Jet Propulsion Laboratory UNIVERSE Pasadena, California - Vol. 26, No. 25 - December 13, 1996 _________________________________________________________________ Delays aside, Pathfinder is on its way By DIANE AINSWORTH Mars Pathfinder arced into a starlit sky, seemingly heading for a half- moon close on the horizon and the reddish sparkle of Mars itself, during a crystal clear night on Dec. 4 at NASA's Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla. Launch occurred right on the mark at 1:58 a.m. Eastern time (10:58 p.m. Pacific time on Dec. 3), sending the spacecraft on its way to Mars. The fiery blast of six of the Delta's nine boosters could be seen as they were jettisoned over the Atlantic Ocean, twinkling orange and yellow as they fell through the atmosphere. Ten days after launch, the spacecraft is currently about 2.6 million kilometers (1.6 million miles) from Earth, traveling at a speed of about 3.2 kilometers per second (7,155 mph). All spacecraft temperatures and electronics are performing at their expected levels for this early phase of the mission, said Brian Muirhead, Pathfinder flight system manager. The cruise stage solar array, propulsion module and electronics are also performing at just the right temperatures. Pathfinder is currently drawing power from two of the four segments of the solar array and producing approximately 250 watts of power, which is about 10 percent more power than was originally predicted. The battery is charged at 75 percent of its full capacity and is showing a temperature of 9 Celsius (48 degrees Fahrenheit), which is approaching the desired steady state of 8 Celsius (46 degrees Fahrenheit). In addition, the telecommunications system is performing well within its predicted range, indicating that it will be able to maintain higher data rates throughout the mission. A problem with one of the spacecraft's five sun sensors was resolved last week after a software patch was uplinked to compensate for a low voltage reading on one of the sensor heads, Muirhead said. The problem sensor was unit #4, which sits on the spacecraft's spin axis and became obscured or contaminated enough that its data were not usable. Unit #5, also located on the spin axis, was providing good sun orientation data, but at a lower voltage than was expected. The other three sensor heads are equally spaced along the cruise stage and were working fine. "The software modification allowed us to read the sun sensor's data, even though the output is lower than normal, and use the information to calculate the spacecraft's orientation in space," Muirhead said. "Once the problem was solved, we began to plan for our spin-down maneuver, which will reduce the spacecraft's spin rate from 12.3 rpm to 2 rpm." That maneuver was scheduled to take place on Friday, Dec. 13. Pathfinder's next scheduled in-flight event is the first trajectory correction maneuver, planned for Jan. 4, 1997. The latest orbital data from tracking operations at all three Deep Space Network stations suggest that the magnitude of TCM-1, if performed on that day, will be 29.5 meters per second (96 feet per second). Mars Pathfinder, the second in NASA's Discovery program of low-cost, highly focused spaceflight missions, is expected to have a relatively quiet cruise to the red planet. In March 1997, the spacecraft will catch up and fly past Mars Global Surveyor on its faster track to the planet. If all goes well, landing and the first photographs of the Martian surface in more than 20 years will be delivered to an eager audience on Earth on July 4, 1997. ### __________________________________________________________________ Missions begin Earth's friendly invasion of Mars By PAULA SHAWA, Kennedy Space Center On Oct. 30, Orson Welles fans marked the 58th anniversary of his theatre troupe's Halloween radio broadcast based on H.G. Wells' science fiction classic, "The War of the Worlds." The Mercury Theater's realistic depiction of a Martian invasion that begins in Grovers Mill, N.J., panicked the nation and catapulted Welles to international fame. As 1996 draws to a close, Planet Earth is turning the tables and launching its own "assault" on the Red Planet 81 million kilometers (50 million miles) away, although in this case the visitors are friendly. Beginning with the Mars Global Surveyor liftoff Nov. 7 and continuing into the next century, spacecraft will sail toward the planet, sometimes passing each other en route. Once they arrive at Mars, some of these remotely-controlled explorers will circle the planet while others will pierce the thin Martian atmosphere and descend to its rugged surface. The bits and pieces of information they send back to Earth will be like pieces of a puzzle which will yield a comprehensive picture of the planet, its daily weather and its early history. Mars Global Surveyor First off the launch pad was Mars Global Surveyor, which is now speeding toward Mars. For people like MGS project manager Glenn Cunningham, the mission holds a special urgency: many of the same personnel who bore the shock of the Mars Observer failure in 1993 are now working on Global Surveyor. Six of the instruments flown on Mars Observer also are being flown on the Global Surveyor. "We are really looking forward to this," Cunningham observes with quiet intensity. He points out that the Global Surveyor will have a nearly identical mission to Mars Observer: to map almost the entire surface of the planet. Major design changes have been made to prevent a propulsion system failure suspected to have ended the Mars Observer mission. The Global Surveyor will follow a loping, slow-moving trajectory to Mars. Because the spacecraft is traveling at a slower velocity, it requires less propellant to slow down once it is ready to be captured in orbit around the destination planet. The spacecraft should arrive at Mars on Sept. 12, 1997. A 25-minute engine burn will be combined with an innovative technique known as aerobraking, first demonstrated during the Magellan mission to Venus, to achieve a final mapping orbit an average 234 miles (378 kilometers) above the planet's surface. The primary mapping mission is scheduled to begin in March 1998 and last until January 2000-a period of one Martian year or 687 Earth days. Global Surveyor will complete one orbit around Mars about every two hours, each new orbit bringing the spacecraft over a different swath of terrain. The spacecraft will pass over the Mars Pathfinder lander, which will have touched down months before. The two Viking landers that arrived at Mars in 1975 also will be within the visibility range of the Global Surveyor instruments. The Global Surveyor will map the topography, magnetism, mineral composition and atmosphere of Mars, returning more than 600 billion bits of scientific data to Earth-more than that returned by all previous missions to Mars. Mars Pathfinder The complex scenario for the Mars Pathfinder mission is like Russian dolls that can be opened to reveal another doll inside, a process that repeats itself several times before the last doll is uncovered.When if lifted off at 10:58 p.m. Pacific time on Dec. 3, Pathfinder's configuration was a lander encased in a protective aeroshell attached to a cruise stage. Even though it lifted off nearly a month after Global Surveyor, Pathfinder travels on a more direct trajectory to Mars, and will arrive on July 4, 1997. Thirty-four minutes before touchdown, the cruise stage will separate. As the lander hurtles through the upper atmosphere on a ballistic trajectory, a parachute will be deployed to slow the spacecraft and alter its flight path to a more vertical descent. About 20 seconds after the parachute deploys, the heat shield side of the aeroshell is jettisoned and the lander, still attached by a bridle to the back shell and parachute, will continue its descent. About eight seconds before touchdown, giant airbags are inflated. Just two seconds before touchdown the bridle will be severed while the motors are still firing to pull the backshell and parachute away from the lander. The lander's radar altimeter will begin acquiring ground data when the spacecraft is barely one mile (1.6 km) above the planet's surface. The dramatic sequence of events that unfold during entry, descent and landing constitute one of the riskiest phases of the mission, says Pathfinder Project Manager Tony Spear, and extensive preflight research was conducted to ensure success. The entry velocity is 80 percent faster than that of the Viking landers; and spacecraft speed at touchdown is 35 mph (56 kilometers per hour) for the Pathfinder lander (cushioned by the airbags) compared to 5 mph (8 kilometers per hour) for the Viking landers. Once on the surface, the tetrahedral-shaped lander will right itself and the lander petals will unfold. If everything proceeds as scheduled, just hours after landing the Sojourner rover will amble off the lander and onto the surface of Mars. The small six-wheeled rover weighs a mere 22 pounds (10 kilograms) and travels just 0.4 inches (1 centimeter) per second. Images taken by the lander will determine the rover's course and direction. The rover is equipped with an alpha proton X-ray spectrometer to measure the elemental composition of rocks and soil. The 12-color lander stereo camera will help to navigate the rover, provide mineralogy data on rocks and soil, and make opacity measurements of the atmosphere. This data provides a ground truth for the orbital remote-sensing observations being obtained overhead by Global Surveyor. The extreme temperature cycling on Mars-temperatures range from 32 to minus 148 degrees Fahrenheit (0 to minus 100 degrees Centigrade) daily-may doom the rover to a relatively short life. The primary mission for the rover is seven Martian days and about 30 Martian days for the lander; scientists are hoping both will last long enough for extended mission operations. While the Pathfinder mission is sure to yield invaluable scientific data about Mars, its designers are just as eager to see how the hardware performs. In an extended mission, program managers will be monitoring the performance of both the rover and lander's solar arrays in the dusty environment as well as their electronics in the Martian temperatures. As the first wave of spacecraft to blaze a new trail to the Red Planet, Pathfinder and Global Surveyor will provide crosschecks and enrichment of the data gathered by each spacecraft. The scientific data they gather will further supplement that of earlier missions to Mars and set the stage for subsequent explorers. At the same time, the lessons learned from hardware performance will help insure the success of future missions. Mars '96 The Mars '96 mission was launched Nov. 16 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan but encountered problems early in its mission. The last stage on a four-stage rocket failed to re-ignite and propel the probe out of Earth orbit and onto Mars. The probe crashed into the Pacific Ocean Nov. 17, about 900 miles east of Easter Island. The mission was designed to use two landers-known as small stations- to separate from the Mars '96 spacecraft and descend to the planet's surface. Two penetrators were to have been deployed from the orbiter to actually pierce the Martian soil as much as 6 meters (20 feet) below the surface. The orbiter was to focus on performing orbital mapping and supporting operations on the ground. Specific science goals included: A topographic survey of the surface, including high-resolution studies of the terrain and mineralogical mapping; studies of Martian meteorology and climate; geophysical studies of the planet's crustal thickness, magnetic field and seismic activity; plasma investigations, including parameters of the Martian magnetic field; and astrophysical studies. The small stations were designed to descend to the surface in a manner similar to the Mars Pathfinder lander, first braked by an aeroshell and then descending on a parachute. Also like the Pathfinder lander, the stations were to have been protected from the impact of landing by airbags. The scientific instruments of the small stations were enclosed in a protective structure that unfolded like the petals of a flower. The Mars '96 probe also included two torpedo-like penetrators that were designed to slam into Mars at speeds of 80Ð100 meters per second (180Ð 220 mph), lodging from 1 to 6 meters (3 to 20 feet) below the surface. Each probe contained equipment and sensors to study the geophysical and mechanical properties of Martian rocks. Data were to be relayed back to Earth via the orbiter circling above. The United States plans to send a pair of miniature probes, called the New Millennium microprobes, to Mars in 1998. ### __________________________________________________________________ Mars missions follow new philosophy on NASA funding By PAULA SHAWA, Kennedy Space Center The latest series of U.S. missions to the red planet exemplify NASA's "faster, better, cheaper" philosophy. The successful Viking missions in the 1970s cost between $3 billion and $5 billion, while the more recent Mars Observer mission would have approached the $1 billion price range if it had been completed. The price tags for the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Pathfinder missions seem almost austere by comparison: $155 million for Surveyor and $171 million for Pathfinder. Smaller budgets create a ripple effect that leads to smaller spacecraft being launched atop smaller launch vehicles. At launch, MGS weighed about 1,060 kilograms (2,337 pounds) and Pathfinder just 890 kilograms (1,962 pounds). Mars Observer weighed almost 2,500 kilograms (5,500 pounds). The Titan III that carried the Observer aloft stood 45.7 meters (150 feet) tall, compared to the sturdy 38-meter (126-foot) Delta II used for both MGS and Pathfinder. Accommodating tight size and weight constraints presented special challenges to spacecraft and mission designers. For example, the Pathfinder small rover was launched in a compressed state measuring only 18 centimeters (7 inches) tall. After landing, it will pop up to its full size-65 centimeters (2 feet) long, 48 centimeters (1.5 feet) wide by 30 centimeters (1 foot) tall. The rover's weight was held to a svelte 10 kilograms (22 pounds). On MGS, mission designers could accommodate only six of the eight instruments that first flew on Mars Observer; the remaining two must fly on later flights. Mass limits imposed by the lifting capabilities of the Delta II booster precluded the MGS spacecraft from carrying enough main engine propellant to achieve its final low-altitude mapping orbit with a single engine firing, so an innovative aerobraking technique was added. o By Jane Platt A new computer-generated video visualization is giving planetary scientists a fresh look at the topsy-turvy rotation of the intriguing asteroid Toutatis, which flew near Earth on Nov. 29. Dr. Eric De Jong and animator Shigeru Suzuki of JPL, combined several computer simulation and scientific visualization techniques to show the bizarre rotation and surface details of Toutatis as it tumbles erratically on its journey around the Sun. The video includes images of Toutatis from various vantage points, including the perspective of someone standing on its surface. In addition, trajectories and explosive surface impacts are shown for a more typical near-Earth asteroid named Castalia. The animation was created at the JPL Digital Image Animation Laboratory (DIAL) from a model based on a previous sequence of delay- Doppler radar images. Those images were recorded at NASA's Deep Space Network 70-meter (230-foot) and 34-meter (112-foot) radio/radar antennas in Goldstone and the 305-meter (1,000-foot) Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico. "It's amazing that the shape of Toutatis can be determined so accurately from ground-based observations," De Jong said. "This technology will provide us with startling, close-up views of thousands of asteroids that orbit near the Earth." Dr. Scott Hudson of Washington State University, Pullman, collaborated on the venture, along with scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center, Mountain View, Calif. "We used the computer to mathematically create a three-dimensional model of the surface and rotation of Toutatis," Hudson said. "It's as though we put a clay model in space and molded it until it matched the appearance of the actual asteroid." The video was of particular interest as Toutatis neared Earth and made its closest approach on Friday, Nov. 29, when it passed by at a distance of 5.3 million kilometers (3.3 million miles), or about 14 times the distance from the Earth to the moon. In 2004, Toutatis will pass only four lunar distances from Earth, closer than any known Earth-approaching object is expected to pass by in the next 60 years. However, "Toutatis poses no significant threat to Earth, at least for a few hundred years," according to JPL senior research scientist Dr. Steven Ostro, who observed Toutatis in 1992 and studied it again on Nov. 29 from Goldstone. Discovered in 1989 and named after a Celtic god, the asteroid Toutatis has dimensions of 4.6 by 2.4 by 1.9 kilometers (2.9 by 1.5 by 1.2 miles). It is considered one of the strangest bodies in the solar system, given its peculiar rotation and odd shape, which resembles two chunks of rock connected by a narrow neck-like structure. The rocky body's strange traits are believed to be the result of a history of violent collisions. Asteroids, sometimes known as minor planets, are small orbiting bodies composed of rock and metals. They hold special fascination for scientists because of their age, quantity and proximity to the Earth. Scientists estimate that there are more than 100,000 near-Earth asteroids larger than a football stadium. "The discovery that we live in an asteroid swarm is important for the future of humanity," said Ostro. "These leftover debris from planetary formation can teach us a good deal about the formation of our solar system. Asteroids also contain valuable minerals and many are the cheapest possible destinations for space missions." For example, a flyby of the asteroid McAuliffe is planned by the first flight mission in NASA's New Millennium program, which is designed to test and apply new technologies for future space science and Earth science missions. New Millennium is managed by JPL for NASA's Offices of Space Science and Mission to Planet Earth. In addition, NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission, launched in February 1996, is en route to the asteroid Eros, which it will orbit beginning in January 1999. Additional information on Toutatis and other asteroids is available at the following websites: http://echo.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/ ~hudson/asteroids.html. ### __________________________________________________________________ Heroines and history well represented in worldwide competition to name rover The Sojourner rover could have been named Marie Curie. That was the second-place entry in a contest between students to name the compact vehicle scheduled to explore the surface of Mars. The name Sojourner was chosen after a yearlong worldwide competition in which students up to age 18 were invited to select a heroine and submit an essay about her historical accomplishments. The students were asked to address in their essays how a planetary rover named for their heroine would translate those accomplishments in the Martian environment. Valerie Ambroise, 12, of Bridgeport, Conn., submitted the winning essay about Sojourner Truth, an African American reformist who lived during the Civil War era. An abolitionist and champion of women's rights, Truth, whose real name was Isabella Van Wagener, made it her mission to "travel up and down the land," advocating the rights of all people to be free and the rights of women to participate fully in society. The name "Sojourner" was selected because it means "traveler." JPL scientists and engineers working on the Mars Pathfinder project and staff from the Planetary Society of Pasadena, who jointly initiated the contest in March 1994, reviewed the 3,500 essays received from around the world, including India, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Poland and Russia. Nearly 1,700 of the essays were submitted by students aged 5 to 18. The second-place winner, Deepti Rohatgi, 18, of Rockville, Md., proposed naming the rover for Curie, a Polish-born chemist who won the Nobel Prize in 1911 for her discovery of the elements radium and polonium. ### __________________________________________________________________ Mystery of Mars evolves, lives on in popular culture By CHUCK WEIRAUCH, Kennedy Space Center Portrayed throughout history as everything from a mythical god of war to the source of the destruction of the Earth many times over, Mars has survived the apprehensions of humankind to be transformed as a focal point of hope and exploration for the human race. Just why the Red Planet got off to a bad start with Earthlings is a mystery, since four other planets were visible to the first astronomers, the Babylonians, in approximately 1000 BC. Perhaps its blood-reddish color, coupled with the early belief that one's fate was influenced by celestial events, convinced the Greeks and Romans to perceive the planet as a symbol of violence and fear. These sentiments were reflected as late as 1719, when widespread panic broke out because, as a result of its elliptical orbit, Mars swung closer to Earth than it had in nearly 300 years. Unlikely though it seems today, astronomers played a major role in continuing the myth that unknown forces or entities lurked on the surface of Mars. Even though the Royal British astronomer Frederick Hershel correctly noted the polar ice caps and atmosphere of the Red Planet in 1784, he believed that dark flat areas of the planet's surface were oceans. He also felt that all of the planets were inhabited. Some astronomers in the mid-19th century gave further impetus to the concept of life on Mars by speculating that the dark areas were covered by vegetation, while others published detailed maps of continents and oceans. In 1877, Italian astronomer Giovanni Schlaparelli unintentionally gave birth to the concept of Martian canals when he referred to streaks he observed on the surface as "canali," the Italian word for channels. By the late 19th century, many scientists and authors already believed there was life on Mars. H.G. Wells' classic novel "War of the Worlds," published in 1898, became the first and most famous tale of a Martian invasion of Earth. Famed astronomer Percival Lowell believed that Martians had built an intricate system of irrigation canals and produced a famous globe of this system in 1901 based on his observations. He also published "Mars and its Canals" in 1906 and "Mars as the Abode of Life" in 1908. Even though life was thought to be prevalent, observations of a dry climate and thin atmosphere indicated that whatever was alive must be in a desperate struggle to survive. Edgar Rice Burroughs, better known as the creator of Tarzan of the Apes, incorporated this struggle into a series of 11 novels begun in 1911 that featured a Civil War veteran hero who was transported to Mars to deal with a Martian race fighting for water. In spite of growing evidence in the 1920s that conditions on the planet were even more tenuous for life as we know it, the Martian seeds had been firmly planted on Earth and continued to grow in the minds of the public and the prose of early science fiction writers. With this type of literature gaining wider acceptance by the 1930s, it probably should have been no surprise that the 1938 radio broadcast of an adapted version of "The War of the Worlds" by Orson Welles was perceived as reality by more than a million people. The possibility of life not only on Mars but throughout the universe became entrenched in world culture perhaps forever when an ex-Air Force pilot reported the sighting of unidentified flying objects, or UFOs, over the Arizona desert in 1947. Also that year, Dr. Wernher von Braun revealed "Das Mars Projeckt," his proposed human expedition to Mars. His plan called for 10 ships and their crews to travel to, land on, and explore the fourth planet from the sun, then return to Earth within 520 days. He was also involved with the first NASA robotic missions to the Red Planet, the Mariner spacecraft. The hundreds of films, including such classics as "Invaders from Mars" in 1953, and thousands of science fiction novels featuring otherworldly creatures such as those in Ray Bradbury's "The Martian Chronicles" in 1951, since that time have only served to reinforce the now-popular belief that life could have evolved just about anywhere. The 1996 television season, bolstered by 30 years of Star Trek and two continuing Star Trek shows, has more scheduled science-fiction-themed programming than ever before. Science-fiction movies, including last summer's "Independence Day," have become blockbusters, whole walls of book stores display science-fiction novels and millions of science-fiction videos and computer games are played in homes in the United States every night. At least one movie company is continuing the trend. Warner Brothers is about to debut its latest Mars thriller, titled "Mars Attacks!" ### __________________________________________________________________ Regulations ensure visitors from Earth keep planets clean By SUSAN WALSH, Kennedy Space Center It sounds like the plot of a B-grade science fiction movie. Microscopic organisms from Earth are carried on board a probe sent to explore the Martian surface and its geology. Despite the inhospitable climate-surface temperatures averaging minus 64 degrees Fahrenheit and an atmosphere almost entirely composed of carbon dioxide-a few of the organisms survive and begin multiplying. Soon, the Earth-borne spores taint all the geological samples and even find their way deep underneath the surface to ancient riverbeds where a primitive form of life still exists. The organisms from worlds apart join, and a new, alien form of life begins to evolve ! Or, how about this? Thirty years after two Viking landers drop to the Martian surface and less than a decade after the Sojourner rover was left to explore an ancient Martian flood plain, a robotic spacecraft sent to pick up soil and rock samples from Mars returns to Earth covered by a mysterious green gelatinous material. A breach in containment protocol leaves a technician unprotected to the foreign matter. Soon after, the technician and everyone he came in contact with begin to display symptoms of a new and debilitating disease ! As farfetched as it sounds-and most scientists agree it could never happen-NASA is taking every precaution to make sure that nothing like either of those two scenarios ever has a chance of occurring. "We're taking a conservative approach," said Dr. Michael Meyer, NASA's planetary protection officer. "We don't view outbound or inbound contamination as a problem, but we're going to do the right things to protect against it. We have the means to prevent contamination and do it safely." Planetary protection regulations date back at least to the 1960s when the United States and other space-faring countries signed the United Nations' Treaty of Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space. Known as the Outer Space Treaty, the 1967 document states that the exploration and studies of outer space including the moon and other celestial bodies be done "so as to avoid their harmful contamination and also adverse changes in the environment of the Earth resulting from the introduction of extraterrestrial matter É " NASA policy establishes basic procedures to prevent contamination of planetary bodies. Different requirements apply to different missions, depending on which solar system object is targeted and the spacecraft or mission type-flyby, orbiter, lander, sample-return, etc. There are no outbound (from Earth to celestial body) contamination requirements for the Sun, Moon and Mercury since those celestial bodies have no biological history and, therefore, presumably cannot be contaminated by Earth material. In the case of the recently launched Mars Global Surveyor, the NASA policy centers on an orbital lifetime requirement. Surveyor is designed to remain in orbit for at least 50 years before entering the Martian atmosphere. By then, any contaminants it may carry would be rendered harmless. Also, to ensure that the spent third stage of the launch vehicle flies safely past Mars, the launch trajectory is biased away from the planet. For the upcoming Mars Pathfinder mission, the cleanliness of the spacecraft is the primary concern. Pathfinder's surfaces can contain only a maximum of about 250 spores per square yard (300 spores per square meter). The spacecraft was cleaned to a level consistent with the two Mars Viking landers in 1975 before they were sterilized. Dr. Meyer said that sterilization is no longer considered a requirement for spacecraft which land on Mars. In a 1992 report, the Space Studies Board concluded that there was no chance for an Earth organism to grow on the surface of Mars, but recommended that measures be taken to reduce the amount of matter which may be transported there and could contaminate any samples. NASA now focuses its efforts on a continual cleaning of the spacecraft and monitoring of the spore count, reducing what's called the "bioburden." For the Pathfinder mission, the samples were taken by JPL scientists Dr. Wayne Shubert and Dr. Roger Kern. They processed the samples in NASA's Life Sciences Support Facility at Hangar L, Cape Canaveral Air Station. A three-person KSC/Bionetics team led by Rudy Puleo, manager of medical programs, was given samples at various intervals to verify the procedures and spore counts. Throughout Mars Pathfinder processing, technicians continually cleaned the spacecraft and its components by wiping surfaces with an alcohol solution. Large areas, such as the airbags and parachute, were baked at about 50 hours at 230 degrees Fahrenheit (110 degrees Celsius). With its record low spore count, "the Pathfinder will be the cleanest spacecraft we have sent to Mars," Dr. Meyer declared. Other anti- contamination measures will be taken when NASA sends a robotic spacecraft to Mars on a sample return mission. Prevention of inbound contamination centers on quarantine measures, Dr. Meyer said. Although it is more important to ensure that the sample not contaminate Earth, steps also are taken to keep Earth from contaminating the sample. If there was a problem with containment on the spacecraft, one of the possibilities would be to turn the spacecraft away from Earth and toward the Sun, where it could do no damage. NASA is taking no chances, even though scientists dismiss the possibility that Earth could be infected by an organism from outer space, as depicted in "The Andromeda Strain" by Michael Crichton. "We've been exchanging material with the planets for a long time through meteorites, for example. If there is an andromeda-type thing out there, then it's already come to Earth," Meyer said. ### __________________________________________________________________ NASA's Discovery Program sets mark for future of low-cost missions The Mars Pathfinder mission is the second to be developed under NASA's Discovery Program, which emphasizes improved performance and lower cost through a series of management initiatives. In 1992 the Senate Appropriations Committee directed NASA to prepare a "plan to stimulate and develop small planetary or other space science projects, emphasizing those which could be accomplished by the academic or research communities." The goals of the Discovery Program are to increase flight rates, substantially reduce total mission cost, improve performance through the use of new technology, broaden university and industry participation in solar system exploration missions, and to increase public awareness of solar system exploration. Discovery missions are restricted to 36 months of development (consistent with many academic degree programs); will result in more spacecraft being built (providing opportunities for a larger number of industrial partners and small businesses); and must fall below a salary cap of $150 million for design and development and $35 million for data analysis. The first two Discovery missions, the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) which launched Feb. 17, and Pathfinder, were picked by NASA from concepts already under study when the program was being organized. The third mission, the Lunar Prospector, was selected in February 1995 and the fourth mission, Stardust, was selected in November 1995. ### __________________________________________________________________ Rover driver dreams of putting pedal to metal About 10 minutes before Sojourner makes its first historic move toward the Red Planet's surface, the rover's primary driver, Brian Cooper, will give it the commands to do so from a lab at JPL. Cooper will don a set of 3-D goggles and, using a "space ball" instead of a computer mouse, will guide the rover's movements across an ancient flood plain. Two cameras mounted on the lander spacecraft will give Cooper the "stereo vision" necesary to navigate Sojourner. "It's more like virtual reality with delayed reaction than a remote control car," explains Cooper. "I see the landscape and a cursor that is a scale image of the rover in my goggles and I move the cursor at a snail's pace." Any road hazards not detected by Cooper will be picked up by Sojourner's sensors and the rover has the option to deny an unsafe command. Cooper has worked for 11 years in JPL's rover program and designed much of the software and systems used on Sojourner's mission. "I'm excited about being the first person to drive on Mars, but this is an important geological mission and demonstrating this technology prepares us for longer missions in the future." ### __________________________________________________________________ SIR-C/X-SAR unearths secrets of ancient Nile By MARY HARDIN One of the many great mysteries of the Nile River may be solved with the discovery of an ancient river channel buried under layers of sand in the Sahara Desert in Africa. The buried river channel was revealed in images taken by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X- SAR) that flew twice on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1994. The radar images were processed at JPL and the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD). "One of the things this discovery helps us examine is the origin of what's called the Great Bend of the Nile," said Dr. Bob Stern, a SIR-C science team member in the Programs in Geosciences division at the university. "The Nile generally flows due north, but in the Sudan it makes a huge, looping bend that is really remarkable because the river is flowing through the Sahara Desert, the largest, driest desert on the face of the Earth. "There must be a very good reason for the river to make this great bend," Stern added. "Otherwise we would expect it to flow straight to the Mediterranean Sea." Instead, it bends southwestward and wanders through the Sahara for another 320 kilometers (200 miles) before resuming its northward course. "The discovery of the river channel shows us that probably sometime between 10,000 and 1 million years ago, the Nile was forced to abandon its bed and take up a new course to the south. This buried channel proves that this region has been tectonically active and shows us how this activity has forced the river to change its course," Stern said. "Understanding what controls the course of the Nile is a critical part of understanding the river's history and predicting its behavior, which is important because the river is essential to millions of people in Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia." A scientific paper on the discovery-co-authored by Stern and UTD geologist Dr. Mohamed Gamal Abdelsalam-appeared in the Dec. 6 edition of Science magazine. The discovery grew out of research that the scientists have been doing on plate tectonics and the formation of a "supercontinent" more than 600 million years ago. "Our original experiment involved studying ancient structures in Precambrian rocks that formed where two supercontinents collided hundreds of millions of years ago," explained Stern. "In the course of our study, we became interested in how these structures influenced the course of the Nile." It was the tantalizing radar images of the area hidden beneath the sands of the Sahara that turned the scientists' work in a new direction. "This discovery wouldn't have happened without SIR-C/X-SAR imagery," Stern noted. "Our work in northeast Africa would have been limited to what we could see on the ground or could be seen in satellite photographs. The radar is much more efficient in getting information from these sand- covered areas because the radar waves are able to penetrate the sand. SIR-C/X-SAR imagery has revealed a huge piece of the Earth's surface-an area that's never been seriously explored before," he added. "This is one of the most exciting discoveries from the SIR-C/X-SAR mission to date," said Dr. Diane Evans, the SIR-C project scientist at JPL. "I expect we'll continue to be surprised by fascinating results like these as the science team continues to analyze the radar data. More and more we are finding the radar data have applications to answer questions about the Earth that were not originally anticipated." ### __________________________________________________________________ New infrared camera proves good things come in small packages By JANE PLATT JPL and an industrial partner have unveiled the world's smallest long- wavelength infrared camera, a cutting-edge device with great promise for medicine and commerce. The palmcorder-sized camera, known as the Quantum Well Infrared Photodetector (QWIP) Infracam, was developed by JPL's Microdevices Laboratory in partnership with Inframetrics of Billerica, Mass., as a successor to the previous generation of hand-held QWIP cameras. "The new version of QWIP is four times lighter, has five times less volume and uses 10 times less power than the previous QWIP camera," said JPL technologist Dr. Sarath Gunapala, who helped develop the QWIP technology. "Because of its portability, low power requirements and high- resolution infrared imaging, I envision a wide range of industrial, geologic, medical, law enforcement and military uses." Gunapala pointed out the QWIP Infracam may be useful for maintaining product quality control by detecting overheated parts and faulty welds. "It has great potential for surveillance, concealed weapon detection, medical imaging and observation of volcanoes and other phenomena on Earth," he said. The camera's commercial and safety potentials were also noted by Infracam's Vice President of Research and Development, Norm Stetson, who said, "The camera will be useful whenever heat is a symptom of a fault, such as a loose bolt in an electrical substation or a leak in a roof." The QWIP camera also has potential use for firefighters in locating hotspots and engaging in rescue missions. This application got a trial run during the October 1996 fires in the California beach community of Malibu. The previous generation QWIP camera enabled the crew of a KCAL-TV news helicopter to survey the fire scene and find lingering hotspots. The new, smaller camera weighs 1.1 kilograms (2.5 pounds), including the battery, viewfinder and a 50-millimeter focal length infrared lens. It can run for more than two hours on a standard camcorder battery. The camera features a large-area, long wavelength QWIP focal plane array, which gives it greater sensitivity, resolution and stability than previous infrared cameras. The array can detect infrared radiation in the 8-to 9-micrometer (millionths of a meter) wavelength range. These wavelengths are 20 times longer, or lower in energy, than visible light. At these wavelengths, objects at room temperature glow the same way red- hot objects glow when viewed by the naked eye. The new QWIP camera's focal plane array was developed at JPL, while Inframetrics built the anti-reflection coated germanium lens assembly, the camera body, the electronics and the cryogenic cooler, which runs at 71 Kelvin (minus 326 degrees Fahrenheit). The camera utilizes the AE-166 readout multiplexer, an electronic package which works in conjunction with the focal plane array. The multiplexer was developed by Amber, a subsidiary of Raytheon Co. Funding for the array was supported jointly by the Advanced Technology and Mission Studies Division of NASA's Office of Space Science, and the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. Camera development was sponsored by the U.S. Army Night Vision Directorate. ### __________________________________________________________________ New Mars screen saver available on-line By DIANE AINSWORTH A new computer screen saver made its debut earlier this month, showing the "Sojourner" rover, which was launched Dec. 4 on the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft, as it crisscrosses over or navigates around Martian boulders. The screen saver display is free and available on the Internet for computer users with Windows 3.1 and '95 and Macintosh software. It can be downloaded by accessing the JPL Mars home page at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mars/ The software was designed by JPL as part of an effort to educate the public about the Mars Pathfinder mission and NASA's decade-long program of Mars exploration. It depicts the 60-centimeter (23-inch) long Sojourner microrover that will drive out onto the surface of Mars to explore the composition of rocks and soil in July 1997. Sojourner is able to hurdle small rocks and steer around those that are too large to scale. The rover features several innovative new technologies, including miniaturized electronics and a six-wheeled "rocker-bogie" suspension system that allows it to climb over rocks almost as tall as itself. The new screen saver also includes dramatic scenes of some geologically intriguing regions on Mars that will be photographed by the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter, which was launched on Nov. 7. Surveyor, which will reach Mars on Sept. 12, 1997, will orbit the planet for one full Martian year, the equivalent of 687 Earth days, taking new images of Mars and making scientific measurements of its atmosphere and surface. JPL's new screen saver sequence depicts various dramatic images of Mars, showing increasing detail of some prominent features such as a towering volcano called Olympus Mons and a huge canyon known as Valles Marineris. The closing sequence shows a Viking photograph of Pathfinder's targeted landing site on an ancient flood plain known as Areas Valles. "The images of Mars were rendered here at JPL on our CRAY T3D parallel supercomputer," said Dr. Carl Kukkonen, manager of JPL's Supercomputing Project. "Scenes like this helped the Mars Exploration Program Office at JPL to determine the most ideal landing site for the Pathfinder mission." "This screen saver is another exciting tool that any Windows or Macintosh user can have to learn more about NASA's Mars exploration program," added Dr. Cheick Diarra, manager of the Mars Education and Public Outreach Office at JPL. The screen saver is available in the Windows 3.1, Windows '95 and Macintosh formats to computer users with any version of the "After Dark" screen saver software produced by Berkeley Systems, Inc. The screen saver was a joint effort of JPL andBerkeley Systems of Berkeley, Calif., developer of After Dark screen saver software, which can be downloaded from the Internet by using the following address: http://www.berksys.com The Mars Exploration Program and the Supercomputing Project at JPL supported development of the new Mars exploration screen saver with funding from NASA's Office of Space Science. ### __________________________________________________________________ Technology demo satellite ops transferred across Atlantic By FRANKLIN O'DONNELL Day-to-day routine orbital maintenance of two technology demonstration satellites has been transferred rapidly and inexpensively across the Atlantic from the United Kingdom to an American university, thanks to standards developed by an international program to which NASA was a major contributor. The satellites, Space Technology Research Vehicle (STRV) 1a and 1b, were developed, built and are owned by the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency of the British Ministry of Defence. Responsibility for their routine maintenance has been delegated to the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The transfer was accomplished within four months at a cost of less than $200,000, said Adrian J. Hooke, acting manager of NASA's Space Operations Standards Program at JPL, which facilitated the effort. "This transfer was accomplished quickly and inexpensively thanks to protocols that standardize the way spacecraft and ground systems talk to each other," Hooke said. "These new capabilities drastically lower the cost of integrating, testing and operating spacecraft." Launched in 1994, the two STRV satellites carry an international suite of experiments studying the space environment near Earth. The satellites are in highly elliptical orbits that take them from 300 to 36,000 kilometers (185 to 22,300 miles) above Earth, passing through zones of high radiation. Data acquisition from the STRV spacecraft has been enhanced for much of their mission with tracking support from NASA' s Deep Space Network. Before the hand-off, the STRVs were used early in 1996 to flight-test a suite of new operations protocols currently in development that standardize file transfer, transport, security and network issues in the communications link between the satellites and ground. "In essence, the new way of communicating with spacecraft will look a lot like the Internet," Hooke said. "You will be able to transfer files to and from the spacecraft just as you do on the Internet using what is known as file transfer protocol (FTP) and the transmission control protocol (TCP)." After operating the satellites for two years, the British Defence Research Agency this year needed to close its ground station at Lasham, England, for refurbishment in preparation for the planned 1999 launch of the next two STRVs. JPL suggested the operational transfer of the STRV satellites to the University of Colorado as a demonstration of the new international interoperability standards and as a way to both continue their scientific missions and also to use them as "flying testbeds" for new standards technologies. Key among the protocols that eased the transition are new telemetry and telecommand interfaces between both spacecraft and ground systems that conform to standards developed by the international Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems. "Packetized telemetry and telecommand standards are the underpinnings of all space missions from here on out," Hooke said. "You will see then on low Earth orbiters, planetary spacecraft like Cassini, the international space station-they are becoming the universal way of communicating with spacecraft." Hooke said that the effort marked the first time responsibility for routine orbital maintenance of satellites had been delegated across national borders to a university. The British Defense Research Agency retains full ownership and executive control of the STRV satellites and will determine their final disposition at the end of their lifetimes. The cooperative effort-which included the involvement of NASA Headquarters, the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center and the U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense Organization-also marks the beginning of a new era in which NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense hope to realize large cost savings by using strategic joint standardization in order to greatly increase the level of commonality and interoperability across the U.S. civil and military space programs. JPL manages the Space Operations Standards Program for NASA's Office of Space Flight. ### __________________________________________________________________ JPLer dons heavy gear at KSC Lorraine Garcia of the Quality Assurance Office 506 recently became the first female JPL employee to participate in a spacecraft fueling operation at Kennedy Space Center when she performed a vital job for Pathfinder, one which prepared the filling of the spacecraft's flight system about a month prior to launch. A stress tradmill test and other strenuous physical exams prepared her for putting on and wearing heavy protective apparatus called a self contained atmosphere protective ensemble (SCAPE) suit, as well as the fueling operation itself. "I was excited to learn that I'm the first woman to do this," Garcia said. "I figured that if the men can do it, so can I." The fire-resistant suit weighs about 10.5 kilograms (23 pounds) and provides protection against propellant vapors or liquid spills. KSC regulations require that the maximum time allowed in the suit is four hours, requiring her to change out of the suit and put it back on several times. ""It was very tiring and draining to the body," Garcia said. "It was unbearable at times, but I was able to calm myself. "I'd like to do it again, if I had the opportunity," she said. "All in all, it went really smoothly." ### __________________________________________________________________ IBS, NBS debut training facility By CAROL GUERERRO, NBS communications team and ERIC KURTZ, IBS training team With the ceremonial snip of a ribbon, JPL's Institutional Business Systems (IBS) Division and New Business Solutions (NBS) Project unveiled their new state-of-the-art training facility Dec. 6 at the facility in Building 602 on Woodbury Road. Following the ribbon-cutting by IBS Manager Pandora Ovanessian and NBS Manager Patricia Monaghan, an open house featured tours of the facility's training and server rooms, demonstrations of training videos and computer-based training, Oracle application demos and training information booths operated by partnering training providers, including Oracle Education, Learning Tree International, Sun Education and the JPL Training and Education Consortium. Approximately 150 people from IBS, NBS and JPL user organizations attended the event. The training facility consists of a classroom with 12 student workstations, an instructor workstation connected to a ceiling-mounted projector, a television and video cassette player, and seating for 24 students. Adjacent to the classroom is a separate room for computer-based training. NBS information technology manager David Werntz showed guests the server room in Building 600, which houses five new Sun servers: two are Sun 5000s and three are Sun 3000s. Currently, only one of these servers is fully functional in support of the training facility. The new training facility and server room will support JPL's transition from the current mainframe-based Dunn & Bradstreet McCormick and Dodge business systems, formerly known as MASS, to client/server technology and Oracle business applications. Both are currently being used to educate NBS personnel about Oracle application capabilities; this in turn will ensure that the reengineering of JPL's business processes is consistent with Oracle applications. Technical training is also currently being provided to IBS and NBS personnel who will be responsible for supporting the new applications and systems. As implementation approaches in fiscal year 1998, training will be rolled out to users Labwide. The IBS and NBS training effort is being led by the IBS training team, which includes Theresa Armstrong, Cherie Bartlett, Melanie Bentley-Smith and Eric Kurtz and is supervised by Acquisition and Information Systems Manager Robert Barge. In addition to supporting the transition to Oracle applications and technology, the IBS training team continues to support IBS legacy application training, which includes Services and Acquisition Systems (SAS) and Resource Information Systems (RIS) training. The team is also actively involved in JPL's Education and Training Consortium along with Computer Education, Safety, Acquisition, and Professional Development. ### __________________________________________________________________ Call nears for 1997 TQM medallion award nominations TQM Medallion Awards are now being conferred to recognize the JPL teams and individuals who substantively improve existing JPL work processes. The Bronze Medallion Upgrade Award is for teams or individuals who make sustained improvements (e.g., eliminating unnecessary steps or obsolete rules) with a cumulative effect of enhancing the overall process quality. The Silver Medallion Innovation Award is for teams or individuals applying tools and techniques (e.g., labor-intensive actions brought under software control) that improve a process in ways producing higher quality products or services. The Gold Medallion Redesign Award is for teams or individuals who redesign a process (e.g., telephone services) and by so doing cause the process to deliver superior quality products or services. TQM Medallion Awards are conferred twice each year and are presented to those so recognized by the JPL Director Dr. Edward Stone or Deputy Director Larry Dumas, accompanied by directors of organizations to which nominees are assigned and by TQM Administrator Susan Stephenson who, together with the directors of nominee organizations, selects and recommends nominations for TQM awards to Stone. Any JPL team or individual who makes, measures and reports successful improvements of an existing JPL work process can be nominated for a TQM Medallion Award and is welcome to self-nominate. The submittals should include the following information: - Process identity (what is the work that is being performed?). - Previous state of the process (sketch the old steps for performing work; show in the sketch how the original work activities were linked together). - Improvements made (what changed in the ways this work was done?). - Who made the changes (list names and JPL addresses of everyone who actually carried out the improvements. Team nominations must include JPL participants and can include contractor participants). - Current state of the process (sketch the new steps for performing work; show in the sketch how changed work activities are now linked together). - Metrics attesting to improvement (what tells you the process improved? Measurement of results might be customer feedback, cost reductions, time saved, the number of items produced, or requirements serviced, etc.). The first 1997 TQM Medallion Award nominations are due Jan. 10. Mail submittals to Stephenson, Bldg. 180-505; e-mail to Stephenson, Susan N @ JPL-DIV30; or fax to 3-0085. TQM AwardÐwinning teams and/or individuals will be announced Feb. 10, 1997. ### __________________________________________________________________ Committee will review Award for Excellence nominations in January A selection committee has been named to review nominations and select award recipients for the upcoming Award for Excellence. The 10-member committee consists of at least one delegate from each JPL organization and represents the Lab's diverse population, said Reward and Recognition Administrator Monica Garcia. The committee includes Edward Ng (program manager, Section 171); Barbara Carter (technical manager, Section 215); Marjorie Burris (administrative secretary, Section 392); Gerald Hintz (technical manager, Section 312); Craig Sholes (staff assistant, Section 480); Kirk Barrow (member of the technical staff, Section 516); Mary Helen Ruiz (administrative assistant, Section 625); David Swenson (member of the technical staff, Section 664); Carol Fisher (administrative assistant, Section 880); and Patrick Beyer (member of the technical staff, Section 920). "The Award for Excellence is an employee-owned program that promotes nominations from all JPL employees," Garcia said. "The call for nominations for this cash award will begin Jan. 13 and continue for three weeks." Garcia added that during the nomination period, JPL employees can nominate any other Lab employee for an award, which consists of four categories: technical excellence, business operations excellence, exceptional quality and exceptional leadership. The award ceremony will be held in April 1997. Garcia said all employees will receive notification about the program during the second week of January. For more information, call her at ext. 4-3825 or visit the program's home page at http://epic/sec614/ reward/rr.htm. ### __________________________________________________________________ News briefs Dr. John Trauger, principal investigator for JPL's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, has been named winner of the 1997 Harold Masursky Award for meritorious service to planetary science. The honor is awarded by the American Astronomical Society's Division of Planetary Sciences, and recognizes and honors individuals who have rendered outstanding service to planetary science and exploration through engineering, managerial, programmatic or public service activities. This is the first time a JPL employee has been awarded any Division of Planetary Sciences prize. ### The winners of JPL's Notable Organizational Value-Added (NOVA) Awards for November have been announced: Section 195: Richard Hann, Linda Rogers, Joy Young. Section 353: Carl Engelbrecht, Sylvia Rivera, Glenn Tsuyuki. Section 391: Nancy Feagans, Tanisha Smith. Section 627: Karen Maskew. ### The Caltech Jazz and Concert Bands are seeking musicians who play the French horn and trombone. Those interested can call music director Bill Bing at (213) 684-8964. ### The Caltech Architectural Tour Service will resume its schedule of architectural tours of the campus on Jan. 23. Although no tour was scheduled for December, they are normally held on the fourth Thursday of each month at 11 a.m. Tours last about one and a half hours and are open to the public. For reservations, call Susan Lee at (818) 395-6327. ### __________________________________________________________________ Base pay program Web site on line A World Wide Web site for JPL's new Base Pay Program is now available for employees. The site provides access to basic information about the program; additional information will be added in the coming weeks. The address: http://epic/hr/ Compensation/bphome2.htm. The address is case-sensitive. ### __________________________________________________________________ Credits This issue of Universe is partially adapted from a recently released special edition of the Kennedy Space Center's Spaceport News. Special thanks go to members of the Sherikon writers group at KSC who contributed to this issue, particularly Spaceport News managing editor Barb Compton. ### __________________________________________________________________ Universe Editor, Mark Whalen Photos, JPL Photo Lab Universe is published every other Friday by the Public Affairs Office of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109.