shirley: [laughs]. When you're down in the mine somewhere, how do you protect the life forms from leaking? Lisa Pratt: Well, you try very hard, but the point of the matter is we've already done a very invasive procedure in these deep mines. We've already put in tremendous infrastructure, and we're pumping enormous amounts of air through those mines in order to sustain the miners who work down there. It's very interesting when you walk around on Earth, three kilometers below the surface, every place there's the smallest drip or trickle of water, there's a luxuriant red biofilm of air-consuming organisms that are utilizing the chemical disequilibrium of these deep-Earth waters. In order to sample for deep-Earth microbes, you have to wait for the serendipity of the miners drilling into the virgin part of the subsurface and intersecting high-pressure water. And if the water that is intersected continues to come out at high pressure, and you can collect a sample before the aerobic organisms work their way back in, then, in fact, you have a chance to identify the indigenous

life forms. What we find is there are many microbes at depths below two kilometers below Earth's surface. Donna Shirley: Let's talk about the economics. If we're going to terraform Mars, what are the economic incentives? Will pharmaceutical companies be able to fly us to Mars to find new medicines? Stan, you had some economic things worked out in the trilogy. Kim Stanley Robinson: Well, no, it will never be economic. This is the cool thing about it, and one of the reasons that people all around the world are so interested in Mars, is that it sits outside of the systems of current culture and economics. You can't make a profit from it. You can't make it make sense in religious terms. It's just a kind of a thing that humanity would do as a project for the sake of how interesting it would be. It would be an interesting story. We would go there first the way we go to Antarctica, to do scientific studies, to try to help us understand the world better. And then after that, if it were to be terraformed, people would be doing it for itself, just in the way of gardening or building a cathedral. There is no analogy that really makes sense, because it's such a new and big thing. But I think that people are interested in all these little robotic missions and in everything about Mars, because it's so hard to get outside the economic trap that we're in, in our current culture. So it's best to think of it as being meta-economic, or beyond economics. John Rummel: Well, at least it's not at the time scale of the typical investment. If we did have forty thousand years of burying reduced carbon, we'd have oil there, so we could get that. Donna Shirley: For a long time, they said, we're going to do it for science. And then we say, no we're going to do it just because humans explore. So why would humans go to Mars? Anybody want to take a crack at that? James Kasting: Yeah, I'll take a crack at it. I think scientifically, it's very exciting. It's not just looking for extant life and drilling down deep beneath the surface. There is a chance that there's fossil evidence for life on the surface. We want to understand the surface of Mars like we understand the surface of the Earth. We'll learn something by robotic missions, we're learning lots right now from the current missions, but we won't understand Mars like we understand the Earth until we get teams of geologists up there with rock hammers, clambering down Valis Marineris and looking at the whole stratigraphic sequence that is very difficult to get to robotically. Lisa Pratt: Actually, I think there's an important step in-between, and that's to take the time to return samples to Earth. We take the risk of bringing samples back to Earth, where they can really be analyzed in a comprehensive way by many different laboratories around the world, using as many different analytical techniques as we can throw at them, before we get in a hurry and make what I think would be a titanic mistake to actually get up there on Mars and walk around with human beings before we're prepared for what we discover. Greg Bear: That's a good use for the space station, too, if you don't necessarily want to bring those samples back to Earth. John Rummel: If you bring it back to the space station, you've brought it back to Earth, but you've brought it back in an uncontrolled fashion. The fact is that there is nothing about modern biology that we know enough about in space to be able to do the kinds of tests you'd want to do. You bring it back to the space station, what goes up must come down, therefore any space station that's in orbit right now will eventually be part of this planet once again. If you do find life on Mars, you don't want to find it in a place where you can't control it adequately. So you really can do a safe job of bringing it back to a terrestrial laboratory and allowing it to be looked at to make sure that there's no biohazard, and then get it out to the people who can do the work. Finding a biohazard would be one of the greatest scientific discoveries of all time. So we're looking forward to that. Back to your question, though, about why you would go to Mars. Essentially, ignorance is not bliss. Going in also may tell us about a future place where we could put at least part of this civilization to come back and clean up after an event like (a giant asteroid impact on Earth). So I would advocate, if not terraforming, at least solar system exploration, as a way of saving part of the history and the culture of humanity.


Donna Shirley: People say, "Well, we're going to mess up the Earth, so we're going to jump off of the Earth and go live on another planet." David, what do you think about that idea? David Grinspoon: Going to Mars now with robots or even with human expeditions, which is very different from terraforming, is greatly motivated by curiosity, and part of the return from that is we get smarter about how planets work. This is knowledge that we really need, because whether we like it or not, we are at least partially running a planet now. Maybe we're running amok on a planet, but the decisions that we're making with our technical civilization are changing this planet. So we can't afford the luxury of ignorance about how planets work. I think we need to explore the solar system, not just to satisfy our curiosity, but to get smarter about how planets work. In the long run, I think we will go to Mars to live—assuming again Mars is a dead world, which I think it is, probably—for the same reasons that human beings left Africa. Why aren't we still all living in Africa, which we were at one point? I think it's part of what we do; we wander and we explore. In the long run, I think we're going to continue that beyond the Earth. Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1021.html. MOON TO MARS: WHAT'S BEYOND? Report of the President's Commission on Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy From Astrobiology Magazine 17 June 2004 On January 14, 2004, President George W. Bush announced a new vision for America's civil space program that calls for human and robotic missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond: "Today, humanity has the potential to seek answers to the most fundamental questions posed about the existence of life beyond Earth. Telescopes have found planets around other stars. Robotic probes have identified potential resources on the Moon, and evidence of water—key ingredient for life—has been found on Mars and the moons of Jupiter." This vision set forth goals of: returning the Space Shuttle safely to flight; completing the International Space Station (ISS); phasing out the Space Shuttle when the ISS is complete (about 2010); sending a robotic orbiter and lander to the Moon; sending a human expedition to the Moon as early as 2015, but no later than 2020; conducting robotic missions to Mars in preparation for a future human expedition; and conducting robotic exploration across the solar system. Ray Bradbury, celebrated author of The Martian Chronicles, testified to the Commission about the importance of exploration. When presented with this challenge of travel to Mars, he said, "Our children will point to the sky and say YES!" Spaceflight is difficult, hazardous, and confronted by enormous distances, at least in human terms. Despite extensive safety precautions, during its 144 human space missions the United States has lost 17 astronauts. The pursuit of discovery is a risky business, and it will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. Perhaps of greatest relevance are resources required by humans to live and work in space. For example, the common H2O (water) molecule can yield oxygen to breathe, water to drink, and oxygen and hydrogen as propellants. Fortunately, these potential resources exist in some form in abundance at the first two human destinations, the Moon and Mars. Currently, there are many unknowns about the extraction of useful materials and the operations needed to support such activity. These issues will require expertise from both the aerospace and mining industries. Enabling technologies There was significant agreement that helped the Commission identify 17 areas for initial focus. Surely others will emerge over time. At this juncture, we identify the following enabling technologies, which are not yet prioritized: • Affordable heavy lift capability - technologies to allow robust affordable

access of cargo, particularly to low-Earth orbit.

• Advanced structures - extremely lightweight, multi-function structures with modular interfaces, the building-block technology for advanced spacecraft.

• High acceleration, high life cycle, reusable in-space main engine - for the crew exploration vehicle.

• Advanced power and propulsion - primarily nuclear thermal and nuclear electric, to enable spacecraft and instrument operation and communications, particularly in the outer solar system, where sunlight can no longer be exploited by solar panels.

• Cryogenic fluid management - cooling technologies for precision astronomical sensors and advanced spacecraft, as well as propellant storage and transfer in space.

• Large aperture systems - for next-generation astronomical telescopes and detectors.

• Formation flying - for free-space interferometric applications and near-surface reconnaissance of planetary bodies.

• High bandwidth communications - optical and high-frequency microwave systems to enhance data transmission rates.

• Entry, descent, and landing - precision targeting and landing on "high-g" and "low-g" planetary bodies.

• Closed-loop life support and habitability - Recycling of oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water for long-duration human presence in space.

• Extravehicular activity systems - the spacesuit of the future, specifically for productive work on planetary surfaces.

• Autonomous systems and robotics - to monitor, maintain, and where possible, repair complex space systems.

• Scientific data collection/analysis - lightweight, temperature-tolerant, radiation-hard sensors.

• Biomedical risk mitigation - space medicine; remote monitoring, diagnosis and treatment.

• Transformational spaceport and range technologies - launch site infrastructure and range capabilities for the crew exploration vehicle and advanced heavy lift vehicles.

• Automated rendezvous and docking - for human exploration and robotic sample return missions.

• Planetary in situ resource utilization - ultimately enabling us to "cut the cord" with Earth for space logistics.

A science research agenda can be organized around the following broad themes: • Origins - the beginnings of the universe, our solar system, other

planetary systems, and life. • Evolution - how the components of the universe have changed with

time, including the physical, chemical, and biological processes that have affected it, and the sequences of major events.

• Fate - what the lessons of galactic, stellar, and planetary history tell about the future and our place in the universe.

A notional science research agenda Origins: • The Big Bang, the structure and composition of the universe including

the formation of galaxies and the origin of dark matter and dark energy. • Nebular composition and evolution - gravitational collapse and stellar

ignition. • Formation of our solar system and other planetary systems; clues to the

origin of the solar system found in meteorites, cosmic dust, asteroids, comets, Kuiper Belt Objects, and samples of planetary surfaces.

• Pre-biotic solar system organic chemistry - locations, histories, and processes; emergence of life on Earth; interplay between geological and astronomical processes.

Evolution: • The Universe - processes that influence and produce large-scale

structure, from sub-nuclear to galactic scales. • Stellar Evolution - nucleosynthesis and evolutionary sequences,

including the influence of particles and fields on the space environment. • Planetary Evolution - the roles of impact, volcanism, tectonics, and

orbital or rotational dynamics in shaping planetary surfaces; structure of planetary interiors.

• Comparative Planetology - study of Earth as a terrestrial planet; divergence of evolutionary paths of Earth, Venus, and Mars; comparisons of giant planets and extrasolar planets.


• Atmospheres - early evolution and interaction with hydrospheres; longterm changes and stability.

• Search for Habitable Environments - identification and characterization of environments potentially suitable for the past existence and present sustenance of biogenic activity.

Fate: • Biology of species in space - micro- and fractional gravity, long-term

effects of exposure to variable gravity; radiation; avoidance and mitigation strategies.

• Impact Threat - cataloguing and classification of near-Earth objects; estimation of the recent impact flux and its variations; flux variation with position in solar system; hazard avoidance and mitigation.

• Natural hazard assessment - Advanced space-based characterization of meteorological, oceanic, and solid Earth natural hazards to diminish consequences and advance toward predictive capability.

• Temporal variations in solar output - monitoring and interpretation of space weather as relevant to consequence and predictability.

• Climate change - assessment of recent climatic variations; solar controls on climate change; quantitative modeling and testing of the greenhouse effect; and possible effects on planets and life.

• Long-term variations of solar system environment - galactic rotation and secular variations; local supernovae.

Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1023.html. GREAT TERRAFORMING DEBATE, PART V: THE UNITED NATIONS OF MARS From Astrobiology Magazine 18 June 2004 At the Astrobiology Science Conference on March 30, scientists and science fiction writers faced off in front of a packed audience to debate the promise and pitfalls of terraforming Mars. In part 5 of this 7-part series, Kim Stanley Robinson wishes Mars (and Earth) would abide by the Antarctica Treaty. The Mars Terraforming Debate is co-sponsored by NASA's Astrobiology Magazine, the SciFi Museum (Seattle), and Breakpoint Media. Donna Shirley: If we want to do something massive, like terraform Mars or even go to Mars with a lot of people, is it going to have to be an international endeavor? If so, how do you do that? Is it going to be all U.S., is it going to be like the Star Trek universe, where it's all humanity? What's that going to look like? John Rummel: Well, if you look at the front row of this audience now, it's not all U.S. Why would it be? I think everybody's going to be interested in this. And I think that the opportunities are there for all humankind to be able to go to Mars, to go other places in the solar system and learn together. If you take a look at any of the missions that are currently planned, they all have international participation, and that counts for everybody's mission. Not NASA, not ESA, not China—everybody's missions have international participation. It's the way of life in solar system exploration. Donna Shirley: So, science fiction guys, what about you? You've postulated international groups going to Mars. What are some of the issues involved in that? Kim Stanley Robinson: Oh, gosh. There's language problems. There's metric and foot problems. There's problems! Antarctica provides a really good model for this. That's under an international treaty and nobody claims it, nobody owns it, there's no sovereignty there. It's a beautiful model and I sort of wish that the rules of Antarctica would just creep north by a degree or two every year until the whole planet was under the Antarctic treaty. The space treaty is based on the Antarctic treaty. If there's going to be a Mars treaty, I'm sure it's going to be based on the Antarctic treaty. There are national stations down there. You know, the Italian station, the French station, the Kiwi and the Australian stations, and the American station. It's possible, I think, that Mars expeditions might be national, just because of the logistical reasons of one sort or another, and getting the initiative to go. But they will have international components to them, and it will just become

international and be under international law and be a human achievement. It seems to me inevitable that it will work out that way. But the idea of it being any kind of a space race—I mean, what if the Chinese suddenly say, all right, we're set to go. We're off to Mars and we're going to be there in 10 years—although they wouldn't announce that. But if we came to that conclusion, would it then turn into another space race? It seems to me it would break down and fall back into internationalism before that actually transpired, that we no longer can get stuck in any kind of Apollo races. But this is more a hope than a certainty. Greg Bear: I think that's probably what's going to happen. I think that there's more nationalism than we can think of out there, and there's more pride. There's pride of people who've come into a technological age after we have. They are going to exert themselves. They're going through the kind of adolescent fervor that we are still going through, but at a later stage. I think that's going to happen. I don't think it's necessarily going to be a bad thing. It's going to be a conflictful thing, but in living systems, that's how problems are solved. Two different systems or more get together, clash and conflict, and there's a lot of casualties along the way. Is there a way of doing it better? I think there probably is. I think that we could sit down and apply ourselves to it, if we want to take that role of standing back from the space race, but you know we're still a pretty young country. I think we'd probably roll up our sleeves and say, "Hallelujah!" and jump into the fray. It's a wonderful place for novels, fortunately. But it may not be the best place for raising children in peaceful circumstances. Donna Shirley: Okay, so now we've got this bunch of nations on Mars. You've got some experience, Lisa, in South Africa and other places. How does one set up a society where people are willing to collaborate and get around the national boundaries and work together? How did you get into South Africa and get into mines? Lisa Pratt: The reason it worked in South Africa is we made a compelling argument for the joint benefits to the mine owners, the mine operators and the scientists. So if there is an analogy, I suppose it's that there will have to be a multi-front reasoning that moves forward incrementally until, as a society or as a planet, we all agree that there are compelling reasons. Donna Shirley: John, planetary protection's a highly international endeavor. How does that work? Can we use any models there for living together on Mars? John Rummel: Well, the 1967 space treaty is the basis of planetary protection law around the globe. We co-ordinate with the Committee on Space Research as a consensus where there is an international planetary protection policy. Think about back contamination concerns: an international crew is coming back, and they've found life on Mars, and then they find that maybe they're infected by that life. Do you want to tell them they can't come home because they have Mars flu? You'll find that there's another nationality born right then, and that's called Martian, and they're going to want to come back anyway. I think that we have general consensus throughout the international community, and a lot of concern internationally, about making sure that Mars is as we find it, until we decide to do something else with it. Lisa Pratt: I might mention one other thing, that the thorniest issue in getting this deep subsurface research going was getting the agreement signed at very high government levels about who owned the genomes. That in fact it was concern about the value of the meta-genome that would come out of the mine in terms of its economic applications. The genome for anything that we bring out of the South African mines is owned by South Africa. Donna Shirley: Do you want to have the last word, David? David Grinspoon: Well, it occurs to me that one of the subtle benefits of the space age is that there is something of a planetary perspective that is spawned from seeing images of the Earth from space. Contemplating human beings going to another planet; there's something inherently global about that. I think that even if it is different national expeditions that go to Mars to live, that once they get there, they'll identify with being martians. One of my favorite science-fiction stories when I was a kid was by Isaac Asimov, the story called "The Martian Way." That is the story of the martian colonists eventually saying, "To hell with Earth. We're Martians, and we're


going to do it our own way." I think that one of the benefits of thinking about all this, whether or not we end up doing it sooner or later, is that it does, in some sense, almost subversively foster a kind of global consciousness that can help us, maybe, get along here on this planet. Donna Shirley: I think that's a very common theme of science fiction. Science fiction asks the question, "What if?" And what we've got here are some people who are actually working on these things, and thinking about what if there's life, what if there isn't life, how would we govern ourselves, and so on. And that's one of our major functions of the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame—to show people how to ask those questions, and to show people how to think about what might happen. To use terraforming Mars, for instance, as a thought experiment that reflects back on ourselves. Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1025.html. GREAT TERRAFORMING DEBATE, PART VI: QUESTIONS ABOUT LIVING ON MARS From Astrobiology Magazine 19 June 2004 At the Astrobiology Science Conference on March 30, scientists and science fiction writers faced off in front of a packed house to debate the promise and pitfalls of terraforming Mars. In part 6 of this 7-part series, the panel answers some questions from the audience. The Mars Terraforming Debate is co-sponsored by NASA's Astrobiology Magazine, the SciFi Museum (Seattle), and Breakpoint Media. Q: In the broad sense of life, it doesn't matter what we do with Earth. What we have to think about is what we need to do if we want to preserve human life—not life itself, because life is going to be here until the sun dies. The U.S.A. uses most of the energy of the Earth. How much energy do we need to save in order to go to Mars and terraform Mars? And are we going to have enough energy in order to stay here on Earth? Donna Shirley: So is your question, "Are we going to run out of energy?" Greg Bear: It's a matter of focus, isn't it? We have to have discipline to do big things, and we seem terribly undisciplined at times. I hope that's what you were getting at there. And also as a culture, the United States is fairly dominant in the consumption of raw materials in the world today. And you know that there are some of us who think that that's a necessary thing and others who object to it. There's really no answer to this question. It's a big question, because as I'm watching you ask your question, I'm seeing this entire planet learning to take baby steps. When you talk about things like, "Will we survive beyond the death of the sun?" you're talking about the very earliest thought processes of an organism that's going to be much larger than our solar system eventually. And that really is like watching a baby being born. So I hope that's not too abstruse, but, yeah, you ask huge questions there. James Kasting: I thought what she was asking was, "Is it really worth spending the huge amount of money that it would take to terraform Mars, when we have so many pressing problems on the Earth?" And I would say no. I'm a pessimist about that. I think it would be too expensive and not a good economic enterprise. Q: I understand from reading that between 50 and 70 percent of the mass of life on Earth is under the ocean floor. Is that valid or not? Lisa Pratt: There are so many estimates out there now about biomass and the answer is: "We really don't know, because we don't have an adequate inventory right now for the sub-sea biomass or for the deep-Earth biomass". We just don't know. John Rummel: I would point out that 3 billion years ago, when life was abundant on this planet finally, that the Earth was a planet of microbes. Microbes ruled the Earth. That hasn't changed at all. We are still a microbial environment. We have a really nice skin coat of people and critters and plants. But effectively, the biomass is probably at least 50 percent microbes and if you count the ones we carry with us, maybe even more. Q: You were talking about the potential that any current surviving native martian life might exist as far down as a couple of clicks below the surface. If

it required us to drill to a great depth in order to encounter the native life there, if it exists, then would that leave us free to do what we pleased with the uncolonized surface, while leaving the martian ecosystem undisturbed? David Grinspoon: I think it's a question of whether we're smart enough to know if we can have extensive industrial activities, or whatever kind of activities we're going to have on the surface, and not affect the subsurface. I don't know if we're smart enough yet to make that decision, but theoretically I would say that, yes, if we knew that we weren't affecting that subsurface life, then perhaps there isn't that much difference ethically between acting on the surface of a dead Mars and a Mars with life that's completely unaffected by our actions. Unless, I suppose, we think that subsurface life has some long-term potential to become surface life. But the way Mars is going now, and the way Mars's future looks, I would say that's not particularly likely. Greg Bear: Yeah, we don't know about Mars, but I can tell you that on Earth there is a constant churning between the deep Earth bacteria and archaea and the upper surface. It's constant, but it's very slow. It's probably on the order of tens of millions to hundreds of millions of years for a complete turnaround, but it still exists. I don't know if that same turnaround would be on Mars. Lisa Pratt: I think, in addition, the minute we talk about doing anything with the surface, we're going to lift the lid of the permafrost to get the liquid water. At that point we've probably opened holes and cracks into the subsurface world, so I think it's very hard to imagine that you could really have a barrier between those two worlds that would be effective. John Rummel: I'm absolutely certain we don't know enough about Mars to know an answer to that question. Q: You spoke earlier about three different aspects for looking at martian life: exploration, exploitation and, I believe, ecosynthesis was the term. The first two are certainly focused within the lifespan of an individual or even an individual society—How can I learn something? How can I use something?—where the final one, ecosynthesis, given the time frame of forty thousand years at the minimum, presents a challenge of changing human perspective into encompassing a task that not only goes beyond the lifetime of a person or a society, but well beyond the lifetime of human civilization. For Greg and for Stan, how do you see people learning to embrace that sort of change in perspective? Kim Stanley Robinson: My teacher, Gary Snyder, the California poet, always dates his letters, I guess right now it'd be 41004. So he's saying that from about the time forty thousand years ago, humanity has been itself, dating it from the start of art, I believe. I think taking the long view is a good thing. The idea that it's a hundred thousand-year project, of course, puts it on a different scale than anything else that we do and takes out the normal use values that we bring to bear. And yet, humanity was around forty thousand years ago, and it really ought to be forty thousand years in the future. So it's good to think about these long-term projects just for the way it increases our sense of ourselves as a species, and also for planetary consciousness. It's not just our species, we are interpenetrated with all things, including the bacteria, on the planet. So it is a healthy thing to think about. It is not escapist. It's an interesting new lens to look at our current situation. Greg Bear: Exactly. The existence of science fiction and of the Science Fiction Museum is a sign of evolutionary advancement on a huge scale. Q: A couple of years ago, I was riding on BART through Oakland, and I ran into a gentleman who had a very different perspective. I don't know how we got from the subject of his love life, which is what he started with, to human exploration of space, but when I mentioned that I did, in fact, favor manned expeditions to Mars, he got very angry. In his worldview, this made him assume that I favored abandoning the Earth to pollution and ruin and going off with a technocratic elite and leaving everyone else behind. So my question is kind of two-fold: Who decides, when we talk about one country versus another country deciding these policies, we're a democratic country, at least in theory. I'd like to know how you get people involved in the decision-making? And second of all, how do you get them educated enough to know what the decision is? Donna Shirley: I'd like to say something about that. That's what the Science Fiction Museum is designed to do, hopefully. It's the function of all museums


to preserve knowledge. But it's the function of the Science Fiction Museum to speculate from that knowledge, to go forward from it, and to ask the questions about what might happen. Thinking about the future is going to help you make those sorts of decisions. People do need to be informed, and one of the things we're trying to do is to get people interested in science. We want to use science fiction, frankly, to suck people in the way that some of us were sucked in when we were kids, into going into science and engineering, or at least appreciating science and engineering. We're also interested in promoting literacy, because if people can't read, they can't really understand things. They're not going to get everything they know from television. So we have an evil purpose. Our plan is to subvert children—heh, heh, heh. "Did you watch `The Matrix?'" "Yes." "Did you like it?" "Yes." "Do you know that's science fiction?" "No, I didn't know that. What would be the science behind making that happen?" So we do have this evil purpose and I think that's at least one way that we're going to do these things. Greg Bear: Yeah, this technocratic thing. I think science fiction has really come of age, because now we're starting to upset the Greens. And this is a good sign. The dialog is about to get really serious, because we've convinced enough people that this stuff is doable. Going into space is doable, building micro-machines is doable, taking over the genome is doable. Now they have to think in what used to be called science-fictional terms just to deal with current politics. And our present president has a very hard time thinking in science-fictional terms, despite giving an interesting pronouncement on the space program. His biological program is nothing. So we've got to deal with these issues on a larger scale. It's a little too late for people who are becoming president now. We've got to perhaps vote for them on the basis of whether or not they read science fiction when they were kids. Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1026.html. GREAT TERRAFORMING DEBATE, PART VII: QUESTIONS: ABOUT THE MARTIAN FUTURE From Astrobiology Magazine 20 June 2004 At the Astrobiology Science Conference on March 30, scientists and science fiction writers faced off in front of a packed house to debate the promise and pitfalls of terraforming Mars. In the final part of this series, the panel answers more questions from the audience. The Mars Terraforming Debate is co-sponsored by NASA's Astrobiology Magazine, the SciFi Museum (Seattle), and Breakpoint Media. Q: One of the main criticisms of astrobiology as a science is that our sample size is one—life on Earth. So, I've been hearing you guys talk about the merits of Mars, if it has life, and well if it doesn't we might as well bulldoze the thing. But Mars is our only negative control, so maybe there's some merit in a lifeless Mars. I'm wondering what you guys think about that. Greg Bear: Stan was talking about that. That's an extreme and interesting position. Kim Stanley Robinson: Yeah, the Red position: leave it lifeless. It's an awfully big and beautiful, sublime landscape. I'm just thinking that there are 10 planets in our solar system and a whole bunch of asteroids. And maybe we could let those be the controls and leave them alone. Over the years of working out the Mars trilogy and looking at those satellite photos—and it's amazing how much clearer the current generation of photos are; it's quite beautiful—it struck me that it would be a good place for the human mind to be. It would be good for the story of history. So, I have my fingers crossed that the planet's dead. And it's not just so that my novel remains science fiction, as opposed to fantasy—it would be an aesthetic disaster of the first order to have that happen—but, more importantly, if we could inhabit Mars, it would be good for history. David Grinspoon: It's also possible that Venus is dead. We don't know that. But it's possible. And if that were the case, that's a closer control to the terrestrial life experiment than Mars, for many reasons: it's Earth-sized, it's currently geologically active, etc. So Venus maybe could be the control. Greg Bear: So who was it who said, "In wilderness is the preservation of the world?" John Muir? That's the Sierra Club slogan.

Donna Shirley: Thoreau. Greg Bear: Okay. I think that's a pretty profound philosophy in a lot of ways. You need empty spaces so you can reappraise yourself. You need places where you can go to be away from others so you can find out who you are or have become. And if Mars is that place, that means we'll have completely locked up all the isolated places on Earth and filled them full of condominiums. You know, I think maybe Stan is right. Maybe there are certainly places on Mars that we aren't going to get to for a very long time, but ten thousand years down the road, what is the solar system going to look like? Isaac Asimov calculated that it would take us a hundred thousand years to turn every single atom in the galaxy into human flesh, if we went geometrically. That's an ugly idea. Considering that there'll be McDonald's along the way to increase that mass. So I think as I get older I begin to realize that isolation is a good thing occasionally. And I certainly don't want to live on the people track for the rest of my life. Q: Some devil's advocate questions crossed my mind, since usually there's someone further on the, "Let's go; let's go; let's make it a garden" side of things. There does seem to be that viewpoint that if Mars is a second genesis, then completely hands-off is the best way to go. Isn't there a counter-argument that, if Mars is a second genesis, we're two for two; the genesis of life is probably a common enough thing that perhaps it does not merit that kind of treatment, particularly if that kind of extreme hands-off prevents us from going and finding even more samples and having long-term exploration. If we're hands-off on Mars, then any interesting spectra we see orbiting around stars in the coming decades is one of those hands-off places, too. Do you think that's too much of a barrier? Perhaps that could be a strong argument against the extreme hands-off? John Rummel: I don't think we know the first thing about looking for extraterrestrial life. The bottom line is that we're like the drunk looking for his keys underneath the light because that's where he can look. And if we don't actually look, we'll never have the ability to answer your question. Without looking at all, we have no idea whether there's a second genesis, a first genesis kind of spread out a little bit, or whether or not it is, in fact, an empty world. And so we have to accomplish this biological Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. We have to actually go and make the measurements. We have to look for the potential for life. And to that we have to take at least the representatives of living organisms into that environment. What planetary protection does is try to limit the damage that we can avoid making in any kind of inroad into that environment, so we actually have the data back before we find out that we've already screwed it up. We're really appallingly ignorant about the rest of the solar system, and I think that as Lisa's work, and the discovery of deep-sea hydrothermal vents seven months after Viking first landed on Mars, will show us, we're appallingly ignorant about this planet. So I think we have to make an effort to learn about life on Mars, and I think we have to be aware of what we don't know here. Q: Earlier it was touched upon that humans might be genetically altered to be better suited for Mars. I was wondering, however, if humans are born and raised on Mars, would they maybe be changed in some way to better suit the environment, or since they're raised in a human environment, such as a base or a structure of some kind, they might not change at all. What do you think about this? Donna Shirley: Stan addressed that, with his tall martians. Kim Stanley Robinson: One can think about areoforming of humanity. And here's another place where we're so ignorant: living in 38 percent gravity—is it possible at all? Will it wreck our health and really be something that is a stopper to the whole notion of inhabiting Mars? Or will we adjust? And what will those adjustments consist of? Would they end up really tall? They might grow up, martian natives, the kids born and brought up there, and when they come to Earth it's a disaster for them. But on Mars itself, they may tend to be tall and deep-chested, analogous to what we see in people in Tibet and the high Andes, and so you get high-altitude people who don't really give a damn about Earth. They're areocentric. And I think that's the way it would be, if there is a generation that's born there. By the time you get to a third


generation, you'll have a new culture for sure. Whether you'll have different genotypes or phenotypes, I think that's a longer thing. Q: Much of the debate has centered on whether there is any currently existing life on Mars. Proving the positive for that is easy: you find it, and you confirm it or not. But proving a negative... I guess the question I had in mind was, "What time scale do you have in mind at which point you would be able to say, `Yes, this is a dead rock. Let the ethical debate begin about what we want to do with it after that.'" How long is long enough to have dead be dead? Greg Bear: Can we agree a billion years is probably pretty good? James Kasting: I would say you would want to make sure you'd drilled down to the liquid water region which we think exists at some level. And you'd want to do that in multiple places. And if you didn't find life, I'd be pretty happy with going ahead with whatever. Greg Bear: I think that's a good answer. And there'd probably be a protocol set up—I think that's a perfect thing for a committee to study and say, "We will do thus and thus and thus," and ask the world's experts to come in. Donna Shirley: Does that exist, John? John Rummel: No, there's no protocol right now, because we're just scratching the surface, literally. So when we get down to the places that Lisa can imagine, then we can start talking about when you quit. Lisa Pratt: I think also once we're secure in exploring on the surface, we'll use various geophysical methods to image the subsurface. And that's going to help immensely, because then we can have some sort of intelligent strategy about where we look. Q: I would like to ask you, from the technical side, when we have made vegetable life on Mars, what adaptation could we alter that also would be practical for human to live there with a minimum of technical attributes? James Kasting: In order to make Mars plant-habitable, you need to bring the climate up to Earth-like temperatures, which is something we haven't talked about tonight. You might be able to do it with CO2 alone, if you can find enough subsurface. It takes 2 or 3 bars, which is way more than people could breathe, or any kind of animals, but if you had a breathing mask you'd be okay. You might be able to do it with less of that if you can fill the gaps in the spectral windows with CFCs or perfluorocarbons, or something like that. It would still be a very technically challenging operation. And I guess the question in my mind would be, "Would it be worth going to all that trouble if you still had to wear a breathing mask when you were up on the surface?" Maybe we'll decide that it would be. Donna Shirley: Okay, thank you very much. I'm now going to do a commercial. The Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame is going to open in the middle of June this year, and we are now accepting membership. We're looking forward to participating in more of these debates with NASA. Michael Meyer and company are helping us put together a NASA film series. We're planning to do debates on SETI, on the moon, on turning people into interesting things in the future, nanotechnology, and so on. And so we hope that we'll be able to do more of these in the future and that you will enjoy them. Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1027.html. EARTH HIT BY NEIGHBOR IN MAKING OF MOON By Robert Roy Britt 21 June 2004 The leading theory for the Moon's formation has a Mars-sized object slamming into Earth about 4 billion years ago, shortly after our planet formed. The evidence is partly in the Moon's composition, which is similar to the upper portions of Earth. The theory goes back to the 1970s and is well established as the most likely way to make the Moon. But where did that other world come from? Read the full article at http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/moon_formation_040621.html.

PLANETARY UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE By Leslie Mullen From Astrobiology Magazine 21 June 2004 A biological version of what quantum physics calls the Heisenberg uncertainty principle centers on whether the act of looking for life on another world might somehow induce it to arise. NASA's Planetary Protection Officer John Rummel discusses the implications of planetary contamination with science-fiction author, Kim Stanley Robinson, and former Mars Pathfinder Mission Manager, Donna Shirley. To terraform a planet is to change its environment, making it livable for humans and other Earth-based life forms. Most life on Earth could not survive on Mars today. Even the hardiest bacteria would soon shrivel and die from the high radiation exposure, extreme cold, or other martian hazard. If humans want to maintain a long-term presence on Mars, building cities and establishing civilizations, terraforming would be one way to make that possible. "We want to find out about Mars life before we take Earth life to a place where it can be modifying the environment in a way that we can't control," said NASA's Planetary Protection Officer, John Rummel. Mars currently has a very thin carbon dioxide atmosphere. The average air pressure on Earth is one hundred times greater than the air pressure on Mars. To introduce adequate oxygen and increase the atmospheric pressure enough to suit humans would take at least 40,000 Earth years, and perhaps as long as 4 million years. When author Kim Stanley Robinson was writing his novel, Red Mars, he was surprised to find that many people favored leaving Mars alone, in its current, pristine state, unsullied by the works of man. "I had some sympathy for (that position), because I like rocky places myself," said Robinson. "If somebody proposed irrigating and putting forests in Death Valley, I would think of this as a travesty." Astrobiology Magazine had the opportunity to listen in on a conversation between science-fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson and NASA's John Rummel about planetary contamination. Kim Stanley Robinson (KSR): Now tell me, what's your field of expertise? What do you study? John Rummel (JR): I don't have any expertise—I work at NASA Headquarters. KSR: Oh, you're the... JR: I'm the Planetary Protection Officer. Donna Shirley: John, your job is to protect planets, and Stan has envisioned a future where there are people running all over the planet Mars. Do you think that's incompatible? JR: Not at all. In fact, the reason that there's a job to protect the planets is so we have the options of running all over the place later on. If there's life on Mars, we want to know about it before we blunder into a situation that we can't control, and that might in fact be dangerous to Earth. KSR: What about the several or many thousands of bacteria that are already on Mars, because of our Landers? JR: I hope that there's more than that. The fact is that the surface of Mars appears to be inimical to life as we know it—on the surface, and as long as you stay in the highly ultraviolet radiated places. And in the long term, galactic cosmic radiation takes care of a certain amount of things. But now we're just getting a good inkling for those deep down, really wonderful spots on Mars that might still exist. KSR: But what about the crash sites, where essentially a Lander has augered in, and perhaps gone in some meters? JR: Actually when you auger in on Mars, depending on what the soil is like at the place, you'll probably will only go down about a meter or so. And basic


crash sites where you have an integrated vehicle, all that probably stays exposed to the UV anyway. KSR: Right. JR: What we worry about, of course, are penetraters and other things that might go down farther than a meter and a half or more. The (Deep Space-2) DS-2 probes worry me much more than the Mars Polar Lander, because they did go down in a way that may have been unconstrained. KSR: Aren't we kind of caught in a catch-22, like with Lake Vostak, where, in order to try to find out if there is deep level indigenous life on Mars, our instruments of examination—the drills—will themselves be sources of contamination? Is there any way out of this catch-22? JR: Sure. The biological Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle is, "can we actually do the experiment?" I think it's possible to do the experiment to a level of probability that is less than one. I think we can actually envision examining Mars for signs of life without contaminating it, but we have to realize that if we examine it at all—if we launch anything to Mars—we have the chance of contaminating it. But not more so than probably the chance that Mars would get contaminated naturally by a large impact event that would take material from Earth to Mars today. KSR: Which has happened many times. JR: It's happened many times, and it may happen in the future. It's one of the reasons we (should) talk about terraforming. One of the things that we want to think about is having another home for the human species off of this planet, in a way that will give us an opportunity to survive as a civilization that kind of an impact. Read the original article at http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1029.html. SCIENTISTS DISCOVER TWO NEW INTERSTELLAR MOLECULES: POINT TO PROBABLE PATHWAYS FOR CHEMICAL EVOLUTION IN SPACE National Radio Astronomy Observatory release 21 June 2004 A team of scientists using the National Science Foundation's Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) has discovered two new molecules in an interstellar cloud near the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. This discovery is the GBT's first detection of new molecules, and is already helping astronomers better understand the complex processes by which large molecules form in space. The 8-atom molecule propenal and the 10-atom molecule propanal were detected in a large cloud of gas and dust some 26,000 light-years away in an area known as Sagittarius B2. Such clouds, often many light-years across, are the raw material from which new stars are formed. "Though very rarefied by Earth standards, these interstellar clouds are the sites of complex chemical reactions that occur over hundreds-of-thousands or millions of years," said Jan M. Hollis of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. "Over time, more and more complex molecules can be formed in these clouds. At present, however, there is no accepted theory addressing how interstellar molecules containing more than 5 atoms are formed." So far, about 130 different molecules have been discovered in interstellar clouds. Most of these molecules contain a small number of atoms, and only a few molecules with eight or more atoms have been found in interstellar clouds. Each time a new molecule is discovered, it helps to constrain the formation chemistry and the nature of interstellar dust grains, which are believed to be the formation sites of most complex interstellar molecules. Hollis collaborated with Anthony Remijan, also of NASA Goddard; Frank J. Lovas of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, MD; Harald Mollendal of the University of Oslo, Norway; and Philip R. Jewell of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, WV. Their results were accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Diagram of the 10-atom molecule propanal and the 8-atom molecule propenal. Image credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF. In the GBT experiment, three aldehyde molecules were observed and appear to be related by simple hydrogen addition reactions, which probably occur on the surface of interstellar grains. An aldehyde is a molecule that contains the aldehyde group (CHO): a carbon atom singly bonded to a hydrogen atom and double-bonded to an oxygen atom; the remaining bond on that same carbon atom bonds to the rest of the molecule. Starting with previously reported propynal (HC2CHO), propenal (CH2CHCHO) is formed by adding two hydrogen atoms. By the same process propanal (CH3CH2CHO) is formed from propenal. After these molecules are formed on interstellar dust grains, they may be ejected as a diffuse gas. If enough molecules accumulate in the gas, they can be detected with a radio telescope. As the molecules rotate end-for-end, they change from one rotational energy state to another, emitting radio waves at precise frequencies. The "family" of radio frequencies emitted by a particular molecule forms a unique "fingerprint" that scientists can use to identify that molecule. The scientists identified the two new aldehydes by detecting a number of frequencies of radio emission in what is termed the K-band region (18 to 26 GHz) of the electromagnetic spectrum. "Interstellar molecules are identified by means of the frequencies that are unique to the rotational spectrum of each molecule," said Lovas. "These are either directly measured in the laboratory or calculated from the measured data. In this case we used the calculated spectral frequencies based on an analysis of the literature data." Complex molecules in space are of interest for many reasons, including their possible connection to the formation of biologically significant molecules on the early Earth. Complex molecules might have formed on the early Earth, or they might have first formed in interstellar clouds and been transported to the surface of the Earth. Molecules with the aldehyde group are particularly interesting since several biologically significant molecules, including a family of sugar molecules, are aldehydes. "The GBT can be used to fully explore the possibility that a significant amount of prebiotic chemistry may occur in space long before it occurs on a newly formed planet," said Remijan. "Comets form from interstellar clouds and incessantly bombard a newly formed planet early in its history. Craters on our Moon attest to this. Thus, comets may be the delivery vehicles for organic molecules necessary for life to begin on a new planet." Laboratory experiments also demonstrate that atomic addition reactions—similar to those assumed to occur in interstellar clouds—play a role in synthesizing complex molecules by subjecting ices containing simpler molecules such as water, carbon dioxide, and methanol to ionizing radiation dosages. Thus, laboratory experiments can now be devised with various ice components to attempt production of the aldehydes observed with the GBT. "The detection of the two new aldehydes, which are related by a common chemical pathway called hydrogen addition, demonstrates that evolution to more complex species occurs routinely in interstellar clouds and that a relatively simple mechanism may build large molecules out of smaller ones. The GBT is now a key instrument in exploring chemical evolution in space," said Hollis.


The GBT is the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope; it is operated by the NRAO. "The large diameter and high precision of the GBT allowed us to study small interstellar clouds that can absorb the radiation from a bright, background source. The sensitivity and flexibility of the telescope gave us an important new tool for the study of complex interstellar molecules," said Jewell. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. Contact: Charles Blue, Public Information Officer Charlottesville, VA Phone: 434-296-0323 E-mail: [email protected] Read the original news release at http://www.nrao.edu/pr/2004/GBTMolecules/. An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/new_molecules_discovered_space.html. SPACESHIPONE MAKES HISTORY: FIRST PRIVATE MANNED MISSION TO SPACE Scale Composites release 21 June 2004

White Knight launch aircraft carries the spaceship, followed by Bob Scherer’s Starship chase aircraft. The world witnessed the dawn of a new space age today, as investor and philanthropist Paul G. Allen and Scaled Composites launched the first private manned vehicle beyond the Earth's atmosphere. The successful launch demonstrated that the final frontier is now open to private enterprise. Under the command of test pilot Mike Melvill, SpaceShipOne reached a record breaking altitude of 328,491 feet (approximately 62 miles or 100 km), making Melvill the first civilian to fly a spaceship out of the atmosphere and the first private pilot to earn astronaut wings. This flight begins an exciting new era in space travel," said Paul G. Allen, sole sponsor in the SpaceShipOne program. "Burt Rutan and his team at Scaled Composites are part of a new generation of explorers who are sparking the imagination of a huge number of people worldwide and ushering in the birth of a new industry of privately funded manned space flight." The historic flight also marks the first time an aerospace program has successfully completed a manned mission without government sponsorship. "Today's flight marks a critical turning point in the history of aerospace," said Scaled Composites founder and CEO Burt Rutan. "We have redefined space travel as we know it."

Image of flight 13P boost from Chase aircraft video.

"Our success proves without question that manned space flight does not require mammoth government expenditures," Rutan declared. "It can be done by a small company operating with limited resources and a few dozen dedicated employees."

SpaceShipOne glides down for approach to the Mojave airport.

Shown just before touchdown at 90 mph, SpaceShipOne returns to the runway. A large crowd watched the momentous flight live from the grounds of the Mojave Airport, joining millions of others around the world who tuned in by television, radio, and the internet. Dignitaries attending the event included U.S. Representative Dana Rohrabacher, the Commanding Officer of Edwards Air Force Base, General Pearson and the China Lake Naval Air Warfare Center, Admiral Venlet; former astronaut Buzz Aldrin, and Konrad Dannenberg, one of Werner Von Braun's lead scientists on this country's


original space development effort. Hundreds of media representatives were also on hand to record history in the making. Contact: Kaye LeFebvre Phone: 661-824-4541 Fax: 661-824-4174 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: http://www.scaled.com Read the original news release at http://www.scaled.com/projects/tierone/062104-2.htm. Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/SS1_touchdown_040621.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/SS1_ALLEN_040620.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/SS1_survey_040619.html http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/sso_rutan_archive.html http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040621201507.oxvx7b5u.html http://spaceflightnow.com/ss1/040621launch.html http://spaceflightnow.com/ss1/status.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/success_spaceshipone.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/critical_failures_spaceshipone_success.html NASA ADMINISTRATOR LAUDS SUCCESSFUL HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT NASA release 2004-199 21 June 2004 The following is a statement from NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe about the first sub-orbital flight of a person on a private spacecraft. "We applaud the remarkable achievement of Burt Rutan, Paul Allen and test pilot Mike Melvill following the first successful suborbital flight of SpaceShip One. "Not unlike the first U.S. and Soviet space travelers in 1961, and China's first successful spaceflight this year, these private citizens are pioneers in their own right. They are doing much to open the door to a new marketplace offering the experience of weightlessness and suborbital space flight to the public. "We congratulate the SpaceShip One team and wish all those who may follow safe flights." For information about NASA's programs of exploration and discovery, visit http://www.nasa.gov. Contact: Glenn Mahone/Bob Jacobs NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1898/1600) ORBITING ASTRONAUT CALLS SPACESHIPONE FLIGHT "FANTASTIC" NASA/JSC release 2004-200 21 July 2004 Astronaut Mike Fincke, who is living and working on board the International Space Station, conveyed his congratulations to the SpaceShipOne team during space-to-ground communications today. "Fantastic!" Fincke said upon hearing the news that test pilot Mike Melvill had successfully completed the first privately funded suborbital human space flight. "We were wishing them the best of luck. We're all in the space business together, helping mankind get off the planet and explore the stars." "We're really proud of them, and please, if possible, extend to them our happiest congratulations," he said to the flight controllers in Mission Control Center at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Later, Fincke discussed the SpaceShipOne achievement with NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe. NASA Television will air the full audio

transmission of Fincke's comments and his conversation with the NASA Administration beginning at 6:00 PM EDT today during the Video File feed. NASA Television is available on AMC-9, transponder 9C, C-Band, located at 85 degrees west longitude. The frequency is 3880.0 MHz. Polarization is vertical, and audio is monaural at 6.80 MHz. For information about NASA TV on the Internet, visit www.nasa.gov/ntv. For more information on Fincke's mission aboard the International Space Station, visit www.nasa.gov/vision/space/features/index.html. Contacts: Melissa Mathews NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1272 James Hartsfield NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX Phone: 281-483-5111 NOVEL CAMERA SET TO PRODUCE THE FIRST DIRECT IMAGES OF EXOPLANETS By Lori Stiles University of Arizona release 22 June 2004 A University of Arizona astronomer and his collaborators are using a novel camera to hunt for extrasolar planets. Their camera has already made stunning images of Saturn's moon, Titan, and discovered an object just 27 times the mass of Jupiter. They hope the camera will be the first to directly photograph faint gas-giants similar to Jupiter in solar systems beyond our own. The project is being funded over the next five years by a $545,000 National Science Foundation award. NSF awarded the highly competitive Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) grant to Associate Professor Laird M. Close. The CAREER program is a foundation-wide activity that offers the NSF's most prestigious awards for new faculty members. The CAREER program recognizes and supports the early career-development activities of those teacher-scholars who are most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century. Close and his graduate students, Beth Biller and Eric Nielsen, will use Close's custom SDI (Simultaneous Differential Imager) cameras on two big telescopes in Arizona and Chile to hunt for planets orbiting other stars. Astronomers have indirectly detected more than 100 planets circling stars in other solar systems, but none have yet been directly imaged. Close plans to solve the problem of detecting faint planets near their billion-times-brighter stars by using a unique, high-contrast, SDI camera. The camera uses adaptive optics, which remove the blurring effects of the Earth's atmosphere and produce extremely sharp images. The SDI camera splits light from a single object into four identical images, then passes the resulting beams through four slightly different methane-sensitive filters. When the filtered light beams hit the detector array, astronomers can subtract the images so the bright star disappears, revealing the massive, methane-rich planet. Professor Close and his collaborators will use SDI to examine 100 young northern- and southern-hemisphere stars that are near Earth. They will hunt for planets as small as 3 Jupiter masses (three times the mass of Jupiter) that are as close as 5 AU from their stars. This is about the distance between Jupiter and the sun. One "AU," or astronomical unit, is the distance between Earth and the sun. The northern SDI camera will be used on the 6.5-meter, UA/Smithsonian, MMT telescope on Mount Hopkins, AZ, in collaboration with Steward Observatory astronomer Donald McCarthy. The southern SDI camera has been installed at the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) 8.2-meter Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. Astronomers Rainer Lenzen and Wolfgang Brandner of the Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (MPIA), Heidelberg, Germany, and Markus Hartung of ESO collaborate on this project. "Our imaging technique should be about 100 times more sensitive than current imaging technologies," Close said. "This will allow us to directly detect sub-


stellar companions to nearby stars. It also will allow us to look for planets in regions where we have not been able to search before but that are likely to be rich with massive planets," he added. "If we find such planets, they can help tell us if those stars have Earth-like planets." In collaboration with Mark McCaughrean of the Astrophysical Institute Potsdam, Close and his German colleagues discovered a 27 Jupiter mass object named Epsilon Indi Bb the first night they used the camera. They reported the finding the journal, Astronomy & Astrophysics. Epsilon Indi Bb is a methane-rich object a mere 12 light years from the sun and just 2.6 AU away from a 43 Jupiter-mass object, Epsilon Indi Ba, that McCaughrean and others reported in another paper in 2003.

Discovery image of the closest brown dwarf binary Eps Indi BaBb.

"Although a bit too massive to be a true planet, Epsilon Indi Bb is just slightly hotter than a convection oven," Close said. "It is the coolest, closest binary 'brown dwarf' ever imaged." Brown dwarfs are too small to shine like a star but too big to be called planets. "This discovery will play an important role in understanding the nature and physics of brown dwarfs," Close said. Last February, during commissioning of the SDI camera in Chile, Hartung, Close and their European colleagues produced the sharpest images ever taken of Saturn¹s largest moon, Titan. One of the super-sharp images shows red surface features and dark surface areas on the moon, which is ringed with a haze of Titan's methane-rich atmosphere, shown as blue. The image has a 360 kilometer resolution at the distance of Saturn, then at about 8.5 AU from Earth. That is, the SDI camera resolves a 200-mile distance on Titan from about 800 million miles away. "The 'red' features may be the icy surface of Titan," Close said. "The dark areas may be liquid methane and ethane lakes." Hartung has also made a movie of Titan rotating, based on SDI data. It is online at http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2004/video/vid-06-04.avi. The journal, Astronomy & Astrophysics, will publish a 2004 paper by Hartung, Tom Herbst of MPIA, and the rest of the SDI team on these Titan images. Titan SDI Images Press Release http://eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2004/pr-09-04.html SDI Camera Page http://exoplanet.as.arizona.edu/~lclose/talks/ins/SDI_NACO.html Titan movie made from SDI images http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2004/video/vid-06-04.avi Contact: Lori Stiles UA News Services Phone: 520-621-1877 Laird M. Close Phone: 520-626-5992 E-mail: [email protected]

Web: http://athene.as.arizona.edu/~lclose/ WORKSHOP ON LOW-FREQUENCY RADAR INVESTIGATIONS Lunar and Planetary Institute release 21 June 2004 The Workshop on Low-Frequency Radar Investigations of Planetary and Terrestrial Environments will be held February 7-10, 2005, at the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), Houston, Texas. For information regarding the purpose and scope and workshop schedule, please refer to the first announcement at http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/radar2005/. To subscribe to a mailing list to receive electronic reminders relating to the meeting via e-mail, please submit an electronic Indication of Interest form (available at the meeting Web site) by August 20, 2004. NEW ADDITIONS TO THE ASTROBIOLOGY INDEX By David J. Thomas http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/ 22 June 2004 Astrobiology and planetary engineering articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles1.html Astrobiology Magazine, 2004. Great terraforming debate, part IV: walking naked on the Red Planet. Astrobiology Magazine. Astrobiology Magazine, 2004. Great terraforming debate, part V: the United Nations of Mars. Astrobiology Magazine. Astrobiology Magazine, 2004. Great terraforming debate, part VI: questions [about] living on Mars. Astrobiology Magazine. Astrobiology Magazine, 2004. Great terraforming debate, part VII: questions [about] the martian future. Astrobiology Magazine. L. Mullen, 2004. Planetary uncertainty principle. Astrobiology Magazine. Human space flight articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles3.html President's Commission on Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy, 2004. Moon to Mars: what's beyond? Astrobiology Magazine. Evolution (biological, chemical and cosmological) articles http://www.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/astrobiology/online_articles5.html R. R. Britt, 2004. Earth hit by neighbor in making of Moon. Space.com. National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 2004. New molecules discovered in interstellar space. Universe Today. CASSINI STATUS REPORTS NASA/JPL releases Cassini-Huygens Mission Status Report NASA/JPL release 2004-156, 17 June 2004 After completing a successful trajectory correction maneuver on Wednesday, the Cassini spacecraft is now on its final approach to Saturn. The spacecraft is operating normally and is in excellent health. The maneuver was necessary to adjust the spacecraft's course to achieve the desired ring plane crossing conditions on June 30. Cassini will pass through a known gap between two of Saturn's rings, called the F and G rings. The region of passage through the ring plane was searched for hazards with the best Earth- and space-based telescopes and by Cassini itself. To protect the spacecraft from particles too small to be detected from Earth, Cassini will be turned to use its high-gain antenna as a shield. "This should be our final approach maneuver. It's on to Saturn and orbit insertion," said Earl Maize, deputy program manager for the Cassini-Huygens mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.


During Wednesday's maneuver, Cassini's main engine burned for 38 seconds to slow the spacecraft by about 3.6 meters per second (about 8 miles per hour). In the next few days, mission managers will evaluate the tracking data to ensure the spacecraft is on the correct path for the Saturn encounter. All indications show everything is on target. Subsequent maneuvers are possible should tracking data indicate they are needed to correct the course of the spacecraft.

This Cassini image hints at the split personality of Saturn's 1,436 kilometer (892 mile)-wide moon Iapetus. The Voyager spacecraft first imaged this curious yin-yang moon, with its light and dark hemispheres. The dark hemisphere is the side of Iapetus that leads in its orbit. In this view, both light and dark areas are visible. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft's narrow angle camera on May 23, 2004, from a distance of 20.2 million kilometers (12.5 million miles) from Iapetus. The image scale is 12 kilometers (75 miles) per pixel. The image was magnified to aid visibility.

Saturn’s magnificent rings show some of their intricate structure in this image taken on May 11, 2004, by the Cassini spacecraft’s narrow angle camera. Although they appear to be solid structures, the rings are composed of billions of individual particles, each one orbiting the planet on its own path.

Cassini Significant Events NASA/JPL release, 10-16 June 2004 The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Goldstone tracking station on Wednesday, June 16th. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent state of health and is operating normally. Information on the present position and speed of the Cassini spacecraft may be found on the "Present Position" web page located at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/operations/present-position.cfm.

On Friday, June 11th, 2004, Cassini made its first encounter with a member of the Saturn system. This week's Phoebe encounter, the only flyby of an outer Saturnian satellite in the mission, and the first close flyby ever of an irregular Saturnian satellite, was spectacularly successful! Cassini came within approximately 2,068 kilometers of the dark moon. It has been 23 years since the Voyager 2 flyby of Phoebe in 1981 at 2.2 million kilometers, more than 1,000 times farther away. Since all of the optical remote sensing instruments were pointing towards Phoebe during the flyby, it was not until several hours later that the spacecraft turned to relay the data back to Earth. The signal was received on Saturday, June 12th, through the Deep Space Network antennas in Madrid, Spain and Goldstone, California. Five instruments reported taking significant data: the Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS), Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS), RADAR, Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS), and the Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS). These instruments returned a wealth of scientific data on this tortured and battered moon, thanks to the success of the Live Update process that enabled a last minute modification in the pointing of the spacecraft to more accurately target Phoebe. Further analysis of the data over the next several weeks will begin to unravel the moon's past and possible age and origin, resolve its mass and physical properties, and begin to shed light on the moon's composition, surface properties, and topography. VIMS will provide the first ever resolved spectra of the surface of Phoebe, up to 0.5 km/pixel at closest approach, with full range 0.4 to 5-micron spectra. This data will be used to derive compositional maps of Phoebe's surface. Phoebe is an exceptionally interesting target for CIRS, due to its unusual surface composition compared to most of the icy satellites and its relatively warm temperatures, which will provide high signal to noise data. CIRS performed compositional and thermal observations to assist in identifying Phoebe's origins and surface properties including global mapping of composition and both day and night temperature distributions. UVIS measured Phoebe's ultraviolet surface reflectance, providing the first ultraviolet albedo map of this interesting body. The UVIS measurements will aid in understanding Phoebe's compositional makeup and distribution of volatiles. RADAR team members were excited, as it has been a long time between observations. The last opportunity was 5 years ago at the time of the Earth flyby in June of 1999. RADAR observations of Phoebe penetrated to between 2 cm and 20 cm, and will constrain the bulk density and/or the relative ice cleanliness in the upper layer of regolith. This along with volume derived from imaging data will help determine if it is a highly porous "rubble pile"


based on its low density, or a more compact body as might be suggested from its roughly spherical shape. The density value will also be used to constrain its composition and indicate the rough proportions of rock and ice in its make-up. ISS will contribute multi-color mapping of almost the entire surface at 0.3 to 2.1 kilometers per pixel resolution. The first high-resolution images of Phoebe show a scarred surface, covered with craters of all sizes and large variations of brightness across the surface, giving strong evidence that the tiny moon may be rich in ice and covered by a thin layer of darker material. Phoebe is a world of dramatic landforms, with landslides and linear structures such as grooves, ridges and chains of pits. Although working groups must convene to discuss and refine conclusions, the Cassini science community and flight team are extremely pleased and excitement is running high. This attitude is reflected in the response of the general public to this event.

What caused the unusual light and dark layers on Saturn's moon Phoebe? The layers were discovered just Friday during the Cassini spacecraft flyby of the small moon. Such layering is particularly evident on the crater just above the image center, where alternating light and dark material makes this crater appear particularly structured. Cassini scientists speculate that such layering might result from an impact where a dark surface layer becomes intertwined with a lighter subsurface ice layer. The above image spans about 80 kilometers and was taken when Cassini was only about 13,000 kilometers from Phoebe. On June 14, a Cassini picture of Phoebe was Astronomy Picture of the Day. Also last week the flyby achieved the top science story spot on the Google web site. JPL has released multiple press releases and images, and CNN.com, NASA Ames Research Center, and ESA published additional articles. Go to http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov to access these items. Links to other sites referenced in this status report are listed below. Astronomy Picture of the Day If "today" for you is no longer June 14, 2004, then go to http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040614.html. Google http://news.google.com/news/en/us/technology.html CNN.com: Space probe fly-by of Saturn's moon, June 11, 2004 http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/06/11/saturn.moon/index.html NASA Scientist Hopes to Explain Saturn's Mysterious "Black" Moon, June 9, 2004 http://www.arc.nasa.gov/aboutames-pressrelease-print.cfm?id=15000128e Cassini-Huygens looks at Phoebe's distant past, European Space Agency, 14 June 2004 http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMNL63VQUD_index_0.html The "quick look" immediately after Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM)-21 showed the burn duration was 38.38 sec, giving a change in velocity of

3.68 meters/second. The SOI critical sequence was also successfully uplinked to the Command and Data Subsystem's main memory. The critical sequence is on board and waiting for the "activate" command which will be radiated this coming Thursday, June 17, 2004. Additional on-board instrument activities included a Radio and Plasma Wave Science instrument Periodic Instrument Maintenance. In the last week, 994 ISS images were obtained and were distributed along with 1160 VIMS cubes. The total number of ISS images acquired since the start of Approach Science is now 11976, and the number of VIMS cubes is 4085. Sequence development activities are proceeding on schedule. The official port #2 for Science Operations Plan (SOP) Implementation of tour sequences S29 and S30 occurred this week, as well as the official port #1 for tour sequences S31 and S32. All products have been merged and handed to the ACS team for the end-to-end pointing validation. Preliminary port #1 for SOP Update for tour sequence S04 occurred this week. The products were merged and reports delivered to the instrument team. As part of the Aftermarket process for S06, an assessment meeting was held. Since changes to the sequence were minimal, they were determined to fit within the available resources. The S02 background sequence and Probe Checkout #14 sequence were approved at the S02 Sequence Approval meeting. Both files will be uplinked to the spacecraft next week. S02 begins execution on Saturday June 19. The Probe Checkout activity is designed to simulate to release of the probe from the orbiter. In support of SOI activities, a Playback Assessment Meeting has been scheduled for July 2. The purpose of this meeting is for the instruments to report whether or not they found the SOI playback to be sufficient, based on pre-determined criteria. This is part of the contingency plan to ensure success of the overall orbit insertion activity. Outreach activities include the formal release of the "Reading, Writing, and Rings" lesson set for grades 3 and 4. This release marks the culmination of development on Cassini's blended language arts and science lesson sets for elementary school classrooms. All materials are now available to download from the education section of the Cassini web site. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter. For the latest images and more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. Contact: Carolina Martinez Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Phone: 818-354-9382 Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/06/14/cassinimission.ap/index.html http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/phoebe_unveiled_040615.html http://www.space.com/spacenews/businessmonday_040621.html http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/cassini_scitues_040622.html http://spaceflightnow.com/cassini/ http://spaceflightnow.com/cassini/040617tcm21.html http://spaceflightnow.com/cassini/040618ir.html http://spaceflightnow.com/cassini/040621rings.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/saturns_southern_storms.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/swirling_cloudtops_saturn.html http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/cassini_view_iapetus.html


MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES NASA/JPL/MSSS release 10-16 June 2004 The following new images taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft are now available. Kunowsky Crater (Released 10 June 2004) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/06/10/index.html 10 Weeks of Change (Released 11 June 2004) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/06/11/index.html Dunes and Wind Streaks (Released 12 June 2004) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/06/12/index.html Gullied Trough Wall (Released 13 June 2004) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/06/13/index.html Martian Gullies (Released 14 June 2004) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/06/14/index.html Defrosting North (Released 15 June 2004) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/06/15/index.html Hellas Banded Terrain (Released 16 June 2004) http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/06/16/index.html All of the Mars Global Surveyor images are archived at http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/index.html. Mars Global Surveyor was launched in November 1996 and has been in Mars orbit since September 1997. It began its primary mapping mission on March 8, 1999. Mars Global Surveyor is the first mission in a long-term program of Mars exploration known as the Mars Surveyor Program that is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO. MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES NASA/JPL/ASU release 14-18 June 2004 Meridiani Crater in Day and Night (Released 14 June 2004) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20040614A.html Ares Valles: Night and Day (Released 15 June 2004) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20040615A.html Lomonosov Crater, Day and Night (Released 16 June 2004) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20040616A.html Channel by Day and Night (Released 17 June 2004) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20040617A.html Ius Chasma by Day and Night (Released 18 June 2004) http://themis.la.asu.edu/zoom-20040618A.html All of the THEMIS images are archived at http://themis.la.asu.edu/latest.html. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

SMILE! ROSETTA'S SELF-PORTRAIT ESA release 18 June 2004

[http://www.esa.int/export/images/0Rosetta_large.jpg]

ESA's Rosetta comet-chaser has photographed itself in space at a distance of 35 million kilometers from Earth. The CIVA imaging camera system on the Philae lander returned this image as part of its testing in May 2004. The back of a solar panel is seen here, with contours on the panel are illuminated by sunlight and surfaces of the spacecraft main body are recognizable at lower right. The CIVA imaging system consists of six identical micro-cameras which will take panoramic pictures of the comet's surface, when Rosetta arrives at its target in ten years' time. A spectrometer will also study the composition, texture and albedo (reflectivity) of samples collected from the surface. Read the original news release at http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP/SEM8RA3VQUD_index_0.html. An additional article on this subject is available at http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/rosetta_self_portrait.html. NASA'S STARDUST SPACECRAFT REVEALS SURPRISING ANATOMY OF A COMET NASA/JPL release 2004-154 17 June 2004 Findings from a historic encounter between NASA's Stardust spacecraft and a comet have revealed a much stranger world than previously believed. The comet's rigid surface, dotted with towering pinnacles, plunging craters, steep cliffs, and dozens of jets spewing violently, has surprised scientists. "We thought Comet Wild 2 would be like a dirty, black, fluffy snowball," said Stardust Principal Investigator Dr. Donald Brownlee of the University of Washington, Seattle. "Instead, it was mind-boggling to see the diverse landscape in the first pictures from Stardust, including spires, pits and craters, which must be supported by a cohesive surface." Stardust gathered the images on January 2, 2004, when it flew 236 kilometers (about 147 miles) from Wild 2. The flyby yielded the most detailed, high-resolution comet images ever.


These 12 images are a good representation of the closest images of comet Wild 2. The temporal sequence starts at the upper left and continues left to right on the first three rows. The overexposed and out-of-sequence images at the bottom are long exposures taken for autonomous tracking and yield the best jet images. All images were scaled to a constant image scale.

This image and diagram show the comet Wild 2, which NASA's Stardust spacecraft flew by on January 2, 2004. The picture on the left is the closest short exposure of the comet, taken at an11.4-degree phase angle, the angle between the camera, comet and the Sun. The listed names on the right are those used by the Stardust team to identify features. "Basin" does not imply an impact origin. "We know Wild 2 has features sculpted by many processes. It may turn out to be typical of other comets, but it is unlike any other type of solar system body," Brownlee said. He is lead author of one of four Stardust papers appearing in the Friday, June 18, issue of Science. "We're fortunate that nature gave us such a rich object to study." Stardust images show pinnacles 100 meters tall (328 feet), and craters more than 150 meters deep (492 feet). Some craters have a round central pit surrounded by ragged, ejected material, while others have a flat floor and straight sides. The diameter of one large crater, called Left Foot, is one fifth of the surface of the comet. Left Foot is one kilometer (0.62 mile) across, while the entire comet is only five kilometers (3.1 miles) across.

"Another big surprise was the abundance and behavior of jets of particles shooting up from the comet's surface. We expected a couple of jets, but saw more than two dozen in the brief flyby," said Dr. Benton Clark, chief scientist of space exploration systems, Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver. The team predicted the jets would shoot up for a short distance, and then be dispersed into a halo around Wild 2. Instead, some super-speedy jets remained intact, like blasts of water from a powerful garden hose. This phenomenon created quite a wild ride for Stardust during the encounter. "Stardust was absolutely pummeled. It flew through three huge jets that bombarded the spacecraft with about a million particles per second," said Thomas Duxbury, Stardust project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. Twelve particles, some larger than a bullet, penetrated the top layer of the spacecraft's protective shield. The violent jets may form when the Sun shines on icy areas near or just below the comet's surface. The solid ice becomes a gas without going through a liquid phase. Escaping into the vacuum of space, the jets blast out at hundreds of kilometers per hour.

A 10 micron-diameter microcrater on lunar glass shows a smooth central pit surrounded by a zone of ejected material. Although much smaller, this crater form, common for centimeter and smaller craters on the Moon, is an intriguing analog to pit-halo craters such as Rahe seen on comet Wild 2. The pit-halo depressions on Wild 2 formed in a rigid material under microgravity conditions. The Stardust team theorizes sublimation and object hits may have created the comet's distinct features. Some features may have formed billions of years ago, when life began on Earth, Brownlee said. Particles collected by Stardust during the Wild 2 encounter may help unscramble the secrets of how the solar system formed. Stardust was launched in 1999. It is zooming back to Earth with thousands of captured particles tucked inside a capsule. The capsule will make a soft landing in the Utah desert in January 2006. The samples will be analyzed at the planetary material curatorial facility at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston. Comets have been objects of fascination through the ages. Many scientists believe they delivered carbon and water, life's building blocks, to Earth. Yet their destructive potential is illustrated by the widely held theory that a comet or asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs. To view Stardust images on the Internet, visit http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov or http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/.


Stardust, part of NASA's Discovery Program of low-cost, highly focused science missions, was built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems and is managed by JPL for NASA. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Contacts: Jane Platt/D. C. Agle Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Phone: 818-354-0880 Dwayne Brown NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC Phone: 202-358-1726 Additional articles on this subject are available at: http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1024.html http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/06/17/wild.comet/index.html http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/stardust_results_040617.html http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0406/17stardust/ http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/new_surprises_from_stardust_flyby.html End Marsbugs, Volume 11, Number 26.

Documents

Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletterweb.lyon.edu/projects/marsbugs/2004/20040622.pdf · Marsbugs: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 26, 22 June