Early martian environments: the Antarctic and other terrestrial analogs.

The comparability of the early environments of Mars and Earth, and the biological evolution which occurred on early earth, motivates serious consideration of the possibility of an early martian biota. Environments which could have contained this early martian life and which may presently contain evidence of this former life include aquatic, ice, soil, and rock habitats. Several analogs of these potential early martian environments, which can provide useful information in searching for extinct life on Mars, are currently available for study on Earth. These terrestrial analogs include the perennially ice-covered lakes and sandstone rocks in the Polar Deserts of Antarctica, surface of snowfields and glaciers, desert soils, geothermal springs, and deep subsurface environments.     

Planetary protection issues for sample return missions.

Sample return missions from a comet nucleus and the Mars surface are currently under study in the US, USSR, and by ESA. Guidance on Planetary Protection (PP) issues is needed by mission scientists and engineers for incorporation into various elements of mission design studies. Although COSPAR has promulgated international policy on PP for various classes of solar system exploration missions, the applicability of this policy to sample return missions, in particular, remains vague. In this paper, we propose a set of implementing procedures to maintain the scientific integrity of these samples. We also propose that these same procedures will automatically assure that COSPAR-derived PP guidelines are achieved. The recommendations discussed here are the first step toward development of official COSPAR implementation requirements for sample return missions.     

Bio-markers and the search for extinct life on Mars.

Geologic and climatologic studies suggest that conditions on early Mars were similar to early Earth. Because life on Earth is believed to have originated during this early period (3.5 billion years ago), the Martian environment could have also been conducive to the origin of life. To investigate this possibility we must first define the attributes of an early Martian biota. Then, specific geographic locations on Mars must be chosen where life may have occurred (i.e. areas which had long standing water), and within these distinct locations search for key signatures or bio-markers of a possible extinct Martian biota. Some of the key signatures or bio-markers indicative of past biological activity on Earth may be applicable to Mars including: reduced carbon and nitrogen compounds, CO3(2-), SO4(2-), NO3-, NO2- [correction of NO2(2)], Mg, Mn, Fe, and certain other metals, and the isotopic ratios of C, N and S. However, we must also be able to distinguish abiotic from biologic origins for these bio-markers. For example, abiotically fixed N2 would form deposits of NO3- and NO2-, whereas biological processes would have reduced these to ammonium containing compounds, N2O, or N2, which would then be released to the atmosphere. A fully equipped Mars Rover might be able to perform analyses to measure most of these biomarkers while on the Martian surface.     

Neoplastic transformation of mouse C3H 10T1/2 and Syrian hamster embryo cells by heavy ions.

C3H 10T1/2 mouse-embryo fibroblasts were used for transformation experiments to study the effectiveness of various heavy ions with energies up to 20 MeV/u and LET values from 170 to 16,000 keV/micrometers. The transformation frequency per unit absorbed dose decreased with increasing ionization density; at the highest values of LET we found a decrease even of the transformation efficiency per unit fluence. Uranium ions at energies of 5, 9, and 16.3 MeV/u did not induce any transformation. In additional studies primary Syrian hamster embryo cells (SHE) were exposed to heavy ions in order to characterize cytological and molecular changes which may be correlated with neoplastic transformation. Growth behaviour, chromosomal status, tumorigenicity in nude mice, and expression of oncogenes of transformed cell lines were examined     

The Future of UAS: Standards, Regulations, and Operational Experiences [Workshop Report]

The outcomes of "the future of UAS: standards, regulations and operational experiences" workshop, held on the 7 -8 December 2006, in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The goal of the workshop was to identify recent international activities in the unmanned airborne systems (UAS) airspace integration problem. The workshop attracted a broad cross-section of the UAS community, including: airspace and safety regulators, developers, operators, and researchers. The three themes of discussion were: progress in the development of standards and regulations; lessons learnt from recent operations; and advances in new technologies. This summarises the activities of the workshop and explores the important outcomes and trends as perceived by these authors.     

Re-analysis of the cosmic ray ground level enhancement of 4 May 1960.

The relativistic solar particle event of 4 May 1960, resulting in a cosmic ray ground level enhancement, occurred well before modern analysis techniques were available. We have located surviving data from 23 neutron monitors and have used these to estimate the spectrum, mean arrival direction and particle pitch angle distribution as the event progressed. We find that the apparent particle arrival direction was at equatorial latitudes, over northern South America, in contrast to contemporary analyses that proposed it to be over North America. Our modified power law spectra are broadly consistent with earlier results. Data from stations above sea level need to be corrected for altitude using a two-attenuation length technique. The standard method involves comparison of data from two relatively close stations at significantly different altitude. We have shown that this method may be unreliable in cases, such as this, of quite sharp anisotropy.     

Programmable ultrawideband signal generator for electromagnetic susceptibility testing

Under Phase I of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Networking in Extreme Environments (NETEX) initiative, Multispectral Solutions, Inc. (MSSI) was tasked with the development of a general-purpose, ultrawideband hardware simulator capable of reproducing a wide variety of ultrawideband (UWB) waveforms. The simulator, with UWB outputs from baseband through millimeter wave, was to be used for the purpose of electromagnetic susceptibility testing of legacy military radio, radar, and positioning systems. The ultimate goal of this portion of the Phase I program was the quantitative determination of those UWB parameters (e.g., frequency, power, pulse rate, pulse shape, dithering, etc.) which had the least impact on the operational performance of legacy designs. This describes the development of the MSSI NETEX UWB simulator (BFP1000).     

GPS based IPS for ERP vehicles

GPS is an innovative technique for an electronic road pricing (ERP) system. By using GPS technology, ERP systems will be extremely efficient and cost-effective. This paper describes the next generation of ERP in Singapore and proposes a GPS based multisensor positioning system for ERP vehicles. Multisensor fusion algorithms are presented for the integration system. The integrated positioning system (IPS) developed in this paper makes it possible to realize GPS based ERP with a simple composition and low cost     

Plants--rhizospheric organisms interaction in a manmade system with and without biogenous element limitation.

The effect has been studied of inoculation of seeds of wheat with two species of rhizospheric microorganisms--Pseudomonas fluorescens and Pseudomonas putida--on young plant growth with complete and with nitrogen deficit mineral nutrition. With complete mineral medium, plants grown from seeds inoculated with bacteria of Pseudomonas genus (experiment plants) have been found to have better growth over plants not inoculated with these bacteria (control plants). The experiment plants had increased transpiration and their biomass had higher organic nitrogen content. With nitrogen deficit medium, the plants inoculated with bacteria and those without them, have not revealed changes in growth. Neither case demonstrated competition of microorganisms with plants for nitrogen sources.