Conference 7.286::space

        The unmanned VIKING probes of the 1970s became the first vehicles
    to successfully land upon and study the surface of the planet Mars.

        VIKING 1 was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on August 20,
    1975 on a TITAN 3E-CENTAUR D1 rocket.  The probe went into Martian
    orbit on June 19, 1976, and the lander set down on the western slopes 
    of Chryse Planitia on July 20, 1976.  It soon began its programmed
    search for Martian micro-organisms (there is still debate as to whether 
    the probes found life there or not), and sent back incredible color
    panoramas of its surroundings.  One thing scientists learned was that
    Mars' sky was pinkish in color, not dark blue as they originally
    thought (the sky is pink due to sunlight reflecting off the reddish
    dust particles in the thin atmosphere).

        The VIKING 1 orbiter kept functioning until August 7, 1980, when 
    it ran out of attitude-control propellant.  The lander was switched
    into a weather-reporting mode, where it had been hoped it would keep
    functioning through 1994; but after November 13, 1982, an errant 
    command had been sent to the lander accidentally telling it to shut
    down until further orders.  Communication was never regained again,
    despite engineers efforts through May of 1983.  I have talked to some
    NASA personnel on USENET's sci.space who said that the VIKING 1 lander
    was shut down deliberately to save on costs.  I hope that this was
    not the reason, but these people seemed in the know on the subject.    

        VIKING 2 was launched on September 9, 1975, and arrived in Martian 
    orbit on August 7, 1976.  The lander touched down on September 3, 1976
    in Utopia Planitia.  It accomplished essentially the same tasks as its 
    sister lander, with the exception that its seisometer worked, and 
    recorded one marsquake.  The orbiter had a series of attitude-control 
    gas leaks in 1978, which prompted it being shut down in July.  The 
    lander was shut down on April 12, 1980.

        The next United States Mars mission will be the Mars Observer, 
    scheduled for launch in 1992 (See Topic 528).  Although there are no 
    definite U.S. Mars probe plans after that, some possibilities are a 
    lander which will return samples of Martian soil to Earth (this may be 
    a cooperative project with the Soviets), and a rover/walker vehicle,
    in preparation for a manned mission, which may also be international
    in scope.

        Larry

    I seem to recall a minor controversy over the shutdown of the Vikings.
    IF it were my program to administer, I would have contracted some
    educational institution to maintain the systems and therefore avoided
    the shut down flap.  I do not understand why institutions are not
    invited to participate in the role of maintenance of these systems
    till they die.  After a mission meets its contracted objectives,
    why can't these be placed up for grabbs by educational activities
    for monitoring the continuing data stream, demonstrating to the
    students the limits of the software/hardware interface, recognition
    techniques for deviations of normal data streams, and general awareness
    of a functional information source.  Les
    

    Thanks Larry for the information ******
    
    Cheers,
    
    	Chris

    	An interesting side note:  VIKING 1's lander has been designated
    the Thomas A. Mutch Memorial Station in honor of the late leader of the
    lander imaging team.  The National Air and Space Museum in Washington,
    D.C. is entrusted with the safekeeping of the Mutch Station Plaque
    until it can be attached to the lander by a manned expedition.
    
    	Larry
    

    I presume NASA published a report on the findings of the Viking
    landers. Does anyone know if such a report is available and how
    to get a copy?
    
    Also, I would expect that various institutions have studied the
    data returned. Is there a single place from which the reports
    from those studies may be ordered? Does anyone out in Notes-land 
    know which institutions are involved in such studies?
    
    Thanks!
    
    John B.

    Re .5
    
    John,  there is a very good book that discusses the results from
    the Mars Viking missions.
    
    	The Surface Of Mars
    	By Michael H. Carr
    	Copy Right (c) 1981 by Yale University
    	The Murray Printing Co., Westford Mass. USA
    
    I am not sure if it is still in printing. Good luck in finding it.
    
    Gil

    Thanks, Gil!
    
    I'll order a copy and post the results!
    
    John B.

    I ask NASA (I think JPL) for info on viking. they sent me a nice
    pamplet. I will see if I can locate it. It told of the shutdown. 

Just a comment on the early notes of this topic:

Remember that having a spacecraft active requires resources not just for
analysis and command (which probably some research groups at Universities would
be happy to supply!) but also time on the DSN to communicate with the spacecraft.
Thus, while I agree that it is a damn shame to shut these things down, the
decision is not *entirely* stupid (in the vein of "Jeez, they shut it down to
save money, but it would not cost anything if some private group took it over").

Burns

    
    
    Rather than switch it down why not just put it into hibernation
    or communicate only once a month with it ??
    
    Chris

Article        35467
From: hangfore@backinblack (John Stevenson)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Size of rocks on Mars?
Date: 11 Sep 91 17:43:21 GMT
Sender: [email protected]
Organization: TRW Inc., Redondo Beach, CA
 
In article <[email protected]> [email protected]  
(Henry Spencer) writes:

> In article <[email protected]> hangfore@backinblack (John  
Stevenson) writes:
> >Based on these estimates of rock size-frequency, we developed a straight  
> >forward method for autonomous landing on Mars (avoiding these large rocks).  
> >These method is described in AAS 90-050...
> 
> Could you summarize it briefly?  I'm sure a lot of people would be interested
> (e.g. I am), and not all of us :-) get AAS proceedings.
 
I'm glad you asked. :) The primary landing scenario was based on the
request by NASA that the lander land in a specific "certified" area.
This area would be certified to be free of hazards by the one-meter
resolution images provided by an orbiter which was part of the
mission.  Since the rock-size frequency distributions suggested areas
clear of hazards would be quite small (on the order of 5-10 meters in
radius), conventional inertial guidance would not provide sufficient
accuracy to support this scenario. 

After trade studies of many possible techniques to increase the
navigation accuracy, we settled on doing a navigation update during
the final phases of parachute and powered descent with visible light
snapshots of the Martian surface.  The approach we recommended was to
use feature recognition algorithms develop here at TRW to match the
terrain to the on-orbit images recorded previously.  The features to
be recognized were shadows of the large rocks on the surface. 

Photographs by a descending helicopter over rocky desert terrain
(called "Mars Hill") were made available by NASA.  These images were
used to verify the feature recognition algorithms, computer resources
required, and navigation update design.  The accuracy of the
navigation update was on the order of a pixel dimension of the
"on-orbit" imagery.  Over a thousand synthetic scenes based on the
rock-size frequency distributions were generated to test the
likelihood of a false match to the terrain. The "best" mismatch we
could find in these scenes was still significantly quite different
from the correct match.  A second scenario using the feature
recognition of rock shadows to autonomously identify and avoid rocks
during landing was also found valid, though this approach was not the
preferred NASA approach. 

Finally, as Frank Crary pointed out, "the slopes near interesting
geological features and the possibility of large regions of sand/dust,
which could support an uncertain pressure" effect landing safety.  The
"certified landing site ensured there would be no unacceptable slopes.
I am unaware, however, of a method to use on-orbit imagery to certify
a landing site for unacceptable sand/dust pits. Whew!!! 
 
John Stevenson
[email protected]
 

    Seems to me I recall some talk of Aricebo bouncing radar off the
    selected areas as well.  While it is much to far away to get detailed
    imaging, the scatter of the returning radar gave some indication of the
    general smoothness of the area.
    
    Burns
    

From:	DECWRL::"[email protected]"  8-FEB-1992 
        01:55:47.78
To:	[email protected]
Subj:	Mars CD-ROMs Now Available

                     =====================================
                               MARS MIDM CD-ROMs
                               February 7, 1992
                     =====================================

     Six new Mars CD-ROMs have been released to the public.  The
Planetary Data System (PDS) at JPL, the Mars Observer project and the
U.S. Geological Survey has put together Mosaicked Digital Image Models
(MIDM) of the Martian surface taken by the Viking Orbiter spacecraft. 
This CD-ROM set is not to be confused with the Viking Orbiter CD-ROM
set released earlier.  The Viking Orbiter CD-ROM contains raw Viking
images only.  The MIDM CD-ROMs are images compiled from the raw Viking
images which were further processed to reduce radiometric and
geometric distortions, and to form geodetically controlled mosaicked
images.  The data are stored as digital maps at 1/256 degree/pixel
resolution (231 meters) and 1/64 degree/pixel resolution (943 meters).
Also included are air-brushed maps of the entire planet of Mars at
1/16 degree/pixel resolution (3.69 km). 

     The CD-ROMs can be obtained from the National Space Science Data
Center (NSSDC) at the Goddard Space Flight Center.  The "nominal"
charge is $20 for the first CD-ROM, and $6 for any additional CD-ROM
in an order.  However, NSSDC may waive this charge for a small amount
of data requested by bona fide research users, government
laboratories, etc.  School teachers who are unable to pay may be
helped on a case by case basis, and/or as resources permit.
Researchers funded by NASA's Solar System Exploration Division can
also obtain the CD-ROMs through the Planetary Data System at JPL. 

     NSSDC's address is:

	National Space Science Date Center
	Goddard Space Flight Center
	Greenbelt, Maryland 20771
	Tel: (301) 286-6695

        Email address:   [email protected]

     The set of six MIDM CD-ROMs have the following contents:

        Volume 1: Vastitas Borealis Region of Mars.  373 images convering
                  the entire north polar region southward from the pole to
                  a latitude of 42.5 degrees North.

        Volume 2: Xanthe Terra of Mars.  412 images covering the region from
                  47.5 degrees North latitude to 47.5 degress South latitude,
                  and 0 degrees longitude to 90 degrees West longitude.

        Volume 3: Amazonis Planita Region of Mars.  412 images covering the
                  region from 47.5 degrees North latitude to 47.5 degrees
                  South latitude, and 90 degrees West longitude to 180 degrees
                  West longitude.

        Volume 4: Elysium Planitia Region of Mars.  412 images covering the
                  region from 47.5 degrees North latitude to 47.5 degrees
                  South latitude, and 180 degrees West longitude to 270 degrees
                  West longitude.

        Volume 5: Arabia Terra of Mars. 412 images covering 47.5 degrees North
                  latitude to 47.5 degrees South latitude, and 270 degrees
                  West longitude to 0 degrees West longitude.

        Volume 6: Planum Australe Region of Mars. 373 images convering the
                  entire South polar region of Mars northward from the pole
                  to a latitude of 42.5 degrees South latitude.

     Also, the following software is included on the MIDM CD-ROMs to display
the images:

        o IMDISP (IBM PC)
        o MDIMDISP (VAX)
        o Image (Macintosh)
        o Reader (Sun)

     ___    _____     ___
    /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|     Ron Baalke         | [email protected]
    | | | |  __ \ /| | | |     Jet Propulsion Lab |
 ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |__   M/S 525-3684 Telos | Don't wait for your ship
/___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 | to come in, paddle out to
|_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                     | it.

Article: 20446
From: [email protected] (Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey)
Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.space
Subject: Video Mars tour
Date: 19 Feb 92 15:22:18 GMT
Sender: [email protected]
Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Lab
 
In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] writes: 

> All you have to do is watch the MARS NAVIGATOR database on the Macintosh PC - 
> a touch-screen based videodisk product which is based on the Viking 3 surface 
> pictures of the Mars landscape. 
 
This sounds really keen, and I'm sure every reader of this group would
enjoy playing with it!  Who makes it?  How do you order it?  Does it
have the whole planet?  Is it really a videodisk, or CD-ROM? 
 
(Viking 3, by the way, was a hoax Mars rover which appeared only in
fake press releases.  Vikings 1 and 2 were the real ones.   I think
this is described in *More Legends of Caltech*  by Willard A. Dodge,
Jr., Reuben B. Moulton, Harrison W. Sigworth, Adrian C. Smith, Jr.,
published by California Institute of Technology Alumni Association,
Pasadena, California 1989. Sorry, no ISBN numbers exist.  Call the
Caltech bookstore at (818)356-6811 and ask them to ship it to you. If
I have messed up, the story is really in the book's predecessor,
*Legends of Caltech*, same authors.) 
 
> Does this give a realistic effect or what! especially if seen on an 8' screen
> and through BOSE speakers. 
 
Oh, then it should look real good on MY home entertainment system. :-P
 
-- 
     O~~*           /_) ' / /   /_/ '  ,   ,  ' ,_  _           \|/
   - ~ -~~~~~~~~~~~/_) / / /   / / / (_) (_) / / / _\~~~~~~~~~~~zap!
 /       \                          (_) (_)                    / | \
 |       |     Bill Higgins   Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
 \       /     Bitnet:     [email protected]
   -   -       Internet:  [email protected]
     ~         SPAN/Hepnet:      43011::HIGGINS 

Date: Thu, 20 Feb 92 11:57 GMT
From: [email protected]
Subject: RE: SPACE Digest V14 #857

Subject: Viking Fund

The Viking Fund was one of the organizations put together by Stan Kent
in the late 1970s, early 1980s.  They raised a small but significant
sum of money to help pay for continued operation of the Viking lander.
NASA could not accept targeted donations, so the finally worked out a
deal wherebye NASA "contracted" with Viking fund to "supply" a certain
amount of data from the station. 

If you look through some old issues of OMNI, you will see the "Feed a
starving Robot" ads, which were really rather cute. 

Last I heard, Stan went back to being a rock musician, but I suspect
that by now he is into something else.  I have not seen him, nor heard
anything about him for a number of years. (Not that I knew him that
well, I just knew him to speak to.) 

At one point he was trying to get a Halley fund going, the idea was to
sell media rights to the images as a means of funding an American
entry in the Comet Halley spacecraft flotilla. 

					Dale Amon

Article: 420
From: [email protected] (Ron Baalke)
Newsgroups: sci.space.news
Subject: Viking Orbiter CD-ROMs Available
Date: 29 Feb 92 05:30:33 GMT
Sender: [email protected] (Usenet)
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
 
                            ========================
                             VIKING ORBITER CD-ROMs
                               February 29, 1992
                            ========================
 
    Four more Viking Orbiter CD-ROMs (Volumes 5-8) have been released to the
public.  These CD-ROMs contain the raw images of the planet Mars taken by the
Viking 1 and Viking 2 Orbiters during the late 1970s.  The CD-ROMs were put
together by NASA's Planetary Data System (PDS) through the Geosciences
Discipline Node at Washington University, the Image Node at the U.S.
Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Arizona, and the Jet Propulsion Lab in
Pasadena, California.  The CD-ROMs can be obtained from the National Space
Science Data Center (NSSDC) at the Goddard Space Flight Center.
 
     The "nominal" charge is $20 for the first CD-ROM, and $6 for any
additional CD-ROM in an order.  However, NSSDC may waive this charge for
a small amount of data requested by bona fide research users, government
laboratories, etc.  School teachers who are unable to pay may be helped
on a case by case basis, and/or as resources permit.  Researchers funded by
NASA's Solar System Exploration Division can also obtain the CD-ROMs through
the Planetary Data System at JPL.  NSSDC also supplies display software to
view the images.  NSSDC can be contacted at:
 
	National Space Science Data Center
	Goddard Space Flight Center
	Greenbelt, Maryland 20771
	Telephone (301) 286-6695
        Email address: [email protected]
 
     You can also reach NSSDC by logging on to their computer.  To log onto the
NSSDC computer, telnet to NSSDC.GSFC.NASA.GOV [128.183.36.25] and give the
username "NSSDC".  You will then be connected to a menu system which allows
you to use the "Master Directory".  You can also leave questions and orders for
the NSSDC staff.  If this is the first time you have used the NSSDC "NODIS"
system, it will ask you for information (name, address, ...) to keep a database
of NSSDC users.
 
     The Viking Orbiter CD-ROMs will eventually be available via anonymous ftp
at AMES.ARC.NASA.GOV [128.102.18.3].  The Ames site has two CD-ROM drives and
they are accessible through the pub/SPACE/CDROM and pub/SPACE/CDROM2
directories.

     ___    _____     ___
    /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|     Ron Baalke         | [email protected]
    | | | |  __ \ /| | | |     Jet Propulsion Lab |
 ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |__   M/S 525-3684 Telos | In the middle of difficulty
/___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 | lies opportunity  --
|_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                     | Albert Einstein

Article: 20987
From: [email protected] (Ron Baalke)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro,sci.geo.geology
Subject: Water from Meteorite Provide Clue to Mars Past
Date: 14 Mar 92 00:27:19 GMT
Sender: [email protected] (Usenet)
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
 
Paula Cleggett-Haleim
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.               March 13, 1992
(Phone:  202/453-1547)
 
Kari Fluegel
Johnson Space Center, Houston
(Phone:  713/483-5111)
 
RELEASE:  92-35
 
METEORITES' WATER PROVIDES CLUE TO RED PLANET'S PAST
 
	A single drop of water rarely causes excitement in the scientific
community, but a few milligrams of liquid extracted from a meteorite may
have started to answer one of the great mysteries of planetary science.
 
	Were the channels seen on the surface of Mars carved by once great
torrents of rushing water or by some other process?
 
	Dr. Everett Gibson of NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC), Houston,
Planetary Sciences Branch; Dr. Haraldur Karlsson, formerly a National
Research Council postdoctoral fellow at JSC; and scientists at the University
of Chicago have analyzed drops of water extracted from several meteorites
believed to have come from Mars and have concluded that the oxygen
isotopes in the water were extraterrestrial.
 
	"It's really a beautiful piece of scientific work to do this
analysis," Gibson said.  "We are extremely pleased with the results of
this team effort." The results of the team's findings are being
published in today's issue of the journal SCIENCE. 
 
	Photographs returned to Earth from the Mariner 9 and Viking
spacecraft show features that suggest Mars once may have had a water-rich
atmosphere and flowing water on its surface.  Sometime in its history,
however, most of the water apparently disappeared, leaving only minute
amounts of vapor in the atmosphere.
 
	Through the years, several meteorites have been collected on Earth
that scientists have identified as Martian by comparing them to information
gleaned by the Viking spacecraft.  Six of these meteorites were used in the
water extraction procedure.
 
	Gibson said the meteorites were heated in steps in a small vacuum
system at JSC to extract trace amounts of water.  The water samples were
hand-carried to the University of Chicago for analysis of oxygen isotopes.
Although the water droplets were less than 1/64ths of an inch in diameter,
it was enough to do the analysis.
 
	The analysis determined that the oxygen isotopes in the water were
different from the oxygen isotopes in the silicate portion of the meteorites.
In other words, the water had a different parent source than the oxygen in
the silicate minerals in the meteorites.  That parent source could have been
the Martian atmosphere, an ancient Martian ocean, or even a comet that
impacted the planet, Gibson said.
 
	The lack of homogeneous oxygen isotopes on Mars supports the theory
that Mars does not have plate tectonics.  If such a process had been active
on Mars, the oxygen isotopes would have been homogenized as they are on Earth.
 
	Findings from the work completed by the team may answer some
questions about the processes operating in the solar system, but the findings
raise other questions -- what happened to the water on Mars and does Earth
have the same destiny?
 
	"These are large and difficult questions to comprehend," Gibson said,
"but perhaps if we can trace the origins and alterations of planetary
atmospheres and oceans, the evolution of our solar system may be better
understood."
 
	Besides Gibson and Karlsson, who is now in the Department of
Geosciences at Texas Tech University, Lubock, team members included
Robert N. Clayton and Toshiko K. Mayeda of the Department of Geophysical
Sciences and the Enrico Fermi Institute at the University of Chicago.
 
     ___    _____     ___
    /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|     Ron Baalke         | [email protected]
    | | | |  __ \ /| | | |     Jet Propulsion Lab |
 ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |__   M/S 525-3684 Telos | In the middle of difficulty
/___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 | lies opportunity  --
|_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                     | Albert Einstein

Article: 991
Newsgroups: sci.space.news
From: [email protected] (Ron Baalke)
Subject: Mars GIF Images
Sender: [email protected] (Usenet)
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Date: Wed, 13 May 1992 14:21:50 GMT
 
                           ==========================
                                 MARS GIF IMAGES
                                   May 12, 1992
                           ==========================
 
     Fourteen Mars GIF images showing Olympus Mons, another Tharsus
volcano, and part of Valles Marineris are now available.  A couple of
the images are gray scale images, but most of GIFs have been colorized
with a Magellan color palette, and look very realistic for being false
color.  For each gif image there is an associated caption file (*.txt
file extension).  Also, the location of some of the images are
indicated by the filename (ie: 00n107.gif is centered at 0 N latitude,
107 longitude).  The files are available using anonymous ftp: 
 
        ftp:      ames.arc.nasa.gov (128.102.18.3)
        user:     anonymous
        cd:       pub/SPACE/GIF
        files:
                  00n107-2.gif  (Valles Marineris)
                  00n107.gif    (Valles Marineris)
                  00n112-2.gif  (Tharsus volcano)
                  00n112.gif    (Tharsus volcano)
                  05n027.gif    (Erosion channel)
                  05s087.gif    (Erosion channel)
                  05s092.gif    (Valles Marineris)
                  90s000-2.gif  (South Pole)
                  90s000.gif    (South Pole)
                  olym640.gif   (Olympus Mons)
                  olymp-c.gif   (Olympus Mons)
                  olymp-c2.gif  (Olympus Mons)
                  olymp-c3.gif  (Olympus Mons)
                  olympus.gif   (Olympus Mons)

     ___    _____     ___
    /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|     Ron Baalke         | [email protected]
    | | | |  __ \ /| | | |     Jet Propulsion Lab |
 ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |__   M/S 525-3684 Telos | Denial is always the first
/___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 | symptom.
|_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                     | 
 

Paula Cleggett-Haleim
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.         November 6, 1992

Jim Doyle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

RELEASE:  92-198



     Mars was once very active tectonically and may still be
shaken by quakes daily, according to scientists using NASA's
Viking Orbiter photos of the red planet's surface.

     In a science paper published today, Drs. Matthew
Golombek, W. Bruce Banerdt and David M. Tralli of the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory and Dr. Kenneth L. Tanaka of the U.S.
Geological Survey said Mars is more seismically active than
the moon, but less so than Earth.

     "Because Mars is smaller than Earth, little more than
half the size, a magnitude 6 quake on Mars would have 10
times the effect it would on Earth," Golombek said.

     Marsquakes of that magnitude may occur about once every
4 and a half years, he said.  A marsquake of about magnitude
4, however, might happen somewhere on the planet once a month
on an average.  Yet, a quake of magnitude 4 would be
detectable throughout the planet, again because of its size
and presumed  structure.

     Tectonic features on Mars are found mostly around the
Tharsis region, a large volcanic plateau with associated
features that cover the entire western hemisphere of the
planet.

     Tectonism in that region occurred mainly during two
periods in the planet's history -- the earliest possibly as
long ago as 4-billion years and the most recent ending
possibly less than one-billion years ago.

     Features that formed during the first seismic period
include many narrow graben or long ditch-like or trough
features with faults along their sides.  Also formed at that
time was a system of concentric wrinkle ridges, larger graben
and rifts, and the deep rift valleys of Mars' great 1,860-
mile-long (3,000-kilometer) canyon, the Valles Marineris.

     During the second period, tectonism caused an enormous
set of radial grabens that extend up to thousands of
kilometers from the center of the plateau and rift zones of
Valles Marineris, along with other prominent features.

     Tectonism and seismic activity have decreased from the
earlier period to the present, Golombek said, as would be
expected if the seismic activity is governed by simple
cooling of the lithosphere -- the rigid outer crust and upper
part of the mantle -- of the planet.

     The scientists said that while Mars is less seismically
active than Earth, their studies predict that about two
marsquakes of magnitude 5 or greater occur per year, about a
hundred quakes of magnitude 3 or greater occur per year.

     "That is a promising prospect for seismological
investigations on future missions to Mars," Golombek said.

     Golombek is the Project Scientist for the Mars
Environmental Survey (MESUR) project which would place a
network of landers, each with a seismometer, in different
locations on the Martian surface.  Recordings of marsquakes
by seismometers at different locations will help determine
the internal structure of the red planet.

     The network of instrumented landers is planned to be
deployed over three Mars launch opportunities.  Four would be
sent in 1999, four more in 2001 and the final eight launched
with four each on two launch vehicles in 2003.

     A precursor mission called MESUR Pathfinder is under
study as part of NASA's proposed Discovery Program of small,
low-cost planetary missions.  MESUR Pathfinder would place a
single lander on Mars with a robotic rover deploying, among
other instruments, a seismometer as early as 1996.

     The paper, published today in Science magazine, is
entitled "A Prediction of Mars Seismicity from Surface
Faulting."

     The Discovery Program and the Viking mission are managed
by NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications, NASA
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

Article: 62394
From: [email protected] (Ron Baalke)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.bio
Subject: Re: Life on Mars.
Date: 10 May 1993 20:51 UT
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
 
In article <[email protected]>, Larry Zibilske
<[email protected]> writes... 

>I dont know that the results have completely excluded the possibility of life
>on Mars.  I have been trying to find the biodata for the Viking missions to
>examine myself.  I am a soil microbiolgist and my interests include very low
>level microbial activity detection.  I see, for instance, very low but definite
> metabolic activity in very environmentally extreme conditions (temperature,
>moisture) and someone mentioned that the data show a pattern similar to that
>seen in the Viking data....but I cant find the Viking data.  Does anyone know
>where this might be obtained?  (not the polished public press stuff; but the
>journal article level or orginal pub data)?
 
The Viking results were published the Journal of Geophysical Research,
Volume 82, number 28, September 30, 1977.  This is a rather large
volume with over 700 pages, and ten articles on the biology
experiments are included. If you can't find this journal at your
library, you can order it the American Geophysical Union who reprinted
it under the name "Scientific Results of the Viking Project".  You can
reach AGU at: AGU, 2000 Florida Avenue, N.W., Washington D.C., 20009. 
Their phone number is (202) 462-6900.  I forget the exact price, but
it was at some bargain amount of around $10. 
 
Also, there is good layman article on the Viking science results in the 
January 1977 issue of National Geographic. 

     ___    _____     ___
    /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|     Ron Baalke         | [email protected]
    | | | |  __ \ /| | | |     Jet Propulsion Lab |
 ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |__   M/S 525-3684 Telos | Once a year, go someplace
/___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 | you've never been before.
|_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                     | 
 
Article: 62398
From: [email protected] (Ron Baalke)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.bio
Subject: Re: Life on Mars.
Date: 10 May 1993 21:54 UT
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
 
In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] (Robert Clark) writes... 

>  In the June 1993 issue of _Final Frontier_ there is an interview with
>Dr. Gilbert Levin who designed one of the life detection experiments on
>the Viking missions.
>  He's of the opinion that the data from his experiment is indicative of 
>life on Mars.
> 
>He gives several reasons for this:
> 
> 1.) His experiment was the most sensitive of the detection methods.
> 
> 2.) The three experiments were designed to detect different kinds
>     of life so it should be expected that his gave the only repeated
>     life signs.
> 
> 3.) One of the detectors was  known to not even be sensitive enough to
>     detect life even in some Antartica soil samples known to contain life.
 
Of the three Viking biology experiments, only Dr. Levin's experiment yielded 
data which met the criteria originally developed to determine a positive 
response for detection of life.  If you considered Dr. Levin's Labeled 
Release experiment, and only his experiment alone, then the conclusion would 
be that living organisms were detected in the Martian soil.  However, if you 
consider the results from the other Viking experiments, then you cannot
readily draw such a conclusion.  The Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer did
not detect any organic compounds in the Martian soil.  This is particularly
crucial, because the biologists could not explain how there could be life
without a trace of organic compounds, unless Martian life is substantially
different from Earth life.  The Gas Exchange experiment indicated some
kind of super oxide was present which may explain the results in Levin's
experiment.
 
I think Dr. Levin is trying to discredit the Viking results
which contradict the results from his experiment.  
 
> 4.) In some of the images of martian rocks, there are seasonal changes in 
>     their coloring similar to moss growing on terrestrial rocks.
 
I remember seeing Viking images that had color differences that was due
to frost, but this is the first I've heard of it being attributed to moss.  
 
>   Before I read this article I wasn't aware that any of the experiments
> gave repeated life signs. Another thing that surprised me was that after 
> all these years there still hasn't been a symposium convened to discuss
> the data returned by the Viking life experiments.
 
The experiments were repeated several times, and the same results were
obtained each time.  There was a Viking conference in Washinton D.C. in 1986
(Viking's 10th landing anniversary).

     ___    _____     ___
    /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|     Ron Baalke         | [email protected]
    | | | |  __ \ /| | | |     Jet Propulsion Lab |
 ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |__   M/S 525-3684 Telos | Once a year, go someplace
/___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 | you've never been before.
|_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                     | 
 
Article: 62413
From: [email protected] (Bill Higgins-- Beam Jockey)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.bio
Subject: Popular books (was Re: Life on Mars.)
Date: 10 May 93 19:20:55 -0600
Organization: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
 
In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] (Ron Baalke) writes: 

> In article <[email protected]>, Larry Zibilske
<[email protected]> writes... 
>> Does anyone know
>>where this might be obtained?  (not the polished public press stuff; but the
>>journal article level or orginal pub data)?
> 
> The Viking results were published the Journal of Geophysical Research,
> Volume 82, number 28, September 30, 1977.  
 
I realize Larry is looking for professional papers.  However, for the
benefit of everybody else, it's worth mentioning that there are two
pop-level books which go into the Viking results in detail: *The
Search for Life on Mars* by Henry S.F. Cooper, the *New Yorker's* ace
reporter in outer space; and *To Utopia and Back* by Dr. Horowitz, who
was the principal investigator on another of the Viking biology
experiments. 
 
Bill Higgins, Beam Jockey              | Bartlett's 
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory  | Most Familiar Quotation
Bitnet:           [email protected]  | (according to W. H. Leininger):
Internet:       [email protected]  | "Say, that's pretty good!
SPAN/Hepnet:           43011::HIGGINS  | Mind if I use it?"

Article: 62430
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.bio
From: [email protected] (George Hastings)
Subject: Re: Life on Mars.
Organization: Virginia's Public Education Network (Richmond)
Date: Tue, 11 May 93 12:00:03 GMT
 
Ron Baalke ([email protected] ) writes:

> I've always thought that the Viking experiments were flawed in that they
> were looking for Earth-like life in a non-Earth environment (this being
> my own personal opinion, mind you).  The assumption was that if there is
> life on Mars, then it would be similar to life on Earth.  We really don't
> know if this is a valid assumption.  The difficulty in designing an 
> experiment to detect a life form on another planet is acknowledged, but 
> on the same token maybe the experiments should of allowed some leeway 
> for the unexpected.
 
     Gerry Soffen, the project scientist for the Viking Missions to
Mars put it well when he said that we'd LIKE to design experiements
that could give us some assurance that we could detect life that was
very different from Earth-life, but the fact is, Earth life is the
only kind of life we know HOW to test for! 

     During the design stages of the Viking Project at Langley
Research Center, I remember there was a long-running debate between
the scientists and the engineers about what kinds of life-detection
equipment should be installed on the lander and the weight limitations
of the aero-brake heat shield/parachute/rocket landing system. 

     The best they could do on allowing for some leeway for the
unexpected in the life-detection experiments was the inclusion of that
very sensitive gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer, taking what had
formerly occupied an entire room and miniaturizing it to fit in a box
about 12 inches on a side. It was designed to detect organic (or
other) long-chain molecules down to some incredibly small ppm in the
soil samples. 

     One has to assume that ANY life form, Earth-like or not, must
carry on complex biological processes, implying complex molecular
structure. The GCMS on the two Viking Landers gave an unambiguous
negative result on finding any trace of organic molecules at either
landing site. 

     Had this experiment been done at the most lifeless sites on
Earth: the middle of the Sahara Desert, the Atacama Desert in Chile
where not a drop of rain has fallen in decades, in the super-cold
super-dry snowless valleys of Antarctica, it could have detected
organic molecules blown there on the wind from other places on Earth. 

 ____________________________________________________________
| George Hastings		[email protected] |  
| Space Science Teacher		[email protected]      |  If it's not
| Mathematics & Science Center 	STAREACH BBS: 804-343-6533   |   FUN, it's
| 2304 Hartman Street		OFFICE:       804-343-6525   |  probably not
| Richmond, VA 23223		FAX:          804-343-6529   |    SCIENCE!
 ------------------------------------------------------------

    re .-1
    
    Looking for life molecules (i.e. carbon molecules) BUT what if Mars
    life was not carbon based (-; ... nasty buggers right.
    
    Now one of the best life detectors around, the original as it were,
    is a microscope. Nothing like looking at the little buggers to be
    gut certain that they are really there, no matter what kind they are.
    
    Can anyone explain to me why they didn't take a microscope camera
    in the Viking Landers. 
    
    Gil
    

RE          <<< Note 531.22 by MAYDAY::ANDRADE "The sentinel (.)(.)" >>>
>                           -< Why no microscopes ? >-

>    Can anyone explain to me why they didn't take a microscope camera
>    in the Viking Landers. 
    
  I don't know for sure but I'd guess the main reason was weight with power
being another consideration.

  Basically anything they added would have meant deleting something else.

  George

re .22
    
>    Looking for life molecules (i.e. carbon molecules) BUT what if Mars
>    life was not carbon based (-; ... nasty buggers right.
    
    It's reasonable to assume that if life forms spontaneously then it will
    do so from the available chemical elements. It's *probably* reasonable to
    assume that life requires complex chemical compounds i.e. there is a
    minimum size for a self-replicating system of molecules. The point about
    the gas chromatograph mentioned some replies back was that it should
    have been able to find *some* large molecules.
    
    However I would not claim for one moment that the issue has been
    settled beyond all reasonable doubt. For one thing sampling one or two
    locations on the entire planet is not exactly definitive. Notwithstanding
    the argument that winds should have dispersed signs of life throughout the
    planet, the conditions on Mars are rather different from Earth.

Article: 2810
From: [email protected] (Ron Baalke)
Newsgroups: sci.space,alt.sci.planetary
Subject: Possible Chemical Explanation Found for Viking Biology Results
Date: 6 Dec 1993 19:15 UT
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
 
Banin et al. were able provide a plausible chemical explanation to the
puzzling results of the Viking lander biology experiments.  A smectite
clay enriched with iron was prepared and tested, and the chemical
reactivity of this clay-iron strongly resembled the results from the
Labeled Release (LR) and Pyrolytic Release (PR) experiments performed
by the Viking landers on Mars.  Also, the reflectance spectrum of the
clay-iron in the visible range is similar to the reflectance curve of
the bright regions of Mars.  The detailed results of their experiments
can be found in the article titled "The Nanophase Iron Mineral(s) in
Mars Soil" from the Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 98 Number
E11, dated November 25, 1993. 
 
     ___    _____     ___
    /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|     Ron Baalke         | [email protected]
    | | | |  __ \ /| | | |     Jet Propulsion Lab | 
 ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |__   Galileo S-Band     | "Why must hailstones always
/___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 |  be the size of something
|_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                     |  else?"   George Carlin 


Article: 79156
From: [email protected] (Ron Baalke)
Newsgroups: sci.space,alt.sci.planetary
Subject: Re: Possible Chemical Explanation Found for Viking Biology Results
Date: 7 Dec 1993 20:58 UT
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
 
In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] (Michael Shea) writes... 

>>Banin et al. were able provide a plausible chemical explanation to the 
>>puzzling results of the Viking lander biology experiments.  
> 
>	I was wondering about this result. I seem to recall some controversy
>as to whether this phenominon was responsable for the Viking results. Also, 
>I have seen published that the Viking results were negative wrt to the 
>possibility of life on Mars. It seem to that the Banin et al. results simply 
>tell us that the Viking results tell of nothing one way or another.
 
The Viking results were inconclusive as far as detecting life on Mars,
and they remain inconclusive even with these new experiments. 
However, finding a plausible chemical explanation does weaken the case
that living organisms caused the results of the Viking experiments. 
 
An interesting observation of the clay-iron was that as it oxidizes it
produces a double iron-hydroxy mineral called "green rust".  This is
interesting because the Zagami SNC meteorites, which supposedly
originated from Mars, are green in color. 

     ___    _____     ___
    /_ /|  /____/ \  /_ /|     Ron Baalke         | [email protected]
    | | | |  __ \ /| | | |     Jet Propulsion Lab | 
 ___| | | | |__) |/  | | |__   Galileo S-Band     | "Why must hailstones always
/___| | | |  ___/    | |/__ /| Pasadena, CA 91109 |  be the size of something
|_____|/  |_|/       |_____|/                     |  else?"   George Carlin