Camera on NASA Mars Odyssey Tops Decade of Discovery

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

Robert Burnham 480-458-8207
Arizona State University School of Earth and Space Exploration, Tempe
robert.burnham@asu.edu

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

News feature: 2012-053 Feb. 29, 2012

Camera on NASA Mars Odyssey Tops Decade of Discovery

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-053&cid=release_2012-053

Ten years ago, on Feb. 19, 2002, the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS), a
multi-band camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter, began scientific operations at the
Red Planet. Since then the camera has circled Mars nearly 45,000 times and taken more
than half a million images at infrared and visible wavelengths.

"THEMIS has proven itself a workhorse," said Philip Christensen of Arizona State
University, Tempe, the camera's principal investigator and designer. "It's especially
gratifying to me to see the range of discoveries that have been made using this
instrument."

Highlights of science results by THEMIS over the past 10 years include:

• Confirming a mineral exposure selected as the landing site for NASA's Mars Exploration
Rover Opportunity
• Discovering carbon-dioxide gas jets at the south polar ice cap in spring
• Discovering chloride salt deposits across the planet
• Making the best global image map of Mars ever done
• Identifying safe landing sites landing sites for NASA's Mars Phoenix lander by finding the
locations with the fewest hazardous boulders
• Monitoring dust activity in the Martian atmosphere
• Discovering that a large crater, Aram Chaos, once contained a lake
• Discovering that Mars has more water-carved channels than previously thought
• Discovering dacite on Mars, a more evolved form of volcanic lava not previously known
on the Red Planet

THEMIS combines a five-wavelength visual imaging system with a nine-wavelength
infrared imaging system. By comparing daytime and nighttime infrared images of an area,
scientists can determine many of the physical properties of the rocks and soils on the
ground.

Mars Odyssey has a two-hour orbit that is nearly "sun-synchronous," meaning that
Odyssey passes over the same part of Mars at roughly the same local time each day. In
September 2008 its orbit was shifted toward an earlier time of day, which enhanced
THEMIS' mineralogical detection capability.

Says Christensen, "Both Odyssey and THEMIS are in excellent health and we look
forward to years more science with them."

NASA launched the Mars Odyssey spacecraft April 7, 2001. Odyssey arrived at Mars Oct.
24, 2001. After arrival the spacecraft spent several months in a technique called
aerobraking, which involved dipping into the Martian atmosphere to adjust its orbit. In
February 2002, science operations began.

Odyssey is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, for NASA's
Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver
built the spacecraft. JPL and Lockheed Martin collaborate on operating the spacecraft. For
more about the Mars Odyssey mission, visit: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey . For more
about THEMIS, see http://themis.asu.edu/ . JPL is a division of the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena.

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Young Stars Flicker Amidst Clouds of Gas and Dust

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

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

Image advisory: 2012-052 Feb. 29, 2012

Young Stars Flicker Amidst Clouds of Gas and Dust

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-052&cid=release_2012-052

PASADENA, Calif. – Astronomers have spotted young stars in the Orion nebula changing
right before their eyes, thanks to the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory
and NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The colorful specks -- developing stars strung across
the image -- are rapidly heating up and cooling down, speaking to the turbulent, rough-and-
tumble process of reaching full stellar adulthood.

The image can be viewed at:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/herschel/multimedia/pia13959.html

The rainbow of colors represents different wavelengths of infrared light captured by both
Spitzer and Herschel. Spitzer is designed to see shorter infrared wavelengths than Herschel.
By combining their observations, astronomers get a more complete picture of star formation.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer mission for
NASA, and also plays an important role in the European Space Agency-led Herschel mission.

In the portion of the Orion nebula pictured, the telescopes' infrared vision reveals a host of
embryonic stars hidden in gas and dust clouds. These stars are at the very earliest stages of
evolution.

A star forms as a clump of this gas and dust collapses, creating a warm glob of material fed by
an encircling disk. In several hundred thousand years, some of the forming stars will accrete
enough material to trigger nuclear fusion at their cores, and then blaze into stardom.

Herschel mapped this region of the sky once a week for six weeks in the late winter and
spring of 2011. To monitor for activity in protostars, Herschel's Photodetector Array Camera
and Spectrometer probed long infrared wavelengths of light that trace cold dust particles,
while Spitzer gauged the warmer dust emitting shorter infrared wavelengths. In this data,
astronomers noticed that several of the young stars varied in their brightness by more than 20
percent over just a few weeks. As this twinkling comes from cool material emitting infrared
light, the material must be far from the hot center of the young star, likely in the outer disk or
surrounding gas envelope. At that distance, it should take years or centuries for material to
spiral closer in to the growing starlet, rather than mere weeks.

A couple of scenarios under investigation could account for this short span. One possibility is
that lumpy filaments of gas funnel from the outer to the central regions of the star,
temporarily warming the object as the clumps hit its inner disk. Or, it could be that material
occasionally piles up at the inner edge of the disk and casts a shadow on the outer disk.

"Herschel's exquisite sensitivity opens up new possibilities for astronomers to study star
formation, and we are very excited to have witnessed short-term variability in Orion
protostars," said Nicolas Billot, an astronomer at the Institut de Radioastronomie
Millimétrique (IRAM) in Grenada, Spain who is preparing a paper on the findings along with
his colleagues. "Follow-up observations with Herschel will help us identify the physical
processes responsible for the variability."

Herschel is a European Space Agency cornerstone mission, with science instruments provided
by consortia of European institutes and with important participation by NASA. NASA's
Herschel Project Office is based at JPL. JPL contributed mission-enabling technology for two
of Herschel's three science instruments. The NASA Herschel Science Center, part of the
Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena, supports the United States astronomical community. Caltech manages JPL for
NASA.

More information is online at http://www.herschel.caltech.edu, http://www.nasa.gov/herschel
and http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Herschel/index.html .

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Proposed Mars Mission Has New Name

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

Jia-Rui Cook 818-354-0850
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
jccook@jpl.nasa.gov

News release: 2012-050 Feb. 28, 2012

Proposed Mars Mission Has New Name

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-050&cid=release_2012-050

PASADENA, Calif. – A proposed Discovery mission concept led by NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., to investigate the formation and evolution of
terrestrial planets by studying the deep interior of Mars now has a new name, InSight.

InSight stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat
Transport and is a partnership involving JPL, Lockheed Martin Space Systems, the
French Space Agency (CNES), the German Aerospace Center (DLR), and other NASA
centers. The previous name for the proposal was GEMS (GEophysical Monitoring
Station). NASA requested that name be reserved for an astrophysics mission known as
the Gravity and Extreme Magnetism Small Explorer, which was already in development.

"We chose the name InSight because we would literally peer into the interior of Mars to
map out its structure," said JPL's Bruce Banerdt, the principal investigator. "With our
geophysical instruments we will be able to see right through to the center of Mars, and
will be able to map out how deeply the crust extends as well as the size of the core."

InSight is one of three missions vying to be selected for flight in the Discovery Program,
a series of NASA missions to understand the solar system by exploring planets, moons,
and small bodies such as comets and asteroids. All three mission teams are required to
submit concept study reports to NASA on March 19.

For more information, visit http://insight.jpl.nasa.gov/ .

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CORRECTED: JPL Educator Workshop to Highlight NASA's International Space Station

Feb. 27, 2012

This is a feature from the NASA/JPL Education Office.

NOTE: Includes corrected link to conference registration page. To register for the International Space Station - Engaging Your Audiences in Low-Earth Orbit educator workshop, please visit http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/education/index.cfm?page=329 .

International Space Station - Engaging Your Audiences in Low-Earth Orbit

Date: March 24-25, 2012

When: Saturday, March 24, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. & Sunday, March 25, 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Target audience: Informal educators (formal educators are welcome to attend)

Location: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Von Karman Auditorium, Pasadena, Calif.

Overview: NASA's International Space Station (ISS) and the ISS National Laboratory provide unparalleled opportunities for informal and formal educators to connect students and other audiences directly to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. On March 24-25, 2012, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. will host an informal educator workshop that will include science presentations by NASA experts, demonstrations of hands-on activities, ISS Live! website activities, educational resources and best practices for creating content and educational activities in informal settings. Additionally, participants will have the opportunity to network with fellow participants to enable future collaborations.

Register by March 9, 2012 to attend! A $35 registration fee includes continental breakfast, beverages, snacks, a box lunch and incidentals.

For more information, directions and to register visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/education/index.cfm?page=329 .

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NASA Pinning Down Where "Here" is Better Than Ever

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

Priscilla Vega 818-354-1357
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Priscilla.r.vega@jpl.nasa.gov

Elizabeth Zubritsky 301-614-5438
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Elizabeth.a.zubritsky@nasa.gov

News feature: 2012-049 Feb. 23, 2012

NASA Pinning Down Where "Here" is Better Than Ever

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-049&cid=release_2012-049

Before our Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation devices can tell us where we are,
the satellites that make up the GPS need to know exactly where they are. For that, they
rely on a network of sites that serve as "you are here" signs planted throughout the world.
The catch is, the sites don't sit still because they're on a planet that isn't at rest, yet
modern measurements require more and more accuracy in pinpointing where "here" is.

To meet this need, NASA is helping to lead an international effort to upgrade the four
systems that supply this crucial location information. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif., in partnership with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt,
Md., where the next generation of laser ranging and radio interferometry systems is being
developed and built, is bringing all four systems together in a state-of-the-art ground
station. This demonstration station and merger of technique processing, known as the
Space Geodesy Project, will serve as an example of what is required to measure Earth's
properties to keep up with the ever-changing, yet subtle, movements in land as it rises
and sinks along with shifts in the balances of the atmosphere and ocean. All of these
movements tweak Earth's shape, its orientation in space and its center of mass -- the point
deep inside the planet that everything rotates around. The changes show up in Earth's
gravity field and literally slow down or speed up the planet's rotation.

"NASA and its sister agencies around the world are making major investments in new
stations or upgrading existing stations to provide a network that will benefit the global
community for years to come," says John LaBrecque, Earth Surface and Interior Program
Officer at NASA Headquarters.

GPS won't be the only beneficiary of the improvements. All observations of Earth from
space -- whether it's to measure how far earthquakes shift the land, map the world's ice
sheets, watch the global mean sea level creep up or monitor the devastating reach of
droughts and floods -- depend on the International Terrestrial Reference Frame, which is
determined by data from this network of designated sites.

For more information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/here-pin-
down.html .

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JPL Educator Workshop to Highlight NASA's International Space Station

Feb. 23, 2012

This is a feature from the NASA/JPL Education Office.

International Space Station - Engaging Your Audiences in Low-Earth Orbit

Date: March 24-25, 2012

When: Saturday, March 24, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. & Sunday, March 25, 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Target audience: Informal educators (formal educators are welcome to attend)

Location: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Von Karman Auditorium, Pasadena, Calif.

Overview: NASA's International Space Station (ISS) and the ISS National Laboratory provide unparalleled opportunities for informal and formal educators to connect students and other audiences directly to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. On March 24-25, 2012, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. will host an informal educator workshop that will include science presentations by NASA experts, demonstrations of hands-on activities, ISS Live! website activities, educational resources and best practices for creating content and educational activities in informal settings. Additionally, participants will have the opportunity to network with fellow participants to enable future collaborations.

Register by March 9, 2012 to attend! A $35 registration fee includes continental breakfast, beverages, snacks, a box lunch and incidentals.

For more information, directions and to register visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/education/index.cfm?page=329

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The Many Moods of Titan

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

Jia-Rui Cook 818-354-0850
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
jccook@jpl.nasa.gov

Elizabeth Zubritsky 301-614-5438
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
elizabeth.a.zubritsky@nasa.gov

News feature: 2012-048 Feb. 23, 2012

The Many Moods of Titan

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-048&cid=release_2012-048

A set of recent papers, many of which draw on data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft,
reveal new details in the emerging picture of how Saturn's moon Titan shifts with
the seasons and even throughout the day. The papers, published in the journal
Planetary and Space Science in a special issue titled "Titan through Time", show how
this largest moon of Saturn is a cousin – though a very peculiar cousin – of Earth.

"As a whole, these papers give us some new pieces in the jigsaw puzzle that is
Titan," said Conor Nixon, a Cassini team scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight
Center, Greenbelt, Md., who co-edited the special issue with Ralph Lorenz, a Cassini
team scientist based at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory,
Laurel, Md. "They show us in detail how Titan's atmosphere and surface behave like
Earth's – with clouds, rainfall, river valleys and lakes. They show us that the seasons
change, too, on Titan, although in unexpected ways."

A paper led by Stephane Le Mouelic, a Cassini team associate at the French National
Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) at the University of Nantes, highlights the kind
of seasonal changes that occur at Titan with a set of the best looks yet at the vast
north polar cloud.

A newly published selection of images – made from data collected by Cassini's visual
and infrared mapping spectrometer over five years – shows how the cloud thinned
out and retreated as winter turned to spring in the northern hemisphere.

Cassini first detected the cloud, which scientists think is composed of ethane, shortly
after its arrival in the Saturn system in 2004. The first really good opportunity for
the spectrometer to observe the half-lit north pole occurred on December 2006. At
that time, the cloud appeared to cover the north pole completely down to about 55
degrees north latitude. But in the 2009 images, the cloud cover had so many gaps it
unveiled to Cassini's view the hydrocarbon sea known as Kraken Mare and
surrounding lakes.

"Snapshot by snapshot, these images give Cassini scientists concrete evidence that
Titan's atmosphere changes with the seasons," said Le Mouelic. "We can't wait to see
more of the surface, in particular in the northern land of lakes and seas."

In data gathered by Cassini's composite infrared mapping spectrometer to analyze
temperatures on Titan's surface, not only did scientists see seasonal change on
Titan, but they also saw day-to-night surface temperature changes for the first time.
The paper, led by Valeria Cottini, a Cassini associate based at Goddard, used data
collected at a wavelength that penetrated through Titan's thick haze to see the
moon's surface. Like Earth, the surface temperature of Titan, which is usually in the
chilly mid-90 kelvins (around minus 288 degrees Fahrenheit), was significantly
warmer in the late afternoon than around dawn.

"While the temperature difference – 1.5 kelvins – is smaller than what we're used to
on Earth, the finding still shows that Titan's surface behaves in ways familiar to us
earthlings," Cottini said. "We now see how the long Titan day (about 16 Earth days)
reveals itself through the clouds."

A third paper by Dominic Fortes, an outside researcher based at University College
London, England, addresses the long-standing mystery of the structure of Titan's
interior and its relationship to the strikingly Earth-like range of geologic features
seen on the surface. Fortes constructed an array of models of Titan's interior and
compared these with newly acquired data from Cassini's radio science experiment.

The work shows the moon's interior is partly or possibly even fully differentiated.
This means that the core is denser than outer parts of the moon, although less dense
than expected. This may be because the core still contains a large amount of ice or
because the rocks have reacted with water to form low-density minerals.

Earth and other terrestrial planets are fully differentiated and have a dense iron
core. Fortes' model, however, rules out a metallic core inside Titan and agrees with
Cassini magnetometer data that suggests a relatively cool and wet rocky interior.
The new model also highlights the difficulty in explaining the presence of important
gases in Titan's atmosphere, such as methane and argon-40, since they do not
appear to be able to escape from the core.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space
Agency and the Italian Space Agency. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the
mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The visual and
infrared mapping spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona, Tucson.
The composite infrared spectrometer team is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight
Center in Greenbelt, Md., where the instrument was built. The radio science
subsystem has been jointly developed by NASA and the Italian Space Agency.

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NASA's Spitzer Finds Solid Buckyballs in Space

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

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

Trent J. Perrotto 202-358-0321
NASA Headquarters, Washington
trent.j.perrotto@nasa.gov

News release: 2012-047 Feb. 22, 2012

NASA's Spitzer Finds Solid Buckyballs in Space

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-047&cid=release_2012-047

PASADENA, Calif. -- Astronomers using data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have, for
the first time, discovered buckyballs in a solid form in space. Prior to this discovery, the
microscopic carbon spheres had been found only in gas form in the cosmos.

Formally named buckministerfullerene, buckyballs are named after their resemblance to the late
architect Buckminster Fuller's geodesic domes. They are made up of 60 carbon molecules
arranged into a hollow sphere, like a soccer ball. Their unusual structure makes them ideal
candidates for electrical and chemical applications on Earth, including superconducting
materials, medicines, water purification and armor.

In the latest discovery, scientists using Spitzer detected tiny specks of matter, or particles,
consisting of stacked buckyballs. They found the particles around a pair of stars called "XX
Ophiuchi," 6,500 light-years from Earth, and detected enough to fill the equivalent in volume to
10,000 Mount Everests.

"These buckyballs are stacked together to form a solid, like oranges in a crate," said Nye Evans
of Keele University in England, lead author of a paper appearing in the Monthly Notices of the
Royal Astronomical Society. "The particles we detected are miniscule, far smaller than the width
of a hair, but each one would contain stacks of millions of buckyballs."

Buckyballs were detected definitively in space for the first time by Spitzer in 2010. Spitzer later
identified the molecules in a host of different cosmic environments. It even found them in
staggering quantities, the equivalent in mass to 15 Earth moons, in a nearby galaxy called the
Small Magellanic Cloud.

In all of those cases, the molecules were in the form of gas. The recent discovery of buckyballs
particles means that large quantities of these molecules must be present in some stellar
environments in order to link up and form solid particles. The research team was able to identify
the solid form of buckyballs in the Spitzer data because they emit light in a unique way that
differs from the gaseous form.

"This exciting result suggests that buckyballs are even more widespread in space than the earlier
Spitzer results showed," said Mike Werner, project scientist for Spitzer at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "They may be an important form of carbon, an essential building
block for life, throughout the cosmos."

Buckyballs have been found on Earth in various forms. They form as a gas from burning candles
and exist as solids in certain types of rock, such as the mineral shungite found in Russia, and
fulgurite, a glassy rock from Colorado that forms when lightning strikes the ground. In a test
tube, the solids take on the form of dark, brown "goo."

"The window Spitzer provides into the infrared universe has revealed beautiful structure on a
cosmic scale," said Bill Danchi, Spitzer program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
"In yet another surprise discovery from the mission, we're lucky enough to see elegant structure
at one of the smallest scales, teaching us about the internal architecture of existence."

JPL manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in
Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California
Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

For information about previous Spitzer discoveries of buckyballs, visit
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/news/spitzer20100722.html
and http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/news/spitzer20101027.html .

For more information about Spitzer, visit http://spitzer.caltech.edu and
http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer .

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NASA Map Sees Earth's Trees in a New Light

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

News release: 2012-044 Feb. 17, 2012

NASA Map Sees Earth's Trees in A New Light

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-044&cid=release_2012-044

PASADENA, Calif. – A NASA-led science team has created an accurate, high-resolution map of the
height of Earth's forests. The map will help scientists better understand the role forests play in
climate change and how their heights influence wildlife habitats within them, while also helping them
quantify the carbon stored in Earth's vegetation.

Scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; the University of Maryland,
College Park; and Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth, Mass., created the map using 2.5 million
carefully screened, globally distributed laser pulse measurements from space. The light detection and
ranging (lidar) data were collected in 2005 by the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System instrument on
NASA's Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat).

"Knowing the height of Earth's forests is critical to estimating their biomass, or the amount of carbon
they contain," said lead researcher Marc Simard of JPL. "Our map can be used to improve global
efforts to monitor carbon. In addition, forest height is an integral characteristic of Earth's habitats, yet
is poorly measured globally, so our results will also benefit studies of the varieties of life that are
found in particular parts of the forest or habitats."

The map, available at http://lidarradar.jpl.nasa.gov, depicts the highest points in the forest canopy.
Its spatial resolution is 0.6 miles (1 kilometer). The map was validated against data from a network of
nearly 70 ground sites around the world.

The researchers found that, in general, forest heights decrease at higher elevations and are highest at
low latitudes, decreasing in height the farther they are from the tropics. A major exception was found
at around 40 degrees south latitude in southern tropical forests in Australia and New Zealand, where
stands of eucalyptus, one of the world's tallest flowering plants, tower much higher than 130 feet (40
meters).

The researchers augmented the ICESat data with other types of data to compensate for the sparse
lidar data, the effects of topography and cloud cover. These included estimates of the percentage of
global tree cover from NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA's Terra
satellite, elevation data from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, and temperature and
precipitation maps from NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and the WorldClim database.
WorldClim is a set of freely available, high-resolution global climate data that can be used for
mapping and spatial modeling.

In general, estimates in the new map show forest heights were taller than in a previous ICESat-based
map, particularly in the tropics and in boreal forests, and were shorter in mountainous regions. The
accuracy of the new map varies across major ecological community types in the forests, and also
depends on how much the forests have been disturbed by human activities and by variability in the
forests' natural height.

"Our map contains one of the best descriptions of the height of Earth's forests currently available at
regional and global scales," Simard said. "This study demonstrates the tremendous potential that
spaceborne lidar holds for revealing new information about Earth's forests. However, to monitor the
long-term health of Earth's forests and other ecosystems, new Earth observing satellites will be
needed."

Results of the study were published recently in the Journal of Geophysical Research –
Biogeosciences.

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

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JPL and Caltech CubeSat Proposals Move Forward

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

Priscilla Vega 818-354-1357
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
priscilla.r.vega@jpl.nasa.gov

Joshua Buck 202-358-1100
NASA Headquarters, Washington
jbuck@nasa.gov

News release: 2012-042 Feb. 14, 2012

JPL and Caltech Cubesat Proposals Move Forward

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-042&cid=release_2012-042

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA has selected 33 small satellites – including two Cubesats from the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in partnership with the California Institute of Technology, both in
Pasadena – to fly as auxiliary payloads aboard rockets planned to launch in 2013 and 2014. The
proposed CubeSats come from universities across the country, the Radio Amateur Satellite
Corporation, NASA field centers and Department of Defense organizations.

CubeSats are a class of research spacecraft called nanosatellites. The cube-shaped satellites are
approximately four inches (102 centimeters) long, have a volume of about one quart (nearly a
liter) and weigh less than three pounds (1.35 kilograms).

The selections are from the third round of the CubeSat Launch Initiative. After launch, the
satellites will conduct technology demonstrations, educational research or science missions. The
selected spacecraft are eligible for flight after final negotiations and an opportunity for flight
becomes available. The satellites come from the following organizations:

-- Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio
-- Air Force Research Lab, Wright-Patterson AFB
-- California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
-- Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
-- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
-- Montana State University, Bozeman
-- Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, Calif. (2 CubeSats)
-- NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
-- NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
-- NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in partnership with the California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena (2 CubeSats)
-- NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Fla.
-- The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, Silver Spring, Md.
-- Saint Louis University, St. Louis
-- Salish Kootenai College, Pablo, Mont.
-- Space and Missile Defense Command, Huntsville, Ala. (2 CubeSats)
-- Taylor University, Upland, Ind.
-- University of Alabama, Huntsville
-- University of California, Berkeley
-- University of Colorado, Boulder (2 CubeSats)
-- University of Hawaii, Manoa (3 CubeSats)
-- University of Illinois, Urbana (2 CubeSats)
-- University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
-- University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, N.D.
-- University of Texas, Austin
-- U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colo.
-- Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg

Of the 32 CubeSat missions that were selected for launch in the previous two rounds of the
CubeSat Launch Initiative, two were from JPL. Eight CubeSat missions have been launched
(including the JPL-developed M-Cubed/COVE Cubesat) to date via the agency's Launch
Services Program Educational Launch of Nanosatellite, or ELaNa, program. Caltech manages
JPL for NASA

For additional information on NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative program, visit:
http://go.usa.gov/Qbf .

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

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Applications Open for NASA/JPL's Planetary Science Summer School

Internship Opportunities Feb. 14, 2012

This is a feature from the NASA/JPL Education Office.

Applications Open for NASA/JPL's Planetary Science Summer School

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. is accepting applications from science and engineering post-docs, recent PhDs and doctoral students for its 24th annual Planetary Science Summer School, which will hold two separate sessions this summer (June 18-22 and July 16-20) at JPL. During the program and pre-session webinars, student teams will carry out the equivalent of an early mission concept study, prepare a proposal authorization review presentation, present it to a review board, and receive feedback. By the end of the session, students will have a clearer understanding of the life cycle of a space mission; relationships between mission design, cost, and schedule; and the tradeoffs necessary to stay within cost and schedule while preserving the quality of science.

Applications are due March 28, 2012. Partial financial support is available for a limited number of individuals. Further information is available at http://pscischool.jpl.nasa.gov.

Visit http://1.usa.gov/A0eft0 to see a video profiling last summer's Planetary Science School team and their mission to a Trojan asteroid.

For a full list NASA/JPL internships & fellowships accepting applications, visit http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/education/index.cfm?page=311.

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Planck All-Sky Images Show Cold Gas and Strange Haze

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

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

Markus Bauer +31 71 565 6799
European Space Agency
markus.bauer@esa.int

Image advisory: 2012-040 Feb. 13, 2012

Planck All-Sky Images Show Cold Gas and Strange Haze

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-040&cid=release_2012-040

New images from the Planck mission show previously undiscovered islands of star formation
and a mysterious haze of microwave emissions in our Milky Way galaxy. The views give
scientists new treasures to mine and take them closer to understanding the secrets of our galaxy.

Planck is a European Space Agency mission with significant NASA participation.

"The images reveal two exciting aspects of the galaxy in which we live," said Planck scientist
Krzysztof M. Gorski from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and Warsaw
University Observatory in Poland. "They show a haze around the center of the galaxy, and cold
gas where we never saw it before."

The new images show the entire sky, dominated by the murky band of our Milky Way galaxy.
One of them shows the unexplained haze of microwave light previously hinted at in
measurements by NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP).

"The haze comes from the region surrounding the center of our galaxy and looks like a form of
light energy produced when electrons accelerate through magnetic fields," said Davide
Pietrobon, another JPL Planck scientist.

"We're puzzled though, because this haze is brighter at shorter wavelengths than similar light
emitted elsewhere in the galaxy," added Gorski.

Several explanations have been proposed for this unusual behaviour.

"Theories include higher numbers of supernovae, galactic winds and even the annihilation of
dark-matter particles," said Greg Dobler, a Planck collaborator from the University of California
in Santa Barbara, Calif. Dark matter makes up about a quarter of our universe, but scientists don't
know exactly what it is.

The second all-sky image is the first map to show carbon monoxide over the whole sky. Cold
clouds with forming stars are predominantly made of hydrogen molecules, difficult to detect
because they do not readily emit radiation. Carbon monoxide forms under similar conditions, and
though it is rarer, the gas emits more light. Astronomers can use carbon monoxide to identify the
clouds of hydrogen where stars are born.

Surveys of carbon monoxide undertaken with radio telescopes on the ground are time-
consuming, so they are limited to portions of the sky where clouds of molecules are already
known or expected to exist. Planck scans the whole sky, allowing astronomers to detect the gas
where they weren't expecting to find it.

Planck's primary goal is to observe the Cosmic Microwave Background, the relic radiation from
the Big Bang, and to extract its encoded information about what our universe is made of, and the
origin of its structure.

This relic radiation can only be reached once all sources of foreground emission, such as the
galactic haze and the carbon monoxide signals, have been identified and removed.

"The lengthy and delicate task of foreground removal provides us with prime datasets that are
shedding new light on hot topics in galactic and extragalactic astronomy alike," said Jan Tauber,
Planck project scientist at the European Space Agency.

Planck's first findings on the Big Bang's relic radiation are expected to be released in 2013. The
new results are being presented this week at an international astronomy conference in Bologna,
Italy.

NASA's Planck Project Office is based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
JPL contributed mission-enabling technology for both of Planck's science instruments. European,
Canadian and U.S. Planck scientists will work together to analyze the Planck data. More
information is online at http://www.nasa.gov/planck and http://www.esa.int/planck .

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

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Educator Workshop: Greenhouse Gases and Their Roles on Earth

Feb. 09, 2012

This is a feature from the NASA/JPL Education Office.

Greenhouse Gases and Their Roles on Earth

Date: Saturday, March 3, 2012, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Target audience: Formal and informal educators teaching grades 6 through 12

Location: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Von Karman Auditorium, Pasadena, Calif.

Overview: Greenhouse gases are both naturally occurring and man-made gases that trap heat in Earth's atmosphere and play a vital role in maintaining a habitable climate. However, human activity is quickly increasing the concentration of these gases on Earth and causing concern about the future of our planet. This educator workshop will examine the role of greenhouse gases in our complex global system, and explore the ways that media delivers science content and discusses climate change.

The workshop is open to formal and informal educators teaching grades 6 through 12 and will include a group discussion, science presentations and a hands-on activity/discussion on the media's portrayal of science and climate change. Teachers will receive a certificate for continuing education hours.

Register by February 28, 2012 to attend! A $30 registration fee includes continental breakfast and a box lunch.

For more information, directions and to register visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/education/index.cfm?page=318

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New Views Show Old NASA Mars Landers

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

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

News feature: 2012-037 Feb. 8, 2012

New Views Show Old NASA Mars Landers

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-037&cid=release_2012-037

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter recorded a scene on Jan. 29, 2012, that includes the first color image
from orbit showing the three-petal lander of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit mission. Spirit
drove off that lander platform in January 2004 and spent most of its six-year working life in a
range of hills about two miles to the east.

Another recent image from HiRISE, taken on Jan. 26, 2012, shows NASA's Phoenix Mars
Lander and its surroundings on far-northern Mars after that spacecraft's second Martian arctic
winter. Phoenix exceeded its planned mission life in 2008, ending its work as solar energy
waned during approach of its first Mars winter.

The image showing Spirit's lander platform as a small, bright feature southwest of Bonneville
Crater is at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA15038. The new image of Phoenix is
at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA15039 .

Previous color images from HiRISE have shown the Spirit rover itself, but all previous HiRISE
views of the lander that delivered Spirit were in black and white.

Although neither Phoenix nor Spirit still send data to Earth, scientific findings from both missions
continue as researchers analyze the wealth of data from the two. A recent report based on
inspection of Martian soil particles with microscopes on Phoenix concluded that the soil has
experienced very little interaction with liquid water over the past 600 million years or more (see
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_3-2-
2012-10-26-2 ).

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been examining Mars with six science instruments since
2006. Now in an extended mission, the orbiter continues to provide insights into the planet's
ancient environments and how processes such as wind, meteorite impacts and seasonal frosts
are continuing to affect the Martian surface today. This mission has returned more data about
Mars than all other orbital and surface missions combined.

More than 21,000 images taken by HiRISE are available for viewing on the instrument team's
website: http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu . Each observation by this telescopic camera covers
several square miles, or square kilometers, and can reveal features as small as a desk.

HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson. The instrument was built by Ball
Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project
and the Mars Exploration Rover Project are managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL is a division of the
California Institute of Technology, also in Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver,
built the orbiter. For more information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, see
www.nasa.gov/mro .

The University of Arizona led the Phoenix mission with project management at JPL and
development partnership at Lockheed Martin. International contributions came from the
Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of
Copenhagen and Aarhus in Denmark; the Max Planck Institute in Germany; the Finnish
Meteorological Institute; and Imperial College of London.

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NASA Mission Takes Stock of Earth’s Melting Land 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

News release: 2012-036 Feb. 8, 2012

NASA Mission Takes Stock of Earth's Melting Land Ice

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-036&cid=release_2012-036

PASADENA, Calif. – In the first comprehensive satellite study of its kind, a University of Colorado
at Boulder-led team used NASA data to calculate how much Earth's melting land ice is adding to
global sea level rise.

Using satellite measurements from the NASA/German Aerospace Center Gravity Recovery and
Climate Experiment (GRACE), the researchers measured ice loss in all of Earth's land ice between
2003 and 2010, with particular emphasis on glaciers and ice caps outside of Greenland and
Antarctica.

The total global ice mass lost from Greenland, Antarctica and Earth's glaciers and ice caps during the
study period was about 4.3 trillion tons (1,000 cubic miles), adding about 0.5 inches (12 millimeters)
to global sea level. That's enough ice to cover the United States 1.5 feet (0.5 meters) deep.

"Earth is losing a huge amount of ice to the ocean annually, and these new results will help us answer
important questions in terms of both sea rise and how the planet's cold regions are responding to
global change," said University of Colorado Boulder physics professor John Wahr, who helped lead
the study. "The strength of GRACE is it sees all the mass in the system, even though its resolution is
not high enough to allow us to determine separate contributions from each individual glacier."

About a quarter of the average annual ice loss came from glaciers and ice caps outside of Greenland
and Antarctica (roughly 148 billion tons, or 39 cubic miles). Ice loss from Greenland and Antarctica
and their peripheral ice caps and glaciers averaged 385 billion tons (100 cubic miles) a year. Results
of the study will be published online Feb. 8 in the journal Nature.

Traditional estimates of Earth's ice caps and glaciers have been made using ground measurements
from relatively few glaciers to infer what all the world's unmonitored glaciers were doing. Only a few
hundred of the roughly 200,000 glaciers worldwide have been monitored for longer than a decade.

One unexpected study result from GRACE was that the estimated ice loss from high Asian mountain
ranges like the Himalaya, the Pamir and the Tien Shan was only about 4 billion tons of ice annually.
Some previous ground-based estimates of ice loss in these high Asian mountains have ranged up to
50 billion tons annually.

"The GRACE results in this region really were a surprise," said Wahr, who is also a fellow at the
University of Colorado-headquartered Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences.
"One possible explanation is that previous estimates were based on measurements taken primarily
from some of the lower, more accessible glaciers in Asia and extrapolated to infer the behavior of
higher glaciers. But unlike the lower glaciers, most of the high glaciers are located in very cold
environments and require greater amounts of atmospheric warming before local temperatures rise
enough to cause significant melting. This makes it difficult to use low-elevation, ground-based
measurements to estimate results from the entire system."

"This study finds that the world's small glaciers and ice caps in places like Alaska, South America
and the Himalayas contribute about 0.02 inches per year to sea level rise," said Tom Wagner,
cryosphere program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "While this is lower than
previous estimates, it confirms that ice is being lost from around the globe, with just a few areas in
precarious balance. The results sharpen our view of land-ice melting, which poses the biggest, most
threatening factor in future sea level rise."

The twin GRACE satellites track changes in Earth's gravity field by noting minute changes in
gravitational pull caused by regional variations in Earth's mass, which for periods of months to years
is typically because of movements of water on Earth's surface. It does this by measuring changes in
the distance between its two identical spacecraft to one-hundredth the width of a human hair.

The GRACE spacecraft, developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and
launched in 2002, are in the same orbit approximately 137 miles (220 kilometers) apart. The
California Institute of Technology manages JPL for NASA.

For more on GRACE, visit: http://www.csr.utexas.edu/grace and http://grace.jpl.nasa.gov .

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.

Additional media contact: Jim Scott, CU-Boulder, 303-492-3114, jim.scott@colorado.edu .

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Mars-Bound NASA Rover Carries Coin for Camera Checkup

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

Guy Webster 818-687-7708
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

Feature: 2012-033 Feb. 7, 2012

Mars-Bound NASA Rover Carries Coin for Camera Checkup

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-033&cid=release_2012-033

The camera at the end of the robotic arm on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has its own
calibration target, a smartphone-size plaque that looks like an eye chart supplemented with
color chips and an attached penny.

When Curiosity lands on Mars in August, researchers will use this calibration target to test
performance of the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager, or MAHLI. MAHLI's close-up
inspections of Martian rocks and soil will show details so tiny, the calibration target
includes reference lines finer than a human hair. This camera is not limited to close-ups,
though. It can focus on any target from about a finger's-width away to the horizon.

Curiosity, the rover of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, also carries four other
science cameras and a dozen black-and-white engineering cameras, plus other research
instruments. The spacecraft, launched Nov. 26, 2011, will deliver Curiosity to a landing site
inside Mars' Gale Crater in August to begin a two-year investigation of whether that area
has ever offered an environment favorable for microbial life.

The "hand lens" in MAHLI's name refers to field geologists' practice of carrying a hand lens
for close inspection of rocks they find. When shooting photos in the field, geologists use
various calibration methods.

"When a geologist takes pictures of rock outcrops she is studying, she wants an object of
known scale in the photographs," said MAHLI Principal Investigator Ken Edgett, of Malin
Space Science Systems, San Diego. "If it is a whole cliff face, she'll ask a person to stand
in the shot. If it is a view from a meter or so away, she might use a rock hammer. If it is a
close-up, as the MAHLI can take, she might pull something small out of her pocket. Like a
penny."

Edgett bought the special penny that's aboard Curiosity with funds from his own pocket. It
is a 1909 "VDB" cent, from the first year Lincoln pennies were minted, the centennial of
Abraham Lincoln's birth, with the VDB initials of the coin's designer – Victor David Brenner
-- on the reverse.

"The penny is on the MAHLI calibration target as a tip of the hat to geologists' informal
practice of placing a coin or other object of known scale in their photographs. A more
formal practice is to use an object with scale marked in millimeters, centimeters or meters,"
Edgett said. "Of course, this penny can't be moved around and placed in MAHLI images; it
stays affixed to the rover."

The middle of the target offers a marked scale of black bars in a range of labeled sizes.
While the scale will not appear in photos MAHLI takes of Martian rocks, knowing the
distance from the camera to a rock target will allow scientists to correlate calibration
images to each investigation image.

Another part of MAHLI's calibration target displays six patches of pigmented silicone as
aids for interpreting color and brightness in images. Five of them -- red, green, blue, 40-
percent gray and 60-percent gray -- are spares from targets on NASA Mars rovers Spirit
and Opportunity. The sixth, with a fluorescent pigment that glows red when exposed to
ultraviolet light, allows checking of an ultraviolet light source on MAHLI. The fluorescent
material was donated to the MAHLI team by Spectra Systems, Inc., Providence, R.I.

A stair-stepped area at the bottom of the target, plus the penny, help with three-
dimensional calibration using known surface shapes.

Curiosity also carries calibration materials for other science instruments on the rover. "The
importance of calibration is to allow data acquired on Mars to be compared reliably to data
acquired on Earth," said Mars Science Laboratory Project Scientist John Grotzinger, of the
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.

The MAHLI calibration target, with its penny and a miniscule cartoon of a character named
"Joe the Martian," serves an additional function: public engagement.

"Everyone in the United States can recognize the penny and immediately know how big it
is, and can compare that with the rover hardware and Mars materials in the same image,"
Edgett said. "The public can watch for changes in the penny over the long term on Mars.
Will it change color? Will it corrode? Will it get pitted by windblown sand?"

The Joe the Martian character appeared regularly in a children's science periodical, "Red
Planet Connection," when Edgett directed the Mars outreach program at Arizona State
University, Tempe, in the 1990s. Joe was created earlier, as part of Edgett's schoolwork
when he was 9 years old and NASA's Mars Viking missions, launched in 1975, were
inspiring him to dream of becoming a Mars researcher.

Edgett said, "The Joe the Martian on Curiosity really is a 'thank you' from the MAHLI team
to the folks who have provided us with the opportunity to study Mars, the U.S. taxpayers.
He is also there to encourage children around the world to set goals that will help them
achieve their dreams in whatever interests they pursue."

The Mars Science Laboratory is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division
of the Caltech. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/msl .

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Upcoming Educator Workshop Fuses NASA Imagery and Art

Feb. 06, 2012

This is a feature from the NASA/JPL Education Office.

A Vision of Discovery: Understanding NASA Images Through Art

Date: Saturday, March 10, 2012, 8:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Target audience: Educators

Location: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Overview: Experience real world science and bring captivating activities to your students. Presented by NASA's Discovery and New Frontiers Programs, educators will learn how to use the elements of art to inspire and engage students in the interpretation and understanding of NASA imagery based on fantastic new images of Mercury from NASA's MESSENGER mission and of the giant asteroid Vesta from the agency's Dawn mission. A fee of $25 covers lunch and snacks. Hear from mission scientists, learn hands-on activities for K-12 and out-of-school-time educators, and take back resource packets full of educational materials. Register by March 1, 2012 to attend!

For more information, directions and to register visit: http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/discovery/vision_of_discovery.asp
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NASA's Twin Grail Spacecraft Reunite in Lunar Orbit

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

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

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

Caroline McCall 617-253-1682
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
cmcall5@mit.edu

Whitney Lawrence Mullen 858-638-1432
Sally Ride Science, San Diego
wmullen@sallyridescience.com

Image advisory: 2012-031 Feb. 1, 2012

NASA Mission Returns First Video From Moon's Far Side

PASADENA, Calif. -- A camera aboard one of NASA's twin Gravity Recovery And Interior
Laboratory (GRAIL) lunar spacecraft has returned its first unique view of the far side of the moon.
MoonKAM, or Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students, will be used by students
nationwide to select lunar images for study.

GRAIL consists of two identical spacecraft, recently named Ebb and Flow, each of which is
equipped with a MoonKAM. The images were taken as part of a test of Ebb's MoonKAM on Jan.
19. The GRAIL project plans to test the MoonKAM aboard Flow at a later date.

To view the 30-second video clip, visit: http://go.nasa.gov/zZXAPs .

In the video, the north pole of the moon is visible at the top of the screen as the spacecraft flies
toward the lunar south pole. One of the first prominent geological features seen on the lower third of
the moon is the Mare Orientale, a 560-mile-wide (900 kilometer) impact basin that straddles both the
moon's near and far side.

The clip ends with rugged terrain just short of the lunar south pole. To the left of center, near the
bottom of the screen, is the 93-mile-wide (149 kilometer) Drygalski crater with a distinctive star-
shaped formation in the middle. The formation is a central peak, created many billions of years ago
by a comet or asteroid impact.

"The quality of the video is excellent and should energize our MoonKAM students as they prepare
to explore the moon," said Maria Zuber, GRAIL principal investigator from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

The twin spacecraft successfully achieved lunar orbit this past New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.
Previously named GRAIL-A and GRAIL-B, the washing machine-sized spacecraft received their
new names from fourth graders at the Emily Dickinson Elementary School in Bozeman, Mont.,
following a nationwide student naming contest.

Thousands of fourth- to eighth-grade students will select target areas on the lunar surface and send
requests to the GRAIL MoonKAM Mission Operations Center in San Diego. Photos of the target
areas will be sent back by the satellites for students to study. The MoonKAM program is led by
Sally Ride, America's first woman in space. Her team at Sally Ride Science and undergraduate
students at the University of California in San Diego will engage middle schools across the country
in the GRAIL mission and lunar exploration. GRAIL is NASA's first planetary mission carrying
instruments fully dedicated to education and public outreach.

"We have had great response from schools around the country; more than 2,500 signed up to
participate so far," Ride said. "In mid-March, the first pictures of the moon will be taken by students
using MoonKAM. I expect this will excite many students about possible careers in science and
engineering."

Launched in September 2011, Ebb and Flow periodically perform trajectory correction maneuvers
that, over time, will lower their orbits to near-circular ones with an altitude of about 34 miles (55
kilometers). During their science mission, the duo will answer longstanding questions about the
moon and give scientists a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar
system formed.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the GRAIL mission for NASA's
Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The GRAIL mission is part of the Discovery Program
managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Lockheed Martin Space
Systems in Denver built the spacecraft.

For more information about GRAIL, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/grail .

Information about MoonKAM is available at: https://moonkam.ucsd.edu/ .

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

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