Iron-sulfide-bearing chimneys as potential catalytic energy traps at life's emergence

The concept that life emerged where alkaline hydrogen-bearing submarine hot springs exhaled into the most ancient acidulous ocean was used as a working hypothesis to investigate the nature of precipitate membranes. Alkaline solutions at 25-70°C and pH between 8 and 12, bearing HS(-)±silicate, were injected slowly into visi-jars containing ferrous chloride to partially simulate the early ocean on this or any other wet and icy, geologically active rocky world. Dependent on pH and sulfide content, fine tubular chimneys and geodal bubbles were generated with semipermeable walls 4-100?μm thick that comprised radial platelets of nanometric mackinawite [FeS]±ferrous hydroxide [～Fe(OH)(2)], accompanied by silica and, at the higher temperature, greigite [Fe(3)S(4)]. Within the chimney walls, these platelets define a myriad of micropores. The interior walls of the chimneys host iron sulfide framboids, while, in cases where the alkaline solution has a pH>11 or relatively low sulfide content, their exteriors exhibit radial flanges with a spacing of ～4?μm that comprise microdendrites of ferrous hydroxide. We speculate that this pattern results from outward and inward radial flow through the chimney walls. The outer Fe(OH)(2) flanges perhaps precipitate where the highly alkaline flow meets the ambient ferrous iron-bearing fluid, while the intervening troughs signal where the acidulous iron-bearing solutions could gain access to the sulfidic and alkaline interior of the chimneys, thereby leading to the precipitation of the framboids. Addition of soluble pentameric peptides enhances membrane durability and accentuates the crenulations on the chimney exteriors. These dynamic patterns may have implications for acid-base catalysis and the natural proton motive force acting through the matrix of the porous inorganic membrane. Thus, within such membranes, steep redox and pH gradients would bear across the nanometric platelets and separate the two counter-flowing solutions, a condition that may have led to the onset of an autotrophic metabolism through the reduction of carbon dioxide.     

Degradation of cyanobacterial biosignatures by ionizing radiation

Primitive photosynthetic microorganisms, either dormant or dead, may remain today on the martian surface, akin to terrestrial cyanobacteria surviving endolithically in martian analog sites on Earth such as the Antarctic Dry Valleys and the Atacama Desert. Potential markers of martian photoautotrophs include the red edge of chlorophyll reflectance spectra or fluorescence emission from systems of light-harvesting pigments. Such biosignatures, however, would be modified and degraded by long-term exposure to ionizing radiation from the unshielded cosmic ray flux onto the martian surface. In this initial study into this issue, three analytical techniques--absorbance, reflectance, and fluorescence spectroscopy--were employed to determine the progression of the radiolytic destruction of cyanobacteria. The pattern of signal loss for chlorophyll reflection and fluorescence from several biomolecules is characterized and quantified after increasing exposures to ionizing gamma radiation. This allows estimation of the degradation rates of cyanobacterial biosignatures on the martian surface and the identification of promising detectable fluorescent break-down products.     

Reducing biological contamination by a space suited astronaut: Laboratory and field test results from Aouda.X

As part of the “PolAres” research programme, we are investigating techniques to detect and reduce forward contamination of the Mars regolith during human exploration. We report here on the development of a spacesuit simulator-prototype dubbed “Aouda.X,” document the inability of current technology to produce a static charge sufficient to minimize dust transport on the suit, and present preliminary results employing laser induced fluorescence emission (L.I.F.E.) techniques to monitor fluorescent microspherules as biological contamination proxies.     

The Dawn Spacecraft

The Dawn spacecraft is designed to travel to and operate in orbit around the two largest main belt asteroids, Vesta and Ceres. Developed to meet a ten-year life and fully redundant, the spacecraft accommodates an ion propulsion system, including three ion engines and xenon propellant tank, utilizes large solar arrays to power the engines, carries the science instrument payload, and hosts the hardware and software required to successfully collect and transmit the scientific data back to Earth. The launch of the Dawn spacecraft in September 2007 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station was the culmination of nearly five years of design, development, integration and testing of this unique system, one of the very few scientific spacecraft to rely on ion propulsion. The Dawn spacecraft arrived at its first destination, Vesta, in July 2011, where it will conduct science operations for twelve months before departing for Ceres.     

It''s all a matter of fact. After all, fact matters

The fourth annual ‘British Rocketry Oral History Project’ (BROHP) conference was held from 2 to 4 April 2002, again in the magnificent grounds of Charterhouse School in Surrey. The conference marked a new point in its brief history, enlarged in scope and depth to extend to a new audience; yet one point remained constant throughout, namely that ‘history matters’. This report discusses the themes of the 2002 conference.     

Supplying Earth-observation data from space

This article uses the context of the Earth Observing System (EOS) to address two sets of economic and policy issues that have been fundamental to the rancorous debate over EOS, and which promise to figure prominently in future discussion of other US space activities. The first set of issues concerns whether the purported cost savings from larger-scale spacecraft and multiple-sensor coordination are substantial enough to justify large-scale approaches, and the differences in the risk associated with the large-scale projects compared to smaller-scale alternatives. The second set of issues concerns the institutional organization of projects, namely whether a project's technology should be an almost exclusively governmentally funded, owned and operated activity as is now the case, or whether there could be a larger role than now envisaged for the commercial space sector.     

Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL): Mapping the Lunar Interior from Crust to Core

The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) is a spacecraft-to-spacecraft tracking mission that was developed to map the structure of the lunar interior by producing a detailed map of the gravity field. The resulting model of the interior will be used to address outstanding questions regarding the Moon’s thermal evolution, and will be applicable more generally to the evolution of all terrestrial planets. Each GRAIL orbiter contains a Lunar Gravity Ranging System instrument that conducts dual-one-way ranging measurements to measure precisely the relative motion between them, which in turn are used to develop the lunar gravity field map. Each orbiter also carries an Education/Public Outreach payload, Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle-School Students (MoonKAM), in which middle school students target images of the Moon for subsequent classroom analysis. Subsequent to a successful launch on September 10, 2011, the twin GRAIL orbiters embarked on independent trajectories on a 3.5-month-long cruise to the Moon via the EL-1 Lagrange point. The spacecraft were inserted into polar orbits on December 31, 2011 and January 1, 2012. After a succession of 19 maneuvers the two orbiters settled into precision formation to begin science operations in March 1, 2012 with an average altitude of 55 km. The Primary Mission, which consisted of three 27.3-day mapping cycles, was successfully completed in June 2012. The extended mission will permit a second three-month mapping phase at an average altitude of 23 km. This paper provides an overview of the mission: science objectives and measurements, spacecraft and instruments, mission development and design, and data flow and data products.     

Atmosphere-ionosphere coupling from convectively generated gravity waves

Ionospheric variability impacts operational performances of a variety of technological systems, such as HF communication, Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation, and radar surveillance. The ionosphere is not only perturbed by geomagnetic inputs but is also influenced by atmospheric tides and other wave disturbances propagating from the troposphere to high altitudes. Atmospheric Gravity Waves (AGWs) excited by meteorological sources are one of the largest sources of mesoscale variability in the ionosphere. In this paper, Total Electron Content (TEC) data from networks of GPS receivers in the United States are analyzed to investigate AGWs in the ionosphere generated by convective thunderstorms. Two case studies of convectively generated gravity waves are presented. On April 4, 2014 two distinct large convective systems in Texas and Arkansas generated two sets of concentric AGWs that were observed in the ionosphere as Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances (TIDs). The period of the observed TIDs was 20.8 min, the horizontal wavelength was 182.4 km, and the horizontal phase speed was 146.4 m/s. The second case study shows TIDs generated from an extended squall line on December 23, 2015 stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes in North America. Unlike the concentric wave features seen in the first case study, the extended squall line generated TIDs, which exhibited almost plane-parallel phase fronts. The TID period was 20.1 min, its horizontal wavelength was 209.6 km, and the horizontal phase speed was 180.1 m/s. The AGWs generated by both of these meteorological events have large vertical wavelength (>100 km), which are larger than the F2 layer thickness, thus allowing them to be discernible in the TEC dataset.     

A deorbiter CubeSat for active orbital debris removal

This paper introduces a mission concept for active removal of orbital debris based on the utilization of the CubeSat form factor. The CubeSat is deployed from a carrier spacecraft, known as a mothership, and is equipped with orbital and attitude control actuators to attach to the target debris, stabilize its attitude, and subsequently move the debris to a lower orbit where atmospheric drag is high enough for the bodies to burn up. The mass and orbit altitude of debris objects that are within the realms of the CubeSat’s propulsion capabilities are identified. The attitude control schemes for the detumbling and deorbiting phases of the mission are specified. The objective of the deorbiting maneuver is to decrease the semi-major axis of the debris orbit, at the fastest rate, from its initial value to a final value of about 6471?km (i.e., 100?km above Earth considering a circular orbit) via a continuous low-thrust orbital transfer. Two case studies are investigated to verify the performance of the deorbiter CubeSat during the detumbling and deorbiting phases of the mission. The baseline target debris used in the study are the decommissioned KOMPSAT-1 satellite and the Pegasus rocket body. The results show that the deorbiting times for the target debris are reduced significantly, from several decades to one or two years.     

Application of time-variable process noise in terrestrial reference frames determined from VLBI data

In recent years, Kalman filtering has emerged as a suitable technique to determine terrestrial reference frames (TRFs), a prime example being JTRF2014. The time series approach allows variations of station coordinates that are neither reduced by observational corrections nor considered in the functional model to be taken into account. These variations are primarily due to non-tidal geophysical loading effects that are not reduced according to the current IERS Conventions (2010). It is standard practice that the process noise models applied in Kalman filter TRF solutions are derived from time series of loading displacements and account for station dependent differences. So far, it has been assumed that the parameters of these process noise models are constant over time. However, due to the presence of seasonal and irregular variations, this assumption does not truly reflect reality. In this study, we derive a station coordinate process noise model allowing for such temporal variations. This process noise model and one that is a parameterized version of the former are applied in the computation of TRF solutions based on very long baseline interferometry data. In comparison with a solution based on a constant process noise model, we find that the station coordinates are affected at the millimeter level.