Morphological biosignatures and the search for life on Mars

This report provides a rationale for the advances in instrumentation and understanding needed to assess claims of ancient and extraterrestrial life made on the basis of morphological biosignatures. Morphological biosignatures consist of bona fide microbial fossils as well as microbially influenced sedimentary structures. To be recognized as evidence of life, microbial fossils must contain chemical and structural attributes uniquely indicative of microbial cells or cellular or extracellular processes. When combined with various research strategies, high-resolution instruments can reveal such attributes and elucidate how morphological fossils form and become altered, thereby improving the ability to recognize them in the geological record on Earth or other planets. Also, before fossilized microbially influenced sedimentary structures can provide evidence of life, criteria to distinguish their biogenic from non-biogenic attributes must be established. This topic can be advanced by developing process-based models. A database of images and spectroscopic data that distinguish the suite of bona fide morphological biosignatures from their abiotic mimics will avoid detection of false-positives for life. The use of high-resolution imaging and spectroscopic instruments, in conjunction with an improved knowledge base of the attributes that demonstrate life, will maximize our ability to recognize and assess the biogenicity of extraterrestrial and ancient terrestrial life.     

Titan aerosol analogues: analysis of the nonvolatile tholins

Laboratory experiments that produced tholins in a simulated Titan atmosphere were conducted. We report the first systematic analyses of these compounds using Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry. The findings suggest surprising simplicity and nonrandomness in the mass distribution and regularity in species clusters. The degree of unsaturation generally increased with increasing molecular weight in a predictable fashion, and nitrogen is proposed as the dominant carrier of unsaturation. In detected compounds with a general formula of C(x)H(y)N(z), the carbon to nitrogen ratio (x/z) varied only slightly within a narrow limit, and decreased with increasing molecular weights. These compounds are of potential prebiotic interest since they sediment to the surface of Titan, and would dissolve readily in transient aqueous pools that might be generated from time to time by impacts and volcanic     

Quantification of spatial structure of human proximal tibial bone biopsies using 3D measures of complexity

Changes in trabecular bone composition during development of osteoporosis are used as a model for bone loss in microgravity conditions during a space flight. Symbolic dynamics and measures of complexity are proposed and applied to assess quantitatively the structural composition of bone tissue from 3D data sets of human tibia bone biopsies acquired by a micro-CT scanner. In order to justify the newly proposed approach, the measures of complexity of the bone architecture were compared with the results of traditional 2D bone histomorphometry. The proposed technique is able to quantify the structural loss of the bone tissue and may help to diagnose and to monitor changes in bone structure of patients on Earth as well as of the space-flying personnel.     

Eutectic phases in ice facilitate nonenzymatic nucleic acid synthesis

Polymeric compounds similar to oligonucleotides are relevant to the origin of life and particularly to the concept of an RNA world. Although short oligomers of RNA can be synthesized nonenzymatically under laboratory conditions by second-order reactions in concentrated solutions, there is no consensus on how these polymers could have been synthesized de novo on the early Earth from dilute solutions of monomers. To address this question in the context of an RNA world, we have explored ice eutectic phases as a reaction medium. When an aqueous solution freezes, the solutes become concentrated in the spaces between the ice crystals. The increased concentration offsets the effect of the lower temperature and accelerates the reaction. Here we show that in the presence of metal ions in dilute solutions, frozen samples of phosphoimidazolide-activated uridine react within days at -18 degrees C to form oligouridylates up to 11 bases long. Product yields typically exceed 90%, and approximately 30% of the oligomers include one or more 3'-5' linkages. These conditions facilitate not only the notoriously difficult oligouridylate synthesis, but also the oligomerization of activated cytidylate, adenylate, and guanylate. To our knowledge, this represents the first report to indicate that ice matrices on the early Earth may have accelerated certain prebiotic polymerization reactions.     

用甚长基线干涉仪同步时钟

1977年3月28日,利用甚长基线干涉仪对数个河外射电源进行了观测,借此同步了位于麻省海斯答克(Haystack)天文台和西弗吉尼亚州国立射电天文台(NRAO)的两台氢原子钟,9月23日又进行了一次。在8个360千赫频段上顺序进行观测,这8个频段分布在8.4～8.5千兆赫内,各频段之间相隔一定频率,以便无模糊地测定两站观测同一信源所接收到的各信号之间的群延时差,不确定度小于1~ns,这主要是接收机噪声造成的。分析数小时内的观测结果,估算出每次实验中各天文台时钟之间的初始时刻差和速率差。修正天线、馈源、接收机和记录器的延时,即可测定时钟时刻差的绝对值。每一次实验,均将搬运钟从华盛顿特区的海军天文台(USNO)空运到上述两天文台,然后返回海军天文台。甚长基线干涉仪同步之后,分析飞行钟的数据,可以看出,第一次、第二次甚长基线干涉仪同步结果与搬运钟数据的符合程度分别为18和14毫微秒。     

石英的高温谐振损耗和红外特征

本文介绍由高级人造晶体和电解晶体制成的谐振器在150至350℃范围内的串联谐振电阻作为衡量声损耗的尺度所取得的一些结果。观察到的所有生成态晶体谐振器的电阻均随温度呈指数增大。电阻的增大是因为锂或钠杂质迁移的缘故。经过扫掠处理的这种材料未显示出呈指数增大的规律,并且未发现空气扫掠和真空扫掠材料之间有本质上的差别。通过在空气和真空中的两种扫掠样品的红外光谱,观测到强的 Al-OH~-相关带。在短期真空扫掠实验中,发现生成态 OH~-带强度的减小几乎总是发生在扫掠开始之后一瞬间,可是 Al-OH~-带直到扫掠几小时后才形成。在空气扫掠的样品中,由于氢是由大气中的水蒸气供给的,因此,Al-OH~-带总是在一瞬间出现,而生成态晶体的 OH~-带基本保持不变。     

用丝锥攻钛合金螺纹时的切削力和精度

本文列出了攻钛合金螺纹时,丝锥几何参数影响切削扭矩和螺帽螺纹中径的研究结果。用丝锥攻钛合金螺纹时,对扭矩和螺帽螺纹中径影响最大的是:螺纹型面侧后角,切削锥角和切削锥后角。本文还确定了丝锥的最佳几何参数。     

实时交互式显示环境——航天飞机飞控人员开发的显示生成工具

NASA的飞控中心(MCC)位于约翰逊航天中心,正逐渐从一个集中式结构演变成一个分布式结构。从STS—29开始,一些由主机驱动的控制台屏幕将由工作站驱动的图形终端取代。这些工作站首先由实时数据系统(RTDS)—一个内部开发的系统—提供实时数据,接着数月后(与RTDS并行)再由飞控中心改造(MCCU)软件包的过渡性和最终版本提供。航天飞机飞控人员建立实时交互式显示环境(RTIDE,以便支持航天飞机任务多种新显示的快速开发。RTIDE是一种显示生成工具,允许非统程人员定义面向目标、事件驱动、可用鼠标选择的显示。特别强调RTIDE版本间的向上兼容性、从不同数据源获取数据的能力、实时性能、模块化更新RTIDE的能力、机器可移植性以及一个清晰而强有力的用户接口。本文介绍了使 RTIDE成为当前形式的操作与组织因素,具体设计方案,仿真与飞行操作性能及其建造过程中得到的经验教训。     

八十年代空军西靶场数据处理的现代化

本文概述了西靶场(西航天和导弹中心)自动数据处理系统(ADPS)八十年代的现代化计划。该计划不仅包括了西靶场用于执行传统的数据处理任务的系统,而且涉及到有关管理信息、大楼入口和环境控制问题。本文不介绍具体的技术指标、投资金额及计划安排等内容。政府部门格外关心的可能是1981年10月制定的《西靶场自动数据处理的现代化计划》。如果其它部门也对此感兴趣,可以索取该文件及有关资料。