JPL's John Casani Honored by Air and Space Museum

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

DC Agle 818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle@jpl.nasa.gov

Isabel Lara 202-633-2374
Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, Washington
LaraI@si.edu

NEWS RELEASE: 2009-076 April 30, 2009

JPL's John Casani Honored by Air and Space Museum

John Casani of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has been honored
with the National Air and Space Museum's prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award.
The award, the museum's highest honor, was presented to Casani during an April 29,
black tie event at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum building in
Washington.

"John was here at the beginning when JPL moved from building rockets to building
spacecraft for exploring the planets and deep space," said JPL Director Charles Elachi.
"He helped lay the foundation of how we approach project management and build
spacecraft – essentially how our nation would explore space. And when today we send
these rovers and other spacecraft on missions across the solar system, we are really
standing on the shoulders of giants like John Casani."

Casani's work can be found at the farthest reaches of our solar system. He began his
career at JPL in the mid-1950s, working on the lab's Jupiter and Sergeant rocket
programs. He went on to become an engineer on the early Pioneer moon missions and led
the design team for both the Ranger and Mariner spacecraft. Casani held senior project
positions on many of the Mariner missions to Mars and Venus, and in 1970 became
project manager of Mariner 6 and Mariner 7. Later, Casani would project-manage
NASA's Voyager mission to the outer planets, Galileo mission to Jupiter, and Cassini
mission to Saturn, as well as the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter mission. Today, Casani is
Special Assistant to the Director at JPL.

Casani has been honored with several NASA awards, including the Distinguished Service
Medal (NASA's highest award). He has received the American Institute of Aeronautics
and Astronautics (AIAA) Space System Award, the von Karman Lectureship, the
National Space Club Astronauts Engineer Award, and the American Astronomical
Society's Space Flight Award. He is a Fellow of the AIAA and is a member of the
National Academy of Engineering and the International Astronautics Academy. In 1965,
the president of Italy awarded Casani the Italian Order of Merit and bestowed on him the
title of Commendatore.

John Casani holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering and an honorary
doctor of science degree from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and an
honorary degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Rome, Italy.

Also honored last night with the Air and Space Museum's 2009 Lifetime Achievement
was NASA test pilot and two-time shuttle astronaut Gordon Fullerton.

Established in 1985, the National Air and Space Museum Lifetime Achievement
Award is presented annually to recognize outstanding achievement in scientific or
technological endeavors relating to air and space technology and exploration. Previous
recipients of the Lifetime Achievement award include Apollo astronaut Neil
Armstrong and scientist James Van Allen.

For more information on JPL please visit us on the Web at: www.jpl.nasa.gov ,

For more information on the National Air and Space Museum Trophy and other awards in
the museum's collections, visit http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/aero/trophy/ .

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News from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Alan Buis 1-818-354-0474
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Alan.buis@jpl.nasa.gov

Beth Hagenauer 1-661-276-7960
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif.
beth.hagenauer@nasa.gov

News release: 2009-075 April 30, 2009

Arctic Trek to 'Break the Ice' on New NASA Airborne Radars

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA will 'break the ice' on a pair of new airborne radars that can help
monitor climate change when a team of scientists embarks this week on a two-month expedition to
the vast, frigid terrain of Greenland and Iceland.

Scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and Dryden Flight Research
Center, Edwards, Calif., will depart Dryden Friday, May 1, on a modified NASA Gulfstream III
aircraft. In a pod beneath the aircraft's fuselage will be two JPL-developed radars that are flying test
beds for evaluating tools and technologies for future space-based radars.

One of the radars, the L-band wavelength Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar, or
UAVSAR, calibrates and supplements satellite data; the other is a proof-of-concept Ka-band
wavelength radar called the Glacier and Land Ice Surface Topography Interferometer, or GLISTIN.

Both radars use pulses of microwave energy to produce images of Earth's surface topography and the
deformations in it. UAVSAR detects and measures the flow of glaciers and ice sheets, as well as
subtle changes caused by earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides and other dynamic phenomena.
GLISTIN will create high-resolution maps of ice surface topography, key to understanding the
stresses that drive changes in glacial regions.

During this expedition, UAVSAR will study the flow of Greenland's and Iceland's glaciers and ice
streams, while GLISTIN will map Greenland's icy surface topography. About 250,000 square
kilometers (97,000 square miles) of land will be mapped during 110 hours of data collection.

"We hope to better characterize how Arctic ice is changing and how climate change is affecting the
Arctic, while gathering data that will be useful for designing future radar satellites," said UAVSAR
Principal Investigator Scott Hensley of JPL.

The Gulfstream III flies at an altitude of 12,500 meters (41,000 feet) as UAVSAR collects data over
areas of interest. The aircraft then flies over the same areas again, minutes to months later, using
precision navigation to fly within 4.6 meters (15 feet) of its original flight path. By comparing the
data from multiple passes, scientists can detect very subtle changes in Earth's surface.

L-band Principal Investigator Howard Zebker of Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif., and his team
will use UAVSAR to collect data on various types of ice. They will measure how deeply the L-band
radar penetrates the ice and compare it with similar C- and X-band radar data collected from
satellites. Scientists expect the longer wavelengths of the L-band radar to penetrate deeper into the
ice than C-band radar, "seeing" ice motions or structures hundreds of meters below the ice surface,
rather than only at the surface. By using both wavelengths, scientists hope to obtain a more complete
picture of how glaciers and ice streams flow. Zebker's team will also evaluate how sensitive the L-
band radar is to changes in the ice surface between observations.

To better predict how glaciers and ice sheets will evolve, scientists need to know what they're doing
now, how fast they're changing, what processes drive the changes and how to represent them in
models. Accurate measurements of ice sheet elevation derived from laser altimeters (lidars) on aircraft
or satellites are critical to these efforts. But high-frequency microwave radars can also do the job,
with greater coverage and the ability to operate in a wider range of weather conditions. Until now,
however, microwave radars operating at wavelengths longer than those of GLISTIN have penetrated
snow and ice more deeply than lidars, making interpretation of their data more complex.

Enter GLISTIN, the first demonstration of millimeter-wave interferometry, which was developed to
support International Polar Year studies. Principal Investigator Delwyn Moller of Remote Sensing
Solutions, Barnstable, Mass., and her team will evaluate GLISTIN's ability to map ice surface
topography. GLISTIN has two receiving antennas, separated by about 25 centimeters (10 inches).
This gives it stereoscopic vision and the ability to simultaneously generate both imagery and
topographic maps. The topographic maps are accurate to within 10 centimeters (4 inches) of elevation
on scales comparable to the ground footprint of a lidar on a satellite.

Scientists expect GLISTIN to penetrate the snow and ice by just centimeters, rather than by meters,
as current microwave radars do. A multi-institutional team will conduct coordinated lidar and ground
measurements to help quantify how deeply GLISTIN's Ka-band radar penetrates the snow and ice
and to verify model predictions.

GLISTIN data will aid in designing future Earth ice topography missions and even missions to map
ice on other celestial bodies. Scientists will also apply its data to designing missions to map Earth's
surface water and ocean topography.

A joint partnership of JPL and Dryden, UAVSAR evolved from JPL's airborne synthetic aperture
radar (AIRSAR) system that flew on NASA's DC-8 aircraft in the 1990s. In 2004, NASA's Earth
Science Technology Office funded development of a more compact version of AIRSAR to be flown
on uninhabited aerial vehicles. UAVSAR made its first operational flight in November 2008. JPL is
managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

For more on UAVSAR, see: http://uavsar.jpl.nasa.gov/ . For more on the Gulfstream III, see:
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/research/G-III/index.html .

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NASA's Galaxy-Exploring Mission Celebrates Sixth Anniversary

Feature April 28, 2009

NASA's Galaxy-Exploring Mission Celebrates Sixth Anniversary

NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer Mission marks its sixth anniversary studying galaxies
beyond our Milky Way through its sensitive ultraviolet telescope, the only such far-
ultraviolet detector in space.

The mission studies the shape, brightness, size and distance of galaxies across 10 billion
years of cosmic history, giving scientists a wealth of data to help us better understand the
origins of the universe. One such object is pictured here, the galaxy NGC598, more
commonly known as M33.

In these side-by-side images of M33, the ultraviolet image on the left was taken by the
Galaxy Evolution Explorer, while the ultraviolet and infrared image on the right is a blend
of the mission's M33 image and another taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. M33,
one of our closest galactic neighbors, is about 2.9 million light-years away in the
constellation Triangulum, part of what's known as our Local Group of galaxies.

The Galaxy Evolution Explorer has two detectors: one in far-ultraviolet, which reveals
stars younger than about 10 million years old, and another in near-ultraviolet, which
detects stars younger than about 100 million years old. The left ultraviolet image shows a
map of the recent star formation history of M33. The bright blue and white areas are
where star formation has been extremely active over the past few million years. The
patches of yellow and gold are regions where star formation was more active around 100
million years ago.

The ultraviolet image highlights the most massive young stars in M33. These stars burn
their large supply of hydrogen fuel quickly, burning hot and bright while emitting most of
their energy at ultraviolet wavelengths. Compared with low-mass stars like our sun, which
live for billions of years, these massive stars never reach old age, having a lifespan as short
as a few million years.

Together, the Galaxy Evolution Explorer and Spitzer can see a larger range of the full
spectrum of the sky. Spitzer, for example, can detect mid-infrared radiation from dust
that has absorbed young stars' ultraviolet light. That's something the Galaxy Evolution
Explorer cannot see. The combined image on the right shows in amazing detail the
beautiful and complicated interlacing of hot dust and young stars. In some regions of
M33, dust gathers where there is very little far-ultraviolet light, suggesting that the young
stars are obscured or that stars farther away are heating the dust. In some of the outer
regions of the galaxy, just the opposite is true: There are plenty of young stars and very
little dust.

In the combined image, far-ultraviolet light from young stars glimmers blue, near-
ultraviolet light from intermediate age stars glows green, near-infrared light from old stars
burns yellow and orange, and dust rich in organic molecules burns red. The small blue
flecks outside the spiral disk of M33 are most likely distant background galaxies. This
image is a four-band composite that, in addition to the two ultraviolet bands, includes
near infrared as yellow/orange and far infrared as red.

Since its launch from a Pegasus rocket on April 28, 2003, the Galaxy Evolution Explorer
has imaged more than a half-billion objects across two-thirds of the sky. Highlights over
the past six years include detecting star formation in unexpected regions of the universe
and spotting Mira, a fast-moving older star called a red giant. Astronomers say that
studying Mira's gargantuan cosmic tail is helping us learn how stars like our sun die and
ultimately seed new solar systems.

The California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena, Calif., leads the Galaxy Evolution
Explorer mission and is responsible for science operations and data analysis. NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, also in Pasadena, manages the mission and built the science
instrument. The mission was developed under NASA's Explorers Program managed by
the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. South Korea and France are the
mission's international partners.

For information about the Galaxy Evolution Explorer, go to:
http://www.galex.caltech.edu.

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Spirit Resumes Driving While Analysis of Problem Behaviors Continues

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91109. TELEPHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. April 24, 2009
Guy.Webster@jpl.nasa.gov

Spirit Resumes Driving While Analysis of Problem Behaviors Continues

Mars Exploration Rover Mission Status Report

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit drove on Thursday for the first
time since April 8, acting on commands from engineers who are still investigating bouts of amnesia
and other unusual behavior exhibited by Spirit in the past two weeks.

The drive took Spirit about 1.7 meters (5.6 feet) toward destinations about 150 meters (about
500 feet) away. The rover has already operated more than 20 times longer than its original prime
mission on Mars.

This week, rover engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., judged that it
would be safe to send Spirit commands for Thursday's drive. They also anticipated that, if the
rover did have another amnesia event, the day's outcome could be helpful in diagnosing those
events.

Three times in the past two weeks, Spirit has failed to record data from a day's activity period
into non-volatile flash memory. That is a type of computer memory where information is
preserved even when power is off, such as when the rover naps to conserve power.

"We expect we will see more of the amnesia events, and we want to learn more about them when
we do," said JPL's Sharon Laubach, chief of the rover sequencing team, which develops and
checks each day's set of commands.

The team is also investigating two other types of problems Spirit has experienced recently: failing
to wake up for three consecutive communication sessions about two weeks ago and rebooting its
computer on April 11, 12 and 18. Engineers have not found any causal links among these three
types of events. After checking last week whether moving the rover's high-gain antenna could
trigger problems, routine communication via that dish antenna resumed Monday.

Spirit has maintained stable power and thermal conditions throughout the problem events this
month, although power output by its solar panels has been significantly reduced since mid-2007
by dust covering the panels.

"We decided not to wait until finishing the investigations before trying to drive again," Laubach
said. "Given Spirit's limited power and the desire to make progress toward destinations to the
south, there would be risks associated with not driving."

The team has made a change in Spirit's daily routine in order to aid the diagnostic work if the
rover experiences another failure to record data into flash memory.

To conserve energy, Spirit's daily schedule since 2004 has typically included a nap between the
rover's main activities for the day and the day's main downlink transmission of data to Earth. Data
stored only in the rover's random-access memory (RAM), instead of in flash memory, is lost
during the nap, so when Spirit has a flash amnesia event on that schedule, the team gets no data
from the activity period. The new schedule puts the nap before the activity period. This way, even
if there is a flash amnesia event, data from the activity period would likely be available from RAM
during the downlink.

Spirit and its twin, Opportunity, completed their original three-month prime missions on Mars in
April 2004 and have continued their scientific investigations on opposite sides of the planet
through multiple mission extensions. Engineers have found ways to cope with various symptoms
of aging on both rovers.

This week, Opportunity completed drives of 96 meters (315 feet) Tuesday, 137 meters (449
feet) Wednesday and 95 meters (312 feet) Thursday in its long-term trek toward a crater more
than 20 times larger than the biggest it has visited so far.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars
Exploration Rover project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

# 2009-074

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Live JPL Open House Video/Chat: Next Best Thing to Being There

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE 1-818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Carolina Martinez 1-818-354-9382
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
carolina.martinez@jpl.nasa.gov

INTERNET ADVISORY: 2009-073 April 23, 2009

Live JPL Open House Video/Chat: Next Best Thing to Being There

PASADENA, Calif. – Don't worry if you can't attend this year's annual Open House at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. – just throw on your fuzzy slippers, switch on your
computer and join us for a live video stream and chat.

The event, from JPL's mission control and other key locations, will give viewers the opportunity to
chat live with scientists and engineers. It will air on the "NASAJPL" channel available on Ustream
TV at: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasajpl on Saturday, May 2, starting at 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m.
EDT and 17:00 UTC).

JPL's annual Open House gives the public an opportunity to meet scientists, watch demos and tour
some of the laboratories where the next planetary and Earth-monitoring missions are being
designed and built.

A live video chat will be held at the top of each hour for about 20 minutes on these topics/
locations:

10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT and 17:00 UTC): Mars Rovers
11 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. EDT and 18:00 UTC): Mission Control
Noon PDT (3 p.m. EDT and 19:00 UTC): Window to the Universe
1 p.m. PDT (4 p.m. EDT and 20:00 UTC): Spacecraft Assembly Area

If you are unable to take part in the live chat, you may submit questions in advance to
chatquestion@jpl.nasa.gov and watch the archived video at a later time. If you are on Twitter,
follow what visitors are saying about the JPL Open House on @NASAJPL, which is at
www.twitter.com/NASAJPL .

More information is available at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/open-house.cfm .

See video highlights of last year's Open House: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=811 .

JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.

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Team Continues Analyzing Spirit Computer Reboots and Amnesia Events

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91109. TELEPHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. April 20, 2009
Guy.Webster@jpl.nasa.gov

Team Continues Analyzing Spirit Computer Reboots and Amnesia Events

Mars Exploration Rover Mission Status Report

After three days of completing Earth-commanded activities without incident last week,
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit had a bout of temporary amnesia Friday, April 17,
and rebooted its computer Saturday, April 18, behavior similar to events about a week
earlier.

Engineers operating Spirit are investigating the reboots and the possibly unrelated amnesia
events, in which Spirit unexpectedly fails to record data into the type of memory, called
flash, where information is preserved even when power is off. Spirit has had three of these
amnesia events in the past 10 days, plus one on Jan. 25. No causal link has been determined
between the amnesia events and the reboots.

The most recent reboot put Spirit back into an autonomous operations mode in which the
rover keeps itself healthy. Spirit experienced no problems in this autonomous mode on
Sunday. The rover team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., revised
plans today for regaining Earth control of Spirit's operations and resuming diagnostic and
recovery activities by the rover.

"We are proceeding cautiously, but we are encouraged by knowing that Spirit is stable in
terms of power and thermal conditions and has been responding to all communication
sessions for more than a week now," said JPL's Sharon Laubach, chief of the rover
sequencing team, which develops and checks each day's set of commands.

During the past week of diagnostic activities, the rover has successfully moved its high-
gain dish antenna and its camera mast, part of checking whether any mechanical issues with
those components may be related to the reboots, the amnesia events, or the failure to wake
up for three consecutive communication sessions two weeks ago.

Spirit and its twin rover, Opportunity, completed their original three-month prime missions
on Mars in April 2004 and have continued their scientific investigations on opposite sides
of the planet through multiple mission extensions. Engineers have found ways to cope
with various symptoms of aging on both rovers.
The current diagnostic efforts with Spirit are aimed at either recovering undiminished use
of the rover or, if some capabilities have been diminished, to determine the best way to
keep using the rover.

Laubach said, "For example, if we do determine that we can no longer use the flash
memory reliably, we could design operations around using the random-access memory."
Spirit has 128 megabytes of random-access memory, or RAM, which can store data as long
as the rover is kept awake before its next downlink communications session.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars
Exploration Rover project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

# 2009-071

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JPL Invites Public to Annual Open House

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMNISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE 1-818-354-5011

Rhea R. Borja 1-818-354-0850
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Rhea.R.Borja@jpl.nasa.gov

TIP SHEET: 2009-070a April 20, 2009

JPL Invites Public to Annual Open House

WHAT: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., welcomes the public to its
annual Open House on Saturday, May 2, and Sunday, May 3, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The lab will salute the 40th anniversary of NASA's Apollo 11 mission – the first
human landing on the moon. JPL will also celebrate the International Year of
Astronomy, a United Nations-endorsed series of events around the world that
commemorate the 400th anniversary of the first telescope observations of space and
planets by Italian scientist Galileo Galilei.

Open House highlights include: seeing JPL's next spacecraft bound for Mars, the
Mars Science Laboratory, in the lab's biggest "clean room;" talking to scientists and
engineers who work on missions to destinations such as Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and
Earth's moon; and visiting JPL's Microdevices Lab, where engineers and scientists
work in the world of the ultra-miniature. Visitors can also view the sun through solar-
safe telescopes, and learn how NASA instruments measure greenhouse gases, helping
scientists better understand global climate change.

Besides the many exhibits and displays, the Open House will feature hands-on
activities for children. Visitors can find out how NASA missions are using new
media tools such as Twitter at the "The Tweet Spot" booth. Portions of the event will
also air live online on Ustream TV at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasajpl on
Saturday, May 2, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

WHEN: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, May 2-3. Admission and parking are free.

WHERE: 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, Calif. From the 210 Freeway, take the Berkshire
Avenue/Oak Grove Drive exit. All visitors should wear comfortable shoes -- no buses
will be provided from JPL parking lots. JPL will provide vans for mobility-
challenged guests.

NOTE: Vehicles entering NASA/JPL property are subject to inspection. Visitors cannot bring
these items to NASA/JPL: weapons, explosives, incendiary devices, dangerous
instruments, alcohol, illegal drugs, pets, all types of skates including skateboards,
Segways and bicycles. No bags, backpacks or ice chests are allowed, except small
purses and diaper bags.

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Mars Spacecraft Teams on Alert for Dust-Storm Season

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

News release: 2009-067 April 15, 2009

Mars Spacecraft Teams on Alert for Dust-Storm Season

PASADENA, Calif. -- Heading into a period of the Martian year prone to major dust storms, the
team operating NASA's twin Mars rovers is taking advantage of eye-in-the-sky weather reports.

On April 21, Mars will be at the closest point to the sun in the planet's 23-month, elliptical orbit.
One month later, the planet's equinox will mark the start of summer in Mars' southern
hemisphere. This atmospheric-warming combination makes the coming weeks the most likely
time of the Martian year for dust storms severe enough to minimize activities of the rovers.

"Since the rovers are solar powered, the dust in the atmosphere is extremely important to us," said
Bill Nelson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., chief of the engineering team
for Spirit and Opportunity.

Unexplained computer reboots by Spirit in the past week are not related to dust's effects on the
rover's power supply, but the dust-storm season remains a concern. Spirit received commands
Tuesday to transmit more engineering data in coming days to aid in diagnosis of the reboots.

After months of relatively clear air, increased haze in March reduced Spirit's daily energy supply
by about 20 percent and Opportunity's by about 30 percent. Widespread haze resulted from a
regional storm that made skies far south of the rovers very dusty. Conditions at the rovers' sites
remained much milder than the worst they have endured. In July 2007, nearly one Martian year
ago, airborne dust blocked more than 99 percent of the direct sunlight at each rover's site.

The rovers point cameras toward the sun to check the clarity of the atmosphere virtually every
day. These measurements let the planning team estimate how much energy the rovers will have
available on the following day. Observations of changes in the Martian atmosphere by NASA's
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which reached Mars in 2006, and NASA's Mars Odyssey, which
reached Mars in 2001, are available to supplement the rover's own skywatch.

The Mars Color Imager camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter sees the entire planet every day
at resolution comparable to weather satellites around Earth.

"We can identify where dust is rising into the atmosphere and where it is moving from day to
day," said Michael Malin of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, principal investigator for
Mars Color Imager. "Our historical baseline of observing Martian weather, including data from
the Mars Global Surveyor mission from 1998 to 2007, helps us know what to expect. Weather on
Mars is more repetitive from year to year than weather on Earth. Global dust events do not occur
every Mars year, but if they do occur, they are at this time of year."

Two other instruments -- the Thermal Emission Imaging System on Mars Odyssey and the Mars
Climate Sounder on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter -- monitor changes in airborne dust or dust-
related temperatures in Mars' upper atmosphere. Orbiters also aid surface missions with radio
relays, imaging to aid drive plans, and studies of possible future landing sites.

When orbital observations indicate a dust-raising storm is approaching a rover, the rover team can
take steps to conserve energy. For example, the team can reduce the length of time the rover will
be active or can shorten or delete some communication events.

In recent weeks, frequent weather reports from Bruce Cantor of Malin's Mars Color Imager team
let the rover team know that the March increase in haziness was not the front edge of a bad
storm. "Bruce's weather reports have let us be more aggressive about using the rovers," said Mark
Lemmon, a rover-team atmospheric scientist at Texas A&M University, College Station. "There
have been fewer false alarms. Earlier in the mission, we backed off a lot on operations whenever
we saw a small increase in dust. Now, we have enough information to know whether there's
really a significant dust storm headed our way."

At other times, the weather reports prompt quick precautionary actions. On Saturday, Nov. 8,
2008, the rover team received word from Cantor of a dust storm nearing Spirit. The team deleted
a communication session that Sunday and sent a minimal-activity set of commands that Monday.
Without those responses, Spirit would likely have depleted its batteries to a dangerous level.

Winds that can lift dust into the air can also blow dust off the rovers' solar panels. The five-year-
old rover missions, originally planned to last for three months, would have ended long ago if
beneficial winds didn't occasionally remove some of the dust that accumulates on the panels. A
cleaning event in early April aided Opportunity's power output, and Spirit got two minor
cleanings in February, but the last major cleaning for Spirit was nearly a full Martian year ago.

Nelson said, "We're all hoping we'll get another good cleaning."

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars
Exploration Rovers, Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science
Mission Directorate, Washington. More information about the rovers is at
http://www.nasa.gov/rovers . Dust reports from the Thermal Emission Imaging System,
operated by Arizona State University, Tempe, are at http://themis.asu.edu/dustmaps/ . Weather
reports from the Mars Color Imager team are at
http://www.msss.com/msss_images/latest_weather.html .

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Spirit Healthy but Computer Reboots Raise Concerns

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91109. TELEPHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. April 13, 2009
Guy.Webster@jpl.nasa.gov

Mars Exploration Rover Mission Status Report

Spirit Healthy but Computer Reboots Raise Concerns

The team operating NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is examining data received
from Spirit in recent days to diagnose why the rover apparently rebooted its computer at
least twice over the April 11-12 weekend.

"While we don't have an explanation yet, we do know that Spirit's batteries are charged,
the solar arrays are producing energy and temperatures are well within allowable ranges.
We have time to respond carefully and investigate this thoroughly," said John Callas of
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., project manager for Spirit and twin-
rover Opportunity. "The rover is in a stable operations state called automode and taking
care of itself. It could stay in this stable mode for some time if necessary while we
diagnose the problem."

Spirit communicated with controllers Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but some of the
communication sessions were irregular. One of the computer resets apparently coincided in
timing with operation of the rover's high-gain dish antenna.

The rover team has the advantage of multiple communication options. Spirit can
communicate directly with Earth via either the pointable high-gain antenna or, at a slower
data rate, through a low-gain antenna that does not move. Additionally, communications
can be relayed by Mars orbiters, using the UHF (ultra-high frequency) transceiver, a
separate radio system on the rover.

"To avoid potential problems using the pointable antenna, we might consider for the time
being just communicating by UHF relay or using the low-gain antenna," Callas said.

Spirit finished its three-month prime mission on Mars five years ago and has kept operating
through multiple mission extensions.

The rover's onboard software has been updated several times to add new capabilities for
the mission, most recently last month. The team is investigating whether the unexpected
behavior in recent days could be related to the new software, but the same software is
operating on Opportunity without incident.

"We are aware of the reality that we have an aging rover, and there may be age-related
effects here," Callas said.

In the past five weeks, Spirit has made 119 meters (390 feet) of progress going
counterclockwise around a low plateau called "Home Plate" to get from the place where it
spent the past Martian winter on the northern edge of Home Plate toward destinations of
scientific interest south of the plateau. On March 10, after several attempts to get past
obstacles at the northeastern corner of Home Plate, the rover team decided to switch from
a clockwise route to the counterclockwise one. Subsequent events have included Spirit's
longest one-day drive since the rover lost use of one of its wheels three years ago, plus
detailed inspection of light-toned soil exposed by the dragging of the inoperable wheel.

Halfway around Mars, meanwhile, Opportunity has continued progress on a long-term trek
toward Endeavour Crater, a bowl 22 kilometers (14 miles) in diameter and still about 12
kilometers (12 miles) away. Last week, a beneficial wind removed some dust from
Opportunity's solar array, resulting in an increase by about 40 percent in the amount of
electrical output from the rover's solar panels.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars
Exploration Rover project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

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Dust Cover Jettisoned From NASA's Kepler Telescope

Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov

Michael Mewhinney 650-604-3937
NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
michael.s.mewhinney@nasa.gov

News release: 2009-065 April 7, 2009

Dust Cover Jettisoned From NASA's Kepler Telescope

Engineers have successfully ejected the dust cover from NASA's Kepler
telescope, a spaceborne mission soon to begin searching for worlds like Earth.

"The cover released and flew away exactly as we designed it to do," said Kepler
Project Manager James Fanson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
Calif. "This is a critical step toward answering a question that has come down to
us across 100 generations of human history -- are there other planets like Earth,
or are we alone in the galaxy?"

Kepler, which launched on March 6 from Cape Canaveral, Fla., will spend three-
and-a-half years staring at more than 100,000 stars in our Milky Way galaxy for
signs of Earth-size planets. Some of the planets are expected to orbit in a star's
"habitable zone," a warm region where water could pool on the surface. The
mission's science instrument, called a photometer, contains the largest camera
ever flown in space -- its 42 charge-coupled devices (CCDs) will detect slight
dips in starlight, which occur when planets passing in front of their stars partially
block the light from Kepler's view.

The telescope's oval-shaped dust cover, measuring 1.7 meters by 1.3 meters (67
inches by 52 inches), protected the photometer from contamination before and
after launch. The dust cover also blocked stray light from entering the telescope
during launch -- light that could have damaged its sensitive detectors. In addition,
the cover was important for calibrating the photometer. Images taken in the dark
helped characterize noise coming from the instrument's electronics, and this
noise will later be removed from the actual science data.

"Now the photometer can see the stars and will soon start the task of detecting
the planets," said Kepler's Science Principal Investigator William Borucki at
NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. "We have thoroughly
measured the background noise so that our photometer can detect minute
changes in a star's brightness caused by planets."

At 7:13 p.m. PDT on April 7, engineers at Kepler's mission operations center at
the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, Colo., sent
commands to pass an electrical current through a "burn wire" to break the wire
and release a latch holding the cover closed. The spring-loaded cover swung
open on a fly-away hinge, before drifting away from the spacecraft. The cover is
now in its own orbit around the sun, similar to Kepler's sun-centric orbit. See an
animation of the event at
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/multimedia/videos/cover.html .

With the cover off, starlight is entering the photometer and being imaged onto its
focal plane. Engineers will continue calibrating the instrument using images of
stars for another several weeks, after which science observations will begin.

Kepler is a NASA Discovery mission. NASA's Ames Research Center Ames is
the home organization of the science principal investigator, and is responsible for
the ground system development, mission operations and science data analysis.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Kepler
mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo., is
responsible for developing the Kepler flight system and supporting mission
operations.

For more information about the Kepler mission, visit http://www.nasa.gov/kepler .

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Cool Stars Have Different Mix of Life-Forming Chemicals

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
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http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov

NEWS RELEASE: 2009-064 April 7, 2009

Cool Stars Have Different Mix of Life-Forming Chemicals

Life on Earth is thought to have arisen from a hot soup of chemicals. Does this same soup
exist on planets around other stars? A new study from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope hints
that planets around stars cooler than our sun might possess a different mix of potentially life-
forming, or "prebiotic," chemicals.

Astronomers used Spitzer to look for a prebiotic chemical, called hydrogen cyanide, in the
planet-forming material swirling around different types of stars. Hydrogen cyanide is a
component of adenine, which is a basic element of DNA. DNA can be found in every living
organism on Earth.

The researchers detected hydrogen cyanide molecules in disks circling yellow stars like our
sun -- but found none around cooler and smaller stars, such as the reddish-colored "M-dwarfs"
and "brown dwarfs" common throughout the universe.

"Prebiotic chemistry may unfold differently on planets around cool stars," said Ilaria Pascucci,
lead author of the new study from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. The study will
appear in the April 10 issue of the Astrophysical Journal.

Young stars are born inside cocoons of dust and gas, which eventually flatten to disks. Dust
and gas in the disks provide the raw material from which planets form. Scientists think the
molecules making up the primordial ooze of life on Earth might have formed in such a disk.
Prebiotic molecules, such as adenine, are thought to have rained down to our young planet via
meteorites that crashed on the surface.

"It is plausible that life on Earth was kick-started by a rich supply of molecules delivered from
space," said Pascucci.

Could the same life-generating steps take place around other stars? Pascucci and her
colleagues addressed this question by examining the planet-forming disks around 17 cool and
44 sun-like stars using Spitzer's infrared spectrograph, an instrument that breaks light apart,
revealing signatures of chemicals. The stars are all about one to three million years old, an age
when planets are thought to be growing. The astronomers specifically looked for ratios of
hydrogen cyanide to a baseline molecule, acetylene.

They found that the cool stars, both the M-dwarf stars and brown dwarfs, showed no
hydrogen cyanide at all, while 30 percent of the sun-like stars did. "Perhaps ultraviolet light,
which is much stronger around the sun-like stars, may drive a higher production of the
hydrogen cyanide," said Pascucci.

The team did detect their baseline molecule, acetylene, around the cool stars, demonstrating
that the experiment worked. This is the first time that any kind of molecule has been spotted
in the disks around cool stars.

The findings have implications for planets that have recently been discovered around M-dwarf
stars. Some of these planets are thought to be large versions of Earth, the so-called super
Earths, but so far none of them are believed to orbit in the habitable zone, where water would
be liquid. If such a planet is discovered, could it sustain life?

Astronomers aren't sure. M-dwarfs have extreme magnetic outbursts that could be disruptive
to developing life. But, with the new Spitzer results, they have another piece of data to
consider: these planets might be deficient in hydrogen cyanide, a molecule thought to have
eventually become a part of us.

Said Douglas Hudgins, the Spitzer program scientist at NASA Headquarters, Washington,
"Although scientists have long been aware that the tumultuous nature of many cool stars
might present a significant challenge for the development of life, this result begs an even more
fundamental question: Do cool star systems even contain the necessary ingredients for the
formation of life? If the answer is no then questions about life around cool stars become
moot."

Other authors include Daniel Apai of the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.;
Kevin Luhman of Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Thomas Henning and
Jeroen Bouwman of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Germany; Michael Meyer of the
University of Arizona, Tucson; Fred Lahuis of the SRON Netherlands Institute for Space
Research, the Netherlands; and Antonella Natta of the Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory,
Italy.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer Space Telescope
mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are
conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, also in
Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. Spitzer's infrared spectrograph, which made the
new observations, was built by Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. Its development was led by
Jim Houck of Cornell. For more information about Spitzer, visit
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzer and http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer .

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Satellites Show Arctic Literally on Thin Ice

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Alan Buis 818-354-0474
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Alan.buis@jpl.nasa.gov

Steve Cole 202-358-0918
NASA Headquarters, Washington
Stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov

Jane Beitler 303-492-1497
National Snow and Ice Data Center, Boulder, Colo.
jbeitler@nsidc.org

NEWS RELEASE: 2009-062 April 6, 2009

Satellites Show Arctic Literally on Thin Ice

PASADENA, Calif. – The latest Arctic sea ice data from NASA and the National Snow and Ice
Data Center show that the decade-long trend of shrinking sea ice cover is continuing. New evidence
from satellite observations also shows that the ice cap is thinning as well.

Arctic sea ice works like an air conditioner for the global climate system. Ice naturally cools air and
water masses, plays a key role in ocean circulation, and reflects solar radiation back into space. In
recent years, Arctic sea ice has been declining at a surprising rate.

Scientists who track Arctic sea ice cover from space announced today that this winter had the fifth
lowest maximum ice extent on record. The six lowest maximum events since satellite monitoring
began in 1979 have all occurred in the past six years (2004-2009).

Until recently, the majority of Arctic sea ice survived at least one summer and often several. But
things have changed dramatically, according to a team of University of Colorado, Boulder, scientists
led by Charles Fowler. Thin seasonal ice -- ice that melts and re-freezes every year -- makes up about
70 percent of the Arctic sea ice in wintertime, up from 40 to 50 percent in the 1980s and 1990s.
Thicker ice, which survives two or more years, now comprises just 10 percent of wintertime ice cover,
down from 30 to 40 percent.

According to researchers from the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., the
maximum sea ice extent for 2008-09, reached on Feb. 28, was 15.2 million square kilometers (5.85
million square miles). That is 720,000 square kilometers (278,000 square miles) less than the average
extent for 1979 to 2000.

"Ice extent is an important measure of the health of the Arctic, but it only gives us a two-dimensional
view of the ice cover," said Walter Meier, research scientist at the center and the University of
Colorado, Boulder. "Thickness is important, especially in the winter, because it is the best overall
indicator of the health of the ice cover. As the ice cover in the Arctic grows thinner, it grows more
vulnerable to melting in the summer."

The Arctic ice cap grows each winter as the sun sets for several months and intense cold sets in. Some
of that ice is naturally pushed out of the Arctic by winds, while much of it melts in place during
summer. The thicker, older ice that survives one or more summers is more likely to persist through the
next summer.

Sea ice thickness has been hard to measure directly, so scientists have typically used estimates of ice
age to approximate its thickness. But last year a team of researchers led by Ron Kwok of NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., produced the first map of sea ice thickness over the entire
Arctic basin.

Using two years of data from NASA's Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat), Kwok's
team estimated thickness and volume of the Arctic Ocean ice cover for 2005 and 2006. They found
that the average winter volume of Arctic sea ice contained enough water to fill Lake Michigan and
Lake Superior combined.

The older, thicker sea ice is declining and is being replaced with newer, thinner ice that is more
vulnerable to summer melt, according to Kwok. His team found that seasonal sea ice averages about
1.7 meters (6 feet) in thickness, while ice that had lasted through more than one summer averages
about 3 meters (9 feet), though it can grow much thicker in some locations near the coast.

Kwok is currently working to extend the ICESat estimate further, from 2003 to 2008, to see how the
recent decline in the area covered by sea ice is mirrored in changes in its volume.

"With these new data on both the area and thickness of Arctic sea ice, we will be able to better
understand the sensitivity and vulnerability of the ice cover to changes in climate," Kwok said.

For more information about Arctic sea ice, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/arctic_thinice.html and
http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews .

For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov .

JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

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E-card: A Close Neighbor Reveals its True Size and Splendor

A Close Neighbor Reveals its True Size and Splendor


One of our closest galactic neighbors shows its awesome beauty in this new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
The galaxy, known as Triangulum, looks bigger in this infrared image than it does in visible-light views.

+ Full image and caption
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/multimedia/spitzerA-20090403.html

+ Spitzer home page
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzer/index.shtml

+ JPL home page
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/

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NASA Joins 'Around The World In 80 Telescopes'

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91109. TELEPHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov

NEWS RELEASE: 2009-061 April 2, 2009

NASA Joins 'Around The World In 80 Telescopes'

PASADENA, Calif. -- A collection of NASA missions will be involved in a live event Friday, April 3, that will allow the public to get an inside look at how these missions are run. "Around the World in 80 Telescopes" is a 24-hour webcast that is part of the "100 Hours of Astronomy" event for the International Year of Astronomy 2009.

During the webcast, viewers will be able to visit some of the most advanced telescopes on and off the planet. For NASA's space-based missions, the webcast will be broadcast from control centers throughout the United States. To view the webcast, visit http://www.100hoursofastronomy.org/component/content/article/34/75 .

As part of the webcast, most of the missions will release a never-before-seen image from the telescope or observatory. The new images can be found on the Web sites listed below. Please note these times correspond to the beginning of each mission's segment on the live webcast and when each new image will be available.

The NASA missions participating in the webcast, in chronological order, are (times are Pacific Daylight Time, April 3):

Hubble Space Telescope: 10:20 a.m.
http://hubblesite.org/news/2009/14

Swift Gamma-ray Burst Explorer: 10:40 a.m.
http://www.nasa.gov/swift

Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope: 11 a.m.
http://www.nasa.gov/fermi

SOHO and TRACE: 12:20 p.m.
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/ and http://sunland.gsfc.nasa.gov/smex/trace/

STEREO: 12:40 p.m.
http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/

Galaxy Evolution Explorer: 1:20 p.m.
http://www.galex.caltech.edu/

Chandra X-ray Observatory: 1:40 p.m.
http://www.chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2009

Spitzer Space Telescope: 2:20 p.m.
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzer/index.shtml

Kepler: 12:05 a.m. (April 4)
http://kepler.nasa.gov

For information about the International Year of Astronomy, visit http://astronomy2009.nasa.gov/ .

For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit http://www.nasa.gov .

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, also in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. Graphics and more information about Spitzer are online at http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzer and http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer .

Caltech leads the Galaxy Evolution Explorer mission and is responsible for science operations and data analysis. JPL manages the mission and built the science instrument. The mission was developed under NASA's Explorers Program managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Researchers sponsored by Yonsei University in South Korea and the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) in France collaborated on this mission. Graphics and additional information about the Galaxy Evolution Explorer is online at http://www.galex.caltech.edu and http://www.nasa.gov/galex/ .

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