The Joint Newsletter of
The Seattle Area Chapters of
The National Space Society
NSS Seattle
And
The Mars Society Puget Sound
»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»» April 2000 «««««««««««««««««««««
Volume 2, Issue IV
Presidents Report
Artic Base Update
Shuttle Mission 101
X-38 Flight Test
Difference between Martian Poles
Near and Gamma Ray Bursts
James Naderi New head of Mars Program Office
NASA-European Measurements See Significant Arctic Ozone Loss Release
Strangers In The Night: Ulysses Spacecraft Meets A Comet Release
And The Winner Is.......Galileo
Dust Devils And Landslides Are Rearranging Martian Scenery
Mars Express Mission Overview
From MarsNews.com
Mars Express Orbiter The European Space Agency (ESA) and its member countries have been talking about a mission to Mars ever since the Russian Mars '96 mission failed. That spacecraft carried several European instruments, and the loss to European science was devastating. Mars Express was conceived as a low-cost way to refly those experiments and also carry a lander communications relay that would support missions from 2003 until 2007. The experiments lost on Mars '96 and reflown on Mars Express will significantly advance the understanding of Mars. Mars Express will study the atmosphere and surface for a full Martian year or 687 days with seven high-resolution instruments.Continued...futher down
The National Space Society is an international
membership group
dedicated to furthering the exploration and development of space.
The Seattle
chapter mission is to facilitate Space Activism and all pro-Space
activities; and to provide
a gathering place for space enthusiasts to meet, exchange
information and ideas.
President:
Christopher Erickson aster@wolfenet.com
Vice President: Chris Vancil
CLVANCIL@aol.com
Secretary/Editor:
Randy Rumley
rjrumley@juno.com
Treasurer:
David Stuart
DSTUART@prodigy.net
Chapter meetings are held at 7:00 PM on the second
Sunday of each month, at the
Museum of Flight; parking is available in the lot North of the
museum.
To receive information
regarding upcoming events please send your name and addresses
to: Randy Rumley; 12008 S.E. 223rd Drive Kent, WA 98031
so·journ(sò jûrn), to stay for a time in a place; live
temporarily.
Starting this week, Russians are again aboard MIR breathing life into the little craft that could. The Nations that built and maintained MIR for so long (an unparalleled achievement) have every reason to see this icon preserved, but it is not their governments that make this effort. It is instead, privately funded, and this wake-up call is reportedly playing to the tune of $20,000,000. An important note here is that those investing didn’t wait for next year’s model (ISS). They got a bargain price, but spending no money is cheaper. I for one am going to pay keen attention to what comes of this venture. Companies aren’t always willing to go first, but they won’t risk being last.
Christopher A. Erickson
President, NSS Seattle
Our primary speaker is Dr. Anthony Irving of the University of Washington's Geological Sciences department His talk will be on "Meteorites: How Much Do They Tell Us About Asteroids". He will give an illustrated review of meteorite types, talk about the latest falls and finds, and propose the need for a mission to sample the Asteroid Belt. He will also bring several samples, including a small piece of a Martian meteorite.
Our second speaker is Tanya Harrison, who will be talking about her work as a student on the Mars Millenium Project, and how to live on Mars.
The meeting will be on April 9th (Sunday) at 7:00 PM in the Red Barn classroom at the Museum of Flight. Refreshments are available, bring more if you wish.
Our speaker was Loren Busch of the Seattle Astronomical Society. He gave a talk titled "The care and feeding of your telescope" and discussed the different types of telescopes and what could be done with them. For more information on the Seattle Astronomical Society, visit www.scn.org/ip/sastro/
This meeting is airing on AT&T cable channel 29/77 on March 12th at 7:00PM, so set your recorders.
The International Space Development Conference will be held in Tucson this year. The dates are May 25th 29th. There will be several technical space related programs as well as tours of the Kartchner Caverns, Kitt Peak observatory, the Pima Air and Space Museum, Biosphere 2, and others. Registration is $75 for NSS members, $95 for others, children 14 and under are charged only $10. Register online at www.tucson2000.org, or www.nss.org.
Mars Society Puget Sound Proceedings
The Mars Society was founded in August 1998 and is an international organization dedicated to furthering the goal of the exploration and settlement of the Red Planet.
This will be done by:
Officers of Mars Society Puget Sound
Jim Burk, President
Dustin Green, Vice President
V Mark Tye, Secretary
David Stuart, Treasurer
Randy Rumley, Editor, Sojourner
com Please check out our Mars Society Web site: http://www.marssociety.org/pugetsound
President's Report
This month our chapter is attending the NorWesCon science-fiction convention (special guest is Larry Niven, author and writer for space.com). We will be organizing a panel on NASA vs. Private industry for space & mars missions. We will also participate with NSS Seattle's activities, including manning a table and hosting a room party. In addition, we have one large room given to us (and for the new Seattle Moon Society chapter; more on that below. In June we are organizing a Mars Society chapter meeting / mini-convention in the Eastern Washington area. It will bring together Mars Society chapters in Oregon, Washington State, Idaho, and British Columbia. If you would like to give a talk or present a panel at this event, let us know at marspuget@egroups.com We will be making up a schedule soon and will begin publicity for the event. The Puget Sound region currently boasts two excellent space activism groups, the Mars Society Puget Sound and NSS Seattle. Now a third group is being organized, the Seattle chapter of the international Moon Society. The Moon Society is a new organizaton, but is being assembled from the membership of the Artemis Society, a long running project to land a base on the moon using private means. The founder of ASI and the Moon Society is Gregory Bennett, a former Puget Sound resident who actually founded NorWesCon (what a coincidence!) A few of us have had the pleasure of meeting Greg throughout the years and he's personally asked us to form a moon-focused chapter for this region. The Seattle Moon Society is filing papers and will have its first meeting soon.
Jim Burk
President, Mars Society Puget Sound
Arctic Base update
Flashline Station construction "well underway"
Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station construction continues to proceed according to
schedule. All habitat shell and structural elements are expected to be complete by April
14. The initial test assembly will begin April 15 - 17. If all goes well, the hab should
be completely assembled by May 5. Interior systems installation will continue into May,
with disassembly and shipment occurring in June. Planned completion of shell and
structural assembly at Devon Island is July 20. Infrastructure Composites International
(Infracomp), Inc. and Mesa Fiberglass, Inc. will also serve as the prime contractors for
the interior systems and the exterior "fidelity" items (landing legs, porches,
ladders). The accompanying illustration was taken at the Mesa Fiberglass facility, Friday
March 24, during a visit by Mars Society member Mindy Jacobson and Program Manager Kurt
Micheels. Mindy is a recent aerospace engineering graduate of the University of Colorado
and is employed with Orbital Sciences Corporation in Maryland. She will perform structural
calculations required to verify the hab's behavior relative to changes in temperature and
during high wind conditions. Infracomp is also performing similar calculations in
parallel. Collaboration between Infracomp and the Mars Society, with redundent checks on
performance will ensure safety and long use of Flashline Station. From left to right,
Mindy Jacobson, Mars Society aerospace engineer / structural analyst, John Kunz, Infracomp
project manager and Kurt Micheels, Flashline Station program manager, discuss progress of
the project and construction techniques. The unique fiberglass honeycomb system employed
by Infracomp is clearly visible next to Kurt. Additonal panels can be seen in various
states of fabrication in the background. A total of 9 of the 22' high wall panels were
being assembled when this picture was taken. (Click on image to enlarge view)
Monthly Chapter Meeting Minutes Notes?
Human Spaceflight
News Shuttle mission STS101 STS101 Shuttle Processing Note:
NASA managers completed a thorough review of Space Shuttle and International Space Station
readiness yesterday and confirmed an April 24 launch date. The STS-101 flight crew arrived
at KSC to participate in Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test activities. While Shuttle
processing efforts continue toward an April 24 launch, Shuttle engineers are evaluating an
issue with the power drive unit (PDU) for Atlantis' rudder speed brake. Following a
hydraulic system test last Tuesday, system engineers yesterday identified a higher than
normal pressure reading in the suspect PDU. Ongoing engineering analysis will confirm if
the PDU needs to be replaced. Managers are evaluating plans to perform the work at the
launch pad and currently expect no impact to the launch date. The Shuttle's fuel and
oxidizer loading operations are complete. Over the weekend, workers will complete
replacement of a leaky quick disconnect on auxiliary power unit (APU) No. 3. With plans to
hot fire Atlantis' three APUs on Monday, any work required on the rudder speed brake will
follow that operation. With the addition of mission STS-106 to the manifest, the
assignments originally planned for STS-101 will be split between STS-101 and STS-106. The
STS-101 crew will be responsible for preparing the station for the arrival of the Zvezda
Service Module. Also, the crew will conduct one spacewalk to perform maintenance on the
station and deliver logistics and supplies.
X-38 Intercepts Road Home From Orbit In Successful Flight Test
The path a future space "lifeboat" would take returning from orbit was
successfully navigated today as NASA's X-38 prototype crew return vehicle completed its
fifth atmospheric test flight at the Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif.
"We traveled a road for the first time today that we will soon follow all the way
home from space," said John Muratore, X-38 Crew Return Vehicle Program Manager at the
Johnson Space Center in Houston. "By intercepting the spaceflight return profile, we
verified the X-38's operation in a phase of flight it will encounter as a station
lifeboat. As our tests continue over the next couple of years, they will replicate those
conditions more and more, culminating in a complete return from orbit." In the
highest, fastest and longest test of the X-38 to date, the vehicle was released from
Dryden’s NB-52 airplane at an altitude of 39,000 feet and flew free for 44 seconds,
reaching a speed of over 500 miles per hour before it began to deploy its parachutes.
Opening at the same speed and altitude as it will during a return from space, a 60-foot
diameter drogue parachute first slowed the X-38 to about 70 miles per hour. Then, a
5,500-square foot parafoil began a phased opening, successfully demonstrating a new, more
stable parafoil design recently developed by the X-38 team. The revised parafoil proved
successful in ensuring a smooth ride for the craft during its 11 1/2-minute descent. The
X-38 touched down smoothly on target, even though one of three landing skids did not
deploy. “This is not art; it is now a science.” said Bob Baron, Dryden’s
X-38 project manager. “We understand the dynamics of parafoil deployment and some of
the separation operations of the vehicle, which will play into the development of the X-38
space test vehicle and Crew Return Vehicles.” The test also was the first use of
automatic flight control software aboard the X-38. The new software, developed in a
fraction of the time and cost of past spacecraft software, performed flawlessly. The X-38
is a prototype "lifeboat" for the International Space Station, designed to carry
up to seven passengers home from orbit in an emergency. The project combines proven
technologies -- a shape borrowed in part from a 1970s Air Force project -- with some of
the most cutting-edge aerospace technology available today, such as the most powerful
electric motors ever used to control a spacecraft. The innovative approach is enabling the
X-38 to be developed at a tenth of the cost of past estimates for such a project. Although
the United States leads the development of the X-38, international space agencies also are
participating. Contributing nations include Germany, Belgium, Italy, Netherlands, France,
Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Throughout the rest of this year and 2001, increasingly
complex, uncrewed X-38 atmospheric flight tests will continue at Dryden. A space test of
an uncrewed X-38 is planned for 2002, when a vehicle already under construction at the
Johnson Space Center, Houston, will be released from a Space Shuttle to fly back to Earth.
Deep Space / JPL Mission News
The Difference Between The Martian Poles?
It's The ‘Cheese'
March 8, 2000
New high-resolution images from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft comparing the ice caps at the North and South poles show the difference between the two regions is in the 'cheese'. The North polar cap has a relatively flat, pitted surface that resembles cottage cheese, while the South polar cap has larger pits, trough and flat mesas that give it a holey, Swiss cheese appearance. "Looking like pieces of sliced and broken Swiss cheese, the upper layer of the Martian South polar residual cap has been eroded, leaving flat-topped mesas into which are set circular depressions," said Dr. Peter Thomas of Cornell University, Ithaca, NY and lead author of the paper. "Nothing like this has ever been seen anywhere on Mars except within the South polar cap, leading to some speculation that these landforms may have something to do with the carbon dioxide thought to be frozen in the South polar region." In a paper to be published March 9, 2000, in the journal Nature, members of the Mars Global Surveyor imaging team have described some of the newly discovered differences in polar terrain. "The unusual shapes of the landforms on the North and South polar caps suggest that these regions have had different climates and histories for thousands or perhaps even millions of years," said Thomas. "We are discovering them for the first time because Mars Global Surveyor is working to provide high-resolution views of the tremendously diverse terrain on Mars over all Martian seasons." "These landforms may be telling us what the South polar cap is made of," said Dr. Andrew Ingersoll of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and one of the authors of the paper. "The North residual cap -- the part that survives the summer -- is made of water ice. The South residual cap seems to be made of carbon dioxide or dry ice, but we don't know if this is a veneer a few meters thick or a solid block that extends down 2 or 3 kilometers (1.24 or 1.86 miles). These images may help us decide." The North polar cap is covered mainly by pits, cracks, small bumps and knobs that give it the cottage cheese look. The pits that have developed on the surface are spaced close together relative to the very different depressions in the South polar cap. These pits probably developed slowly over successive spring and summer seasons. "The polar images demonstrate again that understanding Mars' complicated history requires studying many areas in detail, just as understanding the Earth does," Thomas said. The new images can be seen at http://photojournal.nasa.gov/new and http://www.msss.com "If we discovered that both polar caps are mostly water, it would leave a mystery about why there is so little carbon dioxide on Mars. Earth has a lot of carbon dioxide, but creatures living in the ocean have turned it into limestone rocks. Without oceans or life, Mars should have a lot more carbon dioxide on its surface than we seem to be finding," explained Ingersoll.
NEAR And Gamma Ray Bursts
March 9, 2000
Andy Cheng
NEAR Project Scientist
Although the focus of the NEAR mission is on asteroids, NEAR has made an important contribution to the study of cosmic gamma ray bursts as part of the Interplanetary Gamma Ray Burst Network, known as the IPN. Gamma ray bursts are the most powerful explosions in the Universe - exceeding even the exploding stars called supernovae. First discovered in the late 1970’s by defense early warning satellites, gamma ray bursts last for only tens of seconds, but during that brief time they are the brightest gamma ray emissions in the entire sky. The sources of gamma ray bursts are distributed uniformly around the sky, and for decades after their discovery scientists were unsure as to whether most of these sources were exotic objects within our own galaxy or much farther away, at “cosmological” distances (meaning that the sources are so far away that gamma rays, moving at the speed of light, require a significant fraction of the age of the universe to travel to Earth). The farther away the sources of the gamma ray bursts, the greater must be the energy release to explain the brightness of the bursts. If the bursts originated within our galaxy, they would not match the energy releases in supernovae, but as we have learned in recent years that the burst sources are at cosmological distances, they far outshine the supernovae. The IPN has played a key role in this advance, by providing precise localizations of the burst sources rapidly enough to allow identification of their optical and radio counterparts before they fade from view. If the host galaxy can be identified, its red shift can be measured from spectra to find the distance to the burst. The IPN localizes sources by timing the burst detections at spacecraft mutually separated by great distances. If a burst is detected by only two spacecraft, or in other words if there is only one baseline, then the burst source can be anywhere on a ring in the sky. With a third spacecraft in the network, the burst is localized to either of two points in the sky. Before NEAR, the IPN consisted only of a constellation of satellites in Earth orbit plus the Ulysses spacecraft at around 5 AU from the sun, so there was only one interplanetary baseline. NEAR at Eros provides the additional interplanetary baselines that allow the IPN to locate burst sources to within about 3 arc minutes - roughly, the angle subtended by a 1-meter plate at a distance of 1200 meters. This is fine enough to enable detection of optical and radio counterparts to burst sources. Before NEAR became the third leg in the IPN tripod, a total of about 10 cosmological burst sources were discovered and identified. In only a few months of operation within IPN, NEAR has enabled four more source definitions that would otherwise have been impossible. Since the IPN with NEAR now resolves about 1 source per week (including those also localized by other missions), within this year IPN should double the total number of identified sources. This exciting advance has been enabled by NEAR’s gamma ray spectrometer, which was modified after launch (with a software patch) to be able to detect gamma ray bursts. The NEAR spacecraft engineering team also worked hard to refine the accuracy of spacecraft timing to within 100 milliseconds. The upshot is, as NEAR studies Eros over the next year, it is also contributing to the study of gamma ray burst sources. Scientists are still unsure as to how these bursts are produced, but one possibility is that they result from the merger of binary neutron stars - creating a compound object initially about the same size as Eros, but containing more mass than our entire solar system.
JPL Names Naderi As New Head Of Mars Program Office Release
April 7, 2000
Dr. Firouz Naderi has been named manager of the newly created Mars Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, JPL Director Dr. Edward C. Stone has announced. Naderi has been the manager of NASA's Origins Program since 1996. He joined JPL in 1979 and has served as program manager for space science flight experiments and project manager for the NASA Scatterometer project. In addition, he was program manager at NASA Headquarters for the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite program and at JPL for the Mobile Satellite program. The new Mars Program Office will serve as the single point- of-contact for NASA Headquarters at JPL for all Mars exploration efforts. The office will work closely with the NASA Headquarters Mars Directorate Office for the development and implementation of the long-term strategy for the robotic exploration of Mars, as well as for the program's architecture and management of related funding. Naderi's appointment is effective immediately. Born March 25, 1946, in Shiraz, Iran, Naderi holds three degrees in electrical engineering: a bachelor's from Iowa State University, Ames, IA, and a master's and doctorate from the University of Southern California. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. Too bad this wasn’t done 3 years ago after a successful mission (Pathfinder). The Mars ’98 missions could have been a bit more organized and operable. Ed.
NASA-European Measurements See Significant Arctic Ozone Loss Release
April 5, 2000
Ozone losses of more than 60 percent have occurred in the Arctic stratosphere near 60,000 feet (18 kilometer) in one of the coldest winters on record. This is one of the worst ozone losses at this altitude in the Arctic. Investigations into the Arctic stratosphere have provided better insights into the processes that control polar ozone. These insights considerably add to scientists' ability to predict ozone levels in the future as chlorine levels decline as a result of the Montreal Protocol, and as greenhouse gases increase. Climate change in the stratosphere will likely enhance ozone losses in the Arctic winter in the coming decades, even as the amount of chlorine introduced into the atmosphere is decreased, researchers say. This winter, the NASA sponsored SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE) and European Union sponsored Third European Stratospheric Experiment on Ozone (THESEO) obtained measurements of ozone, other atmospheric gases, and particles using satellites, airplanes, large, small and long duration balloons, and ground-based instruments. Scientists from the United States joined with scientists from Europe, Canada, Russia and Japan in mounting the biggest field measurement campaign yet to measure ozone amounts and changes in the Arctic stratosphere. The activities were conducted from November 1999 through March 2000. The total amount of information collected by the international campaign this winter is greater than the information collected in any past polar measurement campaign. Most of the measurements were made near Kiruna, Sweden with additional measurements being made from satellites and a network of stations at mid- and high- northern latitudes. During the winter of 1999-2000, large ozone losses were observed in the Arctic lower stratosphere, measured by a number of instruments and techniques, including a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ozone instrument aboard the high altitude NASA ER-2 aircraft, a civilian variant of the U-2 reconnaissance plane. "Measurements from the NASA ER-2 show ozone in the Arctic region decreasing by about 60 percent between January and mid- March," said ER-2 co-project scientist Dr. Paul A. Newman of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. These measurements are comparable to the large chemical losses at this altitude observed in several winters in the mid- 1990s. The effect on total column ozone was slightly mitigated by the fact that reductions in ozone were smaller above 20 kilometers (66,000 feet). Spacecraft observations by NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer-Earth Probe showed a clear ozone minimum over the polar region during February and March. The average polar column amounts of ozone for the first two weeks of March were 16 percent lower than observed in the early 1980's. High altitude clouds (at about 18 kilometers or 60,000 feet) that exist only at the poles are called "polar stratospheric clouds" or PSCs. They play a unique role in atmospheric ozone loss. The visually beautiful, opalescent clouds form only at the cold temperatures found at the poles. These clouds help trigger the conversion of chlorine from relatively non-reactive forms to a form (chlorine monoxide, or ClO) that, in combination with sunlight, destroys ozone. PSCs were observed to extend widely over the Arctic region from early December to early March. "We were somewhat surprised to see PSCs so early in December," said Dr. Mark Schoeberl, who was the SOLVE co-project scientist for observations made from NASA's DC-8 aircraft. "Some of the PSC types and their locations which we observed in December did not fit within our current understanding." The last PSCs were observed on March 8 by instruments aboard the DC-8, and on March 15 by satellite. The polar stratosphere temperatures were extremely low over the course of this last winter. PSCs can only form in these low temperature regions. At 20 kilometers (66,000 feet) on Jan. 28, the area covered by temperatures low enough to form PSCs was 14.8 million square kilometers (5.7 million square miles), which is larger than the United States. This is the largest-area coverage recorded in more than 40 years of Northern Hemisphere stratospheric analyses. "The polar stratospheric clouds covered a larger area, and persisted for a longer period of time, than for any other Arctic winter during the past 20 years. These conditions heighten our concern regarding possible couplings between climate change and stratospheric ozone depletion," said ozone researcher Dr. Ross Salawitch of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The mixing of polar air into middle latitudes, both during the winter and as the polar circulation broke down in late March, influences ozone levels over the populated middle latitudes. Dilution of ozone-depleted air into latitudes is a major contributor to the long-term mid-latitude decline. These mixing processes have been studied during SOLVE/THESEO-2000 and detailed analysis of these processes continues. For further information visit the SOLVE web site at http://cloud1.arc.nasa.gov/solve/. For supporting images see: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/imagewall/solve.html .
Strangers In The Night: Ulysses Spacecraft Meets A Comet Release
April 5, 2000
During an unplanned rendezvous, the Ulysses spacecraft found itself gliding though the immense tail of Comet Hyakutake, revealing that comet tails may be much, much longer than previously believed. "The odds that Ulysses' flight path would intersect the comet tail were probably less likely than someone breaking the bank at Monte Carlo," said Dr. Edward Smith of NASA' s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, the Ulysses project scientist and a co-investigator for its magnetometer instrument. Before the unexpected encounter, Ulysses was hundreds of millions of kilometers, or miles, away from Comet Hyakutake and far beyond the visible tail. "This tail extends half a billion kilometers (more than 300 million miles). That's more than three times the distance from the Earth to the Sun," said Dr. Nathan Schwadron, of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, a member of one of two Ulysses teams that made the discovery independently of one another. Findings from both teams appear in the April 6 issue of the journal Nature. "This makes it the longest comet tail ever recorded," said Dr. Geraint Jones from Imperial College, London, of the Ulysses magnetometer team. Comet Hyakutake, one of the brightest comets of the 20th century, made a dazzling nighttime appearance in the spring of 1996, when it made a close pass by the Sun. While Ulysses was cruising through space studying the solar wind on May 1, 1996, its data suddenly went wild for a few hours. For example, the solar wind seemed to almost disappear and was replaced by gases not normally found in the solar wind, and the magnetic field in the solar wind was distorted. Since Ulysses scientists were no looking for comets, they did not realize the significance of the data right away. "The discovery was made quite by accident, a bit like finding a needle in a haystack when you weren't even looking for a needle in the first place," said Dr. George Gloeckler of the University of Maryland, principal investigator of the Ulysses solar-wind ion-composition spectrometer team. The instrument studies the content and electrical charge of ionized gases. While his team detected ions typically found in comets, the magnetometer team observed magnetic field directional changes like those associated with comet tails. Comets are of great interest, because they may be the frozen leftovers of the birth of our solar system. They could hold clues to the formation of Earth and life, since one theory holds that comets "seeded" Earth and other planets with the building blocks of life. Comets are made of dirty ice, and as they approach the Sun and heat up, they emit gas and dust, forming gas and dust tails. The gas slows the solar wind and the portion of the magnetic field near the comet. The parts of the magnetic field farther from the comet continue to travel rapidly past it. Magnetic fields can be stretched like rubber bands. The magnetic field is draped around the comet and stretches out behind it in a hairpin shape. Gloeckler is lead author of the Nature paper on the ion findings, along with Schwadron, and Drs. Lennard Fisk and Thomas Zurbuchen, also of the University of Michigan, and Dr. Johannes Geiss of the International Space Science Institute in Switzerland. The other Nature article, on the Ulysses magnetometer findings, was authored by Jones and Professor Andre Balogh of Imperial College and Dr. Timothy Horbury of Queen Mary and Westfield College, London. Jones at Imperial College looked more closely at the magnetic field data because of the publication of the unusual 1996 solar wind event in the Journal of Geophysical Research. It was authored by Dr. Peter Riley, formerly of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, and based on data from the Ulysses solar wind instrument. Jones and Horbury saw that the data looked like a cometary tail, and Jones searched until he found the tail's source -- Hyakutake. Gloeckler and his colleagues noticed the event independently and realized it was cometary material. Ulysses, launched in 1990, is a joint venture of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). The spacecraft studies the Sun from a high-latitude orbit, mostly at right angles to the plane of orbiting planets. Ulysses studies the Sun's magnetic fields, solar winds and cosmic rays near the Sun's North and South Poles, away from the equator, where Earth orbits. Ulysses has no camera, but its ten sophisticated instruments can observe some phenomena not detectable by visible observations. Scientists now know that sensitive instruments, like those found on Ulysses, can detect comet tail particles that are not normally visible. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) manages Ulysses for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. More information on the Ulysses mission is available at: http://ulysses.jpl.nasa.gov and http://helio.estec.esa.nl/ulysses/
And The Winner Is.......Galileo
Release March 27, 2000
NASA's blockbuster Galileo mission will receive what some might call the space world's equivalent of an Academy Award® on Fri., March 31 -- the prestigious Nelson P. Jackson Aerospace Award for outstanding contributions to planetary exploration. The Galileo spacecraft has played a starring role in teaching scientists and the public about Jupiter, its moons and its magnetic environment. The spacecraft was launched in 1989 and arrived at Jupiter in 1995 to begin what was originally designed as a two-year mission. That mission was followed by a two-year sequel, which ended on January 31 of this year, and the long-lived spacecraft has begun yet another sequel, called the Galileo Millennium Mission. The award from the National Space Club will be presented at the annual Goddard Memorial Dinner on Friday in Washington, D.C. at the Washington Hilton Hotel. The Galileo team is being honored, with representation by Dr. Guenter Riegler, director of the Research Program Management Division at NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C., and Galileo Project Manager Jim Erickson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "I'm really thrilled that the members of the Galileo team are being recognized by their peers," Erickson said. Recipients of the Jackson Award are selected annually by the National Space Club for their contributions to the astronautics, aircraft and missile industries. The award is a memorial to the late Nelson P. "Pete" Jackson, one of the founders and past presidents of the organization. Additional information on the Galileo mission is available at http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov .
Dust Devils And Landslides Are Rearranging Martian Scenery
Release March 13, 2000
New images from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft have caught dust devils and landslides in the act of changing the surface of Mars, giving scientists more clues about how Mother Nature's vandals are leaving their mark on the changing Martian landscape. Since Mars Global Surveyor arrived in September 1997, its high-resolution camera has been snapping pictures of puzzling dark streaks and lines that seemed to defy simple explanation -- until now. In December 1999, scientists had their first solid evidence, a picture of a dust devil caught like a graffiti artist in the act of etching the surface of Mars. "Dust devils are spinning columns of air that move across the landscape and look somewhat like miniature tornadoes," said Dr. Ken Edgett, a staff scientist at Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, CA. "We've captured them in the midst of sweeping up dust and leaving behind a dark streak. This is the 'smoking gun' that explains the wild, sometimes twisted 'spaghetti' of dark streaks and trails we have been seeing. I get the feeling when I look at these pictures that something is 'moving'. These things send shivers down my spine." Dust devils are a common occurrence in dry and desert landscapes on Earth as well as Mars. They form when the ground heats up during the day, warming the air immediately above the surface. As the warmed air nearest the surface begins to rise, it spins. The spinning column begins to move across the surface and picks up loose dust. The dust makes the vortex visible and gives it the "dust devil" or tornado-like appearance. On Earth, dust devils typically last for only a few minutes and the same is probably true for Mars. "What is exciting about this dust devil finding is that we are witness to one of the processes that help explain cause of some of the seasonal variations in the bright and dark surfaces on Mars. The dust devils remove some of the bright dust and cause the surfaces to appear to darken in the spring and summer seasons. Each little dust devil that runs across the landscape makes the surface in that region just a little bit darker," Edgett explained. "This isn't happening everywhere, but it seems to be most common in the mid-latitudes of Mars. In recent weeks, we have seen as many as five to 10 devils at a time running across the floors of the giant impact basins of Hellas and Argyre." Scientists have known for decades that winds change the surface of Mars, but Global Surveyor has also captured other dark streaks that scientists now believe are the result of recent landslides. "This is the first time we have been able to detect from orbit a change caused by some other geologic process. Gravity is acting to move loose dust and sand down these crater slopes," said Edgett. "It's not a big surprise, but it is exciting to have captured the results of several new landslides that occurred in less than one Martian year." Mars Global Surveyor's camera is observing how often these streaks form, which will provide scientists with some idea of the rate at which Martian slopes are modified. "Knowing how long it takes for any process that changes the landscape to occur can tell us more about the how the planet came to look the way it does today," said Edgett. The new images can be seen at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/new and http://www.msss.com
Earth Science: ACRIMSAT Mission Status
April 3, 2000
NASA's Active Cavity Irradiance Monitor Satellite (ACRIMSAT) today began taking raw science measurements of the Sun's total energy output following successful pointing of the spacecraft and its instrument. ACRIMSAT, launched Dec. 20, 1999, is in a Sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of about 695 kilometers (429 miles). It measures "solar irradiance," or the total amount of the Sun's energy that enter's Earth's atmosphere-ocean system. ACRIMSAT is part of a multi-decade effort to understand variations in the Sun's output and resulting effects on Earth. "All systems are go and operating within specifications," said ACRIMSAT project manager Ron Zenone of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We look forward to extending the scientific database on solar measurements." Since its launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., many in-flight characterization tests of the spacecraft and instrument have been conducted. The performance of the spacecraft's attitude-control subsystem, which governs ACRIMSAT's orientation in space, was adjusted through changes to flight software to improve attitude stability. The program's next milestone is a review of spacecraft operations. The manufacturer of the spacecraft, Orbital Sciences Corp., McLean, Va., is currently operating ACRIMSAT. Following a successful "hand-over" review, satellite operations will be taken over by JPL for the five-year mission. Previous measurements have demonstrated that the total radiant energy from the Sun was not a constant. However, the solar variability was so slight (0.1 percent) that continuous monitoring by state-of-the-art instrumentation is necessary. Researchers theorize that as much as 25 percent of the anticipated global warming of Earth may be solar in origin. Small changes in total solar irradiance by the Sun over a century or more may cause significant climate changes on Earth. The ACRIMSAT mission is funded by the Earth Science Programs Office at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The instrument and spacecraft subcontract is managed by the ACRIMSAT Project Office at JPL. Principal investigator is Dr. Richard Willson of Columbia University's Center for Climate Systems Research, Coronado, Calif., and instrument scientist is Roger Helizon of JPL. ACRIMSAT spacecraft program manager is Tom Itchkawich of Orbital Sciences Corp. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Mars Express Mission Overview –Continued from page 1
From MarsNews.com
or surface study, Mars Express will carry four instruments. A High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) will make possible topographic maps of Mars & capture images up to a 12-meter resolution. An IR Mapping Spectrometer (aka OMEGA) will conduct rock & soil analyses in infrared. A Radio Science Experiment (RSE) will measure Mars's interior composition and geodesy. A Sub-surface Sounding Radar / Altimeter (SSRA) will measure the depth and composition of the Martian regolith. To study the atmosphere, Mars Express will carry three instruments. An Energetic Neutral Atoms Analyzer (or ASPERA) will study the upper atmosphere and examine the effects of the solar wind on it. A Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS) will study the atmosphere in infrared, enabling 3D charts of temperature & pressure to be produced. A UV Atmospheric Spectrometer (aka SPICAM) will measure the atmospheric composition and structure. Beagle 2 Lander In addition, the United Kingdom is proposing to fly a lander along with the Mars Express orbiter. The lander, known as the Beagle 2 (the first Beagle was Charles Darwin's ship on which he discovered the theory of evolution), would conduct a search for life on Mars. It will use a landing system similar to that of Mars Pathfinder, a parachute / airbag combination. The lander also will be very lightweight, only 60 kg compared to Pathfinder's 200 kg. It will carry a robotic arm, stereo color imager, a monochrome video camera, a very small rover (the "Mole"), and a small drilling unit (the "Grinder"). The Beagle 2 mission will try to answer three questions: Does Mars have water, carbonates and organic matter? If so, the conditions for past life on Mars are fulfilled. Does the organic matter have an ordered structure and more of isotope carbon-12 than the carbonates have? If so, then life may have already developed on Mars in the past. Finally, does methane, the simplest carbon molecule of all, exist in the Martian atmosphere? If so, then life is active NOW on Mars! The "Mole" is an ingenious, extremely small and lightweight rover. It measures just one foot in length and will be deployed using a "launch tube" near a large rock by the lander's robotic arm. The Mole will then slide out of the tube and burrow into the rock and collect a sample. A cable will run back to the lander so that the Mole and its sample can be retrieved, the sample studied, and the Mole reused! The "Grinder" is a very small drill designed to remove the dust and weathered material from rocks so that another instrument, a Mossbauer spectrometer, can be used on the rock to analyze its composition. The Grinder can also extract core samples up to 5 centimeters from inside a rock, which can then be returned to the lander for analysis.
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