NASA May Have Found First Evidence of Alien Life

By Jon Fern, Science Editor
Follow @jfernwriter

NASA has found venting plumes of methane on Mars, strongly suggestive of the existence of biological processes on our nearest planetary neighbor.

Chris Webster of NASA said "Strictly speaking, our observations are evidence for methane production on Mars, and in themselves cannot directly provide evidence of microbial life.

"However, from our positive detection of methane on Mars, we cannot rule out the possibility that both the low background level and the high methane values originate in part from microbial activity (methanogenesis).

"Our observations indicate that either the source shut off or the wind field at the source location changed to direct the emission away from us.

"At this time, we have no idea what we will see in the future, or if we will ever see high values again."

NASA: Methane spike

In a press conference, a spokesperson said "It's not an argument that we have found evidence of life on Mars, but it's one of the hypotheses that we must consider as we go forward into the future.This is really exciting news for us."

You can watch a live feed of the announcement by NASA here.

The following is NASA's official press release regarding the methane spike, which you can also find on their website here.

Curiosity Detects Methane Spike on Mars

Dec. 16, 2014: NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has measured a tenfold spike in methane, an organic chemical, in the atmosphere around it and detected other organic molecules in a rock-powder sample collected by the robotic laboratory’s drill.
"This temporary increase in methane -- sharply up and then back down -- tells us there must be some relatively localized source," said Sushil Atreya of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and Curiosity rover science team. "There are many possible sources, biological or non-biological, such as interaction of water and rock."

This image illustrates possible ways methane might be added to Mars' atmosphere (sources) and removed from the atmosphere (sinks). NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has detected fluctuations in methane concentration in the atmosphere, implying both types of activity occur on modern Mars. A longer caption discusses which are sources and which are sinks. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SAM-GSFC/Univ. of Michigan

Researchers used Curiosity’s onboard Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) laboratory a dozen times in a 20-month period to sniff methane in the atmosphere. During two of those months, in late 2013 and early 2014, four measurements averaged seven parts per billion. Before and after that, readings averaged only one-tenth that level.
Curiosity also detected different Martian organic chemicals in powder drilled from a rock dubbed Cumberland, the first definitive detection of organics in surface materials of Mars. These Martian organics could either have formed on Mars or been delivered to Mars by meteorites.
Organic molecules, which contain carbon and usually hydrogen, are chemical building blocks of life, although they can exist without the presence of life. Curiosity's findings from analyzing samples of atmosphere and rock powder do not reveal whether Mars has ever harbored living microbes, but the findings do shed light on a chemically active modern Mars and on favorable conditions for life on ancient Mars.

This graphic shows tenfold spiking in the abundance of methane in the Martian atmosphere surrounding NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, as detected by a series of measurements made with the Tunable Laser Spectrometer instrument in the rover's Sample Analysis at Mars laboratory suite. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

"We will keep working on the puzzles these findings present," said John Grotzinger, Curiosity project scientist of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena (Caltech). "Can we learn more about the active chemistry causing such fluctuations in the amount of methane in the atmosphere? Can we choose rock targets where identifiable organics have been preserved?"
Researchers worked many months to determine whether any of the organic material detected in the Cumberland sample was truly Martian. Curiosity’s SAM lab detected in several samples some organic carbon compounds that were, in fact, transported from Earth inside the rover. However, extensive testing and analysis yielded confidence in the detection of Martian organics.

Identifying which specific Martian organics are in the rock is complicated by the presence of perchlorate minerals in Martian rocks and soils. When heated inside SAM, the perchlorates alter the structures of the organic compounds, so the identities of the Martian organics in the rock remain uncertain.
"This first confirmation of organic carbon in a rock on Mars holds much promise," said Curiosity participating scientist Roger Summons of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. "Organics are important because they can tell us about the chemical pathways by which they were formed and preserved. In turn, this is informative about Earth-Mars differences and whether or not particular environments represented by Gale Crater sedimentary rocks were more or less favorable for accumulation of organic materials. The challenge now is to find other rocks on Mount Sharp that might have different and more extensive inventories of organic compounds."
Researchers also reported that Curiosity's taste of Martian water, bound into lakebed minerals in the Cumberland rock more than three billion years ago, indicates the planet lost much of its water before that lakebed formed and continued to lose large amounts after.
SAM analyzed hydrogen isotopes from water molecules that had been locked inside a rock sample for billions of years and were freed when SAM heated it, yielding information about the history of Martian water. The ratio of a heavier hydrogen isotope, deuterium, to the most common hydrogen isotope can provide a signature for comparison across different stages of a planet's history.
"It's really interesting that our measurements from Curiosity of gases extracted from ancient rocks can tell us about loss of water from Mars," said Paul Mahaffy, SAM principal investigator of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and lead author of a report published online this week by the journal Science
The ratio of deuterium to hydrogen has changed because the lighter hydrogen escapes from the upper atmosphere of Mars much more readily than heavier deuterium. In order to go back in time and see how the deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio in Martian water changed over time, researchers can look at the ratio in water in the current atmosphere and water trapped in rocks at different times in the planet’s history.
Martian meteorites found on Earth also provide some information, but this record has gaps. No known Martian meteorites are even close to the same age as the rock studied on Mars, which formed about 3.9 billion to 4.6 billion years ago, according to Curiosity’s measurements.
The ratio that Curiosity found in the Cumberland sample is about one-half the ratio in water vapor in today's Martian atmosphere, suggesting much of the planet's water loss occurred since that rock formed. However, the measured ratio is about three times higher than the ratio in the original water supply of Mars, based on assumption that supply had a ratio similar to that measured in Earth's oceans. This suggests much of Mars' original water was lost before the rock formed.

Credits and more information:

Production editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA
Curiosity is one element of NASA's ongoing Mars research and preparation for a human mission to Mars in the 2030s. Caltech manages the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and JPL manages Curiosity rover science investigations for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The SAM investigation is led by Paul Mahaffy of Goddard. Two of SAM instruments key in these discoveries are the Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer, developed at Goddard, and the Tunable Laser Spectrometer, developed at JPL.
The results of the Curiosity rover investigation into methane detection and the Martian organics in an ancient rock were discussed at a news briefing Tuesday at the American Geophysical Union's convention in San Francisco. The methane results are described in a paper published online this week in the journal Science by NASA scientist Chris Webster of JPL, and co-authors.
A report on organics detection in the Cumberland rock by NASA scientist Caroline Freissenet, of Goddard, and co-authors, is pending publication.
For copies of the new Science papers about Mars methane and water, visit:http://go.nasa.gov/1cbk35X
For more information about Curiosity, visit http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/
Learn about NASA’s Journey to Mars at http://www.nasa.gov/content/nasas-journey-to-mars/


Image credit: Dust devils on Mars via Softpedia

Report Warns Life on Earth is Facing Mass Extinction

By Jon Fern

A recent study published in Nature has outlined the main threats to species around the globe, and its consensus is that a major extinction event could occur within the next century. The event, which some commentators suggest is already well underway, is known as the Holocene extinction, named for the geological age in which we are living. It is also referred to in the literature as the sixth extinction, since there have already been five major extinctions in Earth's history.

This is no light matter; the report estimates that there could be as many as 36,000 species disappearing every year. "In general the state of biodiversity is worsening, in many cases significantly," marine ecologist Derek Tittensor says in the report, although in the same source publication Henrique Pereira warns that "There is a huge uncertainty in projecting future extinction rates."

The most at-risk animal groups are amphibians, according to Nature, with 41% of species threatened with extinction. 26% of mammals and 13% of birds are also at risk. There are also an estimated 993 insect species close to extinction, representing an enormous global biomass.

The main threats to biodiversity range from exploitation of individual species, such as the exotic Phillipines tarsier pictured above, which is caught and sold in the pet trade, to outright habitat loss. Other threats include habitat degradation, climate change, competition from invasive species, pollution and disease.

Quantifiying the threat of extinction to the total of living species is problematic, however; it is projected that there could be up to 11 million animal species on Earth, while only around 1.3 million have been described by science. However, the die-off rate of the species we do know about is alarming, as are the links to anthropogenic climate change and habitat removal, and the weight of evidence suggests that whether or not a mass extinction event is currently underway, or is on the horizon, humanity's self-appointed role as custodian of life on Earth is questionable to say the least.



For more information on endangered species, please visit the IUCN Red List website.

Picture credit: 'Phillipine Tarsier' copyright of Jeremy Villasis, all rights reserved.

Festive Facts: The Amazing Science of Christmas Animals

By Jon Fern

Christmas is galloping towards us at a terrific speed, so let's take a look at some lesser-known facts about a few animals associated with the festive season.

European robin, Erithacus rubecula.

1. Robins, and indeed all other birds, are dinosaurs. The scientific consensus is that birds are in fact avian dinosaurs.
2. Despite their apparently friendly nature, male robins are territorially aggressive, and confrontations between adult birds are often fatal.
3. Robins will nest almost anywhere, including kettles and hats (as long as they're not in use, obviously...)
4. Robins can visually sense magnetic fields, possibly making use of quantum entanglement.
5. Victorian postmen wore red jackets; the robins on Christmas cards were originally emblematic of the postal service that delivered said cards. (Not science, but interesting.)

Polar bear, Ursus maritimus.

1. The polar bear is closely related to the extinct Irish brown bear, and may even be a direct descendant.
2. Polar bears are almost invisible under infrared photography, thanks to super-efficient insulation.
3. They overheat at only 10 °C (50 °F).
4. Their hair is not actually white. It's transparent. Also, polar bears have black skin.
5. The presence of polar bears is used as an indicator of ecosystem health. However, with polar habitats shrinking as a result of climate change, polar bears are among the most threatened species in the world, with a projected loss of two thirds of their current population by 2050.

Reindeer, Rangifer tarandus.

1. Reindeer can communicate social status by clicking their knees.
2. Reindeer can see ultraviolet light. This ability is vital to their survival in the wild.
3. Reindeer don't just eat leaves. They also eat lemmings. Fish and mushrooms also supplement their diet.
4. Reindeer can run at up to 50 mph (80 km/h).
5. Reindeer are an important prey item in the wild, with eagles, brown bears, polar bears, wolves and wolverines feeding on them.

So there you have it. Now you can impress friends and family over the Christmas period with a list of fascinating facts about your favourite festive animals.

Happy Holidays from NatureWire.



Picture credits: 1, 2, 3: Wikimedia Commons, 4: copyright SMG via Panoramio.

New York, New Frog: Leopard Frog Species Found in New York City

New leopard frog found in New York. Picture credit: Matthew Schlesinger, New York Natural Heritage Program, via National Geographic.

By Jon Fern, Science Editor

It’s one of the most heavily populated places on Earth, and probably the last place you would imagine a new species to pop (or hop...) up in, but New York City is home to a frog that’s only now been described by science.

The leopard frog, Rana kauffeldi, is described in a paper published in Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution entitled A new species of leopard frog (Anura: Ranidae) from the urban northeastern US. Its natural habitat includes coastal marshes and low-lying floodplain, which explains why low-lying Staten Island, where the new species was found, suits this little amphibian so well.

“I’d spent three years studying leopard frogs in New Jersey and so I was familiar with how the call was supposed to sound like. After I spent some time on Staten Island I knew straight away that the call there was a different one entirely,” Jeremy Feinberg told the Independent. Feinberg was part of the team from Rutgers University that has been investigating the new frog and its range, now thought to span a strip of coastland from Connecticut all the way down to North Carolina.

Commenting on the study, Professor Brad Shaffer of the University of California, Los Angeles, said: “If there is a single lesson to take from this study it’s that those who love nature and want to conserve it need to shut down their computers, get outside and study the plants and animals in their own backyards.”

Still, it’s rare that something like this should happen. As the National Geographic put it, “Only the second new frog species found in the continental United States in the past 30 years, it (R. kauffeldi) remained hidden in plain sight in a city of 8.4 million people.”

Step into the Light: Have Scientists found Evidence for Life after Death?

Step into the light... Image source: The Independent

The largest study of its kind may have found evidence that consciousness can survive death. A paper published in Resuscitation has concluded that consciousness may be able to linger in dead patients, with "2% (of cardiac arrest survivors) exhibiting full awareness." The report, based on a four year observational study of 2,060 cardiac arrest events, suggests that "this supports other recent studies that have indicated consciousness may be present despite clinically undetectable consciousness."

The report stated that the surviving "2% described awareness with explicit recall of 'seeing' and 'hearing' actual events related to their resuscitation. One had a verifiable period of conscious awareness during which time cerebral function was not expected."

Dr Sam Parnia, who led the study, explained that particular case to The Telegraph:

"We know the brain can't function when the heart has stopped beating. But in this case, conscious awareness appears to have continued for up to three minutes into the period when the heart wasn't beating, even though the brain typically shuts down within 20-30 seconds after the heart has stopped.

"The man described everything that had happened in the room, but importantly, he heard two bleeps from a machine that makes a noise at three minute intervals. So we could time how long the experienced lasted for.

"He seemed very credible and everything that he said had happened to him had actually happened."

Dr David Wilde of Nottingham Trent University is currently researching out-of-body-experiences, as well as other anomalous mental effects, and said of the study: "There is some very good evidence here that these experiences are actually happening after people have medically died."

Professor Robert Lanza is another proponent of the "life after death" theory. In his book, Biocentrism, Lanza argues that understanding consciousness may be key to ascertaining a true description of the universe, and that the nature of intelligent self-awareness may be stranger than science currently recognizes.

Disclaimer: This brief article cannot address all of the issues related to the current research, and the reader is urged to read the articles in the links above, as well as to conduct their own review of existing literature. However, it is clear that consciousness and the exact nature of reality are areas which science is only beginning to explore, and it is scientifically correct to keep an open mind until a body of peer reviewed evidence can credibly support any particular theory.

Rift Valley in the Sky: The History of the Moon is being Rewritten

Rewriting the history of the Moon. Credit: NASA

A new theory explaining the origins of the large, dark rectangular area of the Moon called Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms) has been outlined in a new paper published by Nature. Researchers Jeffrey Andrews-Hanna et al. made use of data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission to examine the subsurface construction of the area.

Previously believed to have been created by a massive asteroid strike, Procellarum looks the way it does because of volcanic and tectonic processes, the research suggests.

Lead researcher Andrews-Hanna explained in a NASA press release:

"Our gravity data are opening up a new chapter of lunar history, during which the moon was a more dynamic place than suggested by the cratered landscape that is visible to the naked eye.

"More work is needed to understand the cause of this newfound pattern of gravity anomalies, and the implications for the history of the moon."

The paper, entitled "Structure and evolution of the lunar Procellarum region as revealed by GRAIL gravity data" concludes that "the spatial pattern of magmatic-tectonic structures bounding Procellarum is consistent with their formation in response to thermal stresses produced by the differential cooling of the province relative to its surroundings, coupled with magmatic activity driven by the greater-than-average heat flux in the region."

NASA's press release describes the area as a rift valley, caused by a process similar to the cracking of mud when it dries, although on a much larger scale. The Great Rift Valley of East Africa is a terrestrial example of a similar geological feature which occurred when the outer layer of the Earth split as a result of differential cooling.

Fossils Rock! Birds Evolved From Theropod Dinosaurs

From T. rex to treecreepers in one handy graphic. Picture credit: University of Edinburgh.

Tens of millions of years of gradual evolution turned a family of dinosaurs called theropods into modern birds, new research by the University of Edinburgh has confirmed.

Led by Dr Steve Brusatte, the research highlights how the largest terrestrial carnivore took to the skies, acquiring feathers, wings and wishbones along the way.

The findings were published in Current Biology with the title "Gradual Assembly of Avian Body Plan Culminated in Rapid Rates of Evolution across the Dinosaur-Bird Transition".

Dr Brusatte told The Telegraph:

"What we think of as the classic bird skeleton was pieced together gradually over tens of millions of years.

"Once it came together fully, it unlocked great evolutionary potential that allowed birds to evolve at a super-charged rate."

What is important here is that there was no 'missing link', no intermediary, between dinosaurs and birds. This means that it is scientifically correct to refer to birds as avian dinosaurs. Dinosaurs began developing birdlike features until the first distinctly bird-like dinosaurs evolved around 150 million years ago.

You can read the original research paper here.

Fossils Rock! Spinosaurus Was Born To Swim

Spinosaurus aegyptiacus skeleton being fitted for display . Picture credit: Mike Hettwer/National Geographic

Just a quick post to briefly describe what is possibly the most exciting fossil-related news of 2014. Without all the hype piled onto the story by the mainstream press, here's why Spinosaurus was different from other dinosaurs:

• Nostrils higher up on head than on strictly terrestrial dinosaurs
• Long neck and trunk shift weight onto knee joint to balance in water
• Short, solid hind limbs
• Flat bottomed pedal claws for swimming
• Dorsal sail covered in skin for displaying in and out of water

This massive predator was adapted for long-term aquatic habitation. Here's how it would have looked when it was alive on Earth, 97 million years ago:

Picture credit: National Geographic

If you want to read the original research paper, you can find it here.

Archaeologists Unearth Massive "Super-Henge" Near Stonehenge

Credit: Ludwig Boltzmann Institute

An archaeological project utilizing new technology has revealed new monuments belonging to the ancient ritualistic landscape that is home to the famous Stonehenge. Perhaps the most startling of these new monuments is a "super henge" several times larger than Stonehenge itself.

The Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project, a joint venture by the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute and the University of Birmingham, took four years to complete its surveys. The impressive results were described in a press release on the project's website:

"The startling results of the survey include 17 previously unknown ritual monuments dating to the period when Stonehenge achieved its iconic shape. Dozens of burial mounds have been mapped in minute detail, including a long barrow (a burial mound dating to before Stonehenge) which revealed a massive timber building, probably used for the ritual inhumation of the dead following a complicated sequence of exposure and excarnation (defleshing), and which was finally covered by an earthen mound.

"The project has also revealed exciting new - and completely unexpected - information on previously known monuments. Among the most significant relate to the Durrington Walls 'super henge', situated a short distance from Stonehenge. This immense ritual monument, probably the largest of its type in the world, has a circumference of more than 1.5 kilometers (0.93 miles).

"A new survey reveals that this had an early phase when the monument was flanked with a row of massive posts or stones, perhaps up to three metres high and up to 60 in number - some of which may still survive beneath the massive banks surrounding the monument. Only revealed by the cutting-edge technology used in the project, the survey has added yet another dimension to this vast and enigmatic structure.

"Work also revealed novel types of monument including massive prehistoric pits, some of which appear to form astronomic alignments, plus new information on hundreds of burial mounds, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman settlements and fields at a level of detail never previously seen."

Newly Discovered Mushroom-Shaped Animal Baffles Scientists

Dendrogramma enigmatica. Picture credit: Jorgen Olesen.

In an extremely rare event, a genus new to science has been described. Bizarre mushroom-shaped animals were found in the sea off south-east Australia at depths between 400 and 1000 meters in the mid-1980s, and have only now been scientifically categorized. The animals are so different from any other living creature that they have been assigned their own genus, called Dendrogramma.

Genus Dendrogramma contains two species, D. enigmatica and D. discoides. The organisms are so distinct to any other type of creature that the genus even has its own family, Dendrogrammatidae, as they defy classification into any other family.

The two physically closest phyla are Ctenophora and Cnidaria, but the new species differ from both as they lack the specialized characteristics of those animal groups.

The two members of the new genus are described in a paper published in research journal Plos One. Lead scientist Dr Jorgen Oleson on the paper said: "New mushroom-shaped animals from the deep sea have been discovered which could not be placed in any recognized group of animals.

"Two species are recognised and current evidence suggest that they represent an early branch on the tree of life, with similarities to the 600 million-year-old extinct Ediacara fauna."

The National Geographic describes the creatures:

"What looks like a mushroom's stalk on Dendrogramma has a mouth at the base leading to a digestive canal that forks repeatedly once it reaches a disk, which looks like a mushroom cap.

"The animals' lifestyle is as mysterious as their appearance. None of the specimens showed signs of having been torn from something else, leading researchers to think the animals are free-living, rather than attaching to a surface or each other."

The same source goes on to report that the discovery may rewrite zoology textbooks, as the genus may represent an early evolutionary stage not accounted for by our current understanding of how life developed on Earth.

The closest animals to Dendrogramma spp. are known only from the fossil record and became extinct 540 million years ago, at the tail-end of the Ediacaran Era. Could Dendrogramma spp. have evolved the same channeled disk-shaped body independently, perhaps as a result to the same environmental pressures? If not, the new species may be descendants of those ancient life-forms.

Earth Dodged a Bullet: The Solar Superstorm Nobody Told You About

The July 2012 solar superstorm almost struck Earth. Source: NASA

A recent communication from NASA describes how close the Earth came to getting a debilitating blast from the Sun two years ago. A double coronal mass ejection (CME) narrowly missed the Earth, shooting out radiation that would have knocked out all telecommunications devices on the planet, along with all electrically powered equipment.

Described as a solar superstorm, the July 2012 CMEs would have caused lasting damage: "If it had hit, we would still be picking up the pieces," says Daniel Baker of the University of Colorado. Although it somehow failed to make the news in 2012, the event was described in a paper produced by NASA scientists at the time entitled "A major solar eruptive event in July 2012: Defining extreme space weather scenarios".

"I have come away from our recent studies more convinced than ever that Earth and its inhabitants were incredibly fortunate that the 2012 eruption happened when it did," Baker said in the recent press release from NASA. "If the eruption had occurred only one week earlier, Earth would have been in the line of fire."

A report by the National Research Council into the socio-economic impact of such an event warned of "extensive social and economic disruptions."

It went on to add, "Power outages would be accompanied by radio blackouts and satellite malfunctions; telecommunications, GPS navigation, banking and finance, and transportation would all be affected.

"Some problems would correct themselves with the fading of the storm: radio and GPS transmissions could come back online fairly quickly.

"Other problems would be lasting: a burnt-out multi-ton transformer, for instance, can take weeks or months to repair. The total economic impact in the first year alone could reach $2 trillion, some 20 times greater than the costs of a Hurricane Katrina."

So what is the probability that a flare this big could actually hit Earth? Physicist Pete Riley published a recent paper in Space Weather called "On the probability of occurrence of extreme space weather events" in which he explained that there is a 12% chance that a flare of this magnitude will strike Earth in the next ten years.

And according to Ashley Dale, writing in Physics World, violent superstorms occur every 150 years - and we're five years overdue.

With odds like these, it may be a good idea to be prepared. According to advice available from the US Government, families should have a communications plan, and households should have emergency kits on hand. Check out the ready.gov website for more ways in which you can be prepared for an extreme space weather event. You can also keep an eye on solar storm warnings with NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center.

Press Release: NASA Completes Key Review of World’s Most Powerful Rocket in Support of Journey to Mars

August 27, 2014

RELEASE 14-229

NASA Completes Key Review of World’s Most Powerful Rocket in Support of Journey to Mars




Artist concept of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) 70-metric-ton configuration launching to space. SLS will be the most powerful rocket ever built for deep space missions, including to an asteroid and ultimately to Mars.

Image Credit: NASA/MSFC


NASA officials Wednesday announced they have completed a rigorous review of the Space Launch System (SLS) -- the heavy-lift, exploration class rocket under development to take humans beyond Earth orbit and to Mars -- and approved the program's progression from formulation to development, something no other exploration class vehicle has achieved since the agency built the space shuttle.


"We are on a journey of scientific and human exploration that leads to Mars," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. "And we’re firmly committed to building the launch vehicle and other supporting systems that will take us on that journey."

For its first flight test, SLS will be configured for a 70-metric-ton (77-ton) lift capacity and carry an uncrewed Orion spacecraft beyond low-Earth orbit. In its most powerful configuration, SLS will provide an unprecedented lift capability of 130 metric tons (143 tons), which will enable missions even farther into our solar system, including such destinations as an asteroid and Mars.

This artist concept shows NASA’s Space Launch System, or SLS, rolling to a launchpad at Kennedy Space Center at night. SLS will be the most powerful rocket in history, and the flexible, evolvable design of this advanced, heavy-lift launch vehicle will meet a variety of crew and cargo mission needs.

Image Credit: 

NASA/MSFC

This decision comes after a thorough review known as Key Decision Point C (KDP-C), which provides a development cost baseline for the 70-metric ton version of the SLS of $7.021 billion from February 2014 through the first launch and a launch readiness schedule based on an initial SLS flight no later than November 2018.

Conservative cost and schedule commitments outlined in the KDP-C align the SLS program with program management best practices that account for potential technical risks and budgetary uncertainty beyond the program's control.

“Our nation is embarked on an ambitious space exploration program, and we owe it to the American taxpayers to get it right,” said Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot, who oversaw the review process. “After rigorous review, we’re committing today to a funding level and readiness date that will keep us on track to sending humans to Mars in the 2030s – and we’re going to stand behind that commitment.”

"The Space Launch System Program has done exemplary work during the past three years to get us to this point," said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for the Human Explorations and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "We will keep the teams working toward a more ambitious readiness date, but will be ready no later than November 2018.”

The SLS, Orion, and Ground Systems Development and Operations programs each conduct a design review prior to each program’s respective KDP-C, and each program will establish cost and schedule commitments that account for its individual technical requirements.

"We are keeping each part of the program -- the rocket, ground systems, and Orion -- moving at its best possible speed toward the first integrated test launch,” said Bill Hill, director Exploration Systems Development at NASA. "We are on a solid path toward an integrated mission and making progress in all three programs every day."

“Engineers have made significant technical progress on the rocket and have produced hardware for all elements of the SLS program,” said SLS program manager Todd May. “The team members deserve an enormous amount of credit for their dedication to building this national asset.”

The program delivered in April the first piece of flight hardware for Orion’s maiden flight, Exploration Flight Test-1 targeted for December. This stage adapter is of the same design that will be used on SLS’s first flight, Exploration Mission-1.

Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans has all major tools installed and is producing hardware, including the first pieces of flight hardware for SLS. Sixteen RS-25 engines, enough for four flights, currently are in inventory at Stennis Space Center, in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, where an engine is already installed and ready for testing this fall. NASA contractor ATK has conducted successful test firings of the five-segment solid rocket boosters and is preparing for the first qualification motor test.

SLS will be the world's most capable rocket. In addition to opening new frontiers for explorers traveling aboard the Orion capsule, the SLS may also offer benefits for science missions that require its use and can’t be flown on commercial rockets.

The next phase of development for SLS is the Critical Design Review, a programmatic gate that reaffirms the agency's confidence in the program planning and technical risk posture.

For more information about SLS, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/sls

-end-

Stephanie Schierholz
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
stephanie.schierholz@nasa.gov

---

NASA news releases and other information are available automatically by sending an e-mail message with the subject linesubscribe to hqnews-request@newsletters.nasa.gov. 
To unsubscribe from the list, send an e-mail message with the subject line unsubscribe to hqnews-request@newsletters.nasa.gov.

All text copyright NASA 2014

View the original press release here.

Forget Climate Change and Terraform Mars Instead, Economist Suggests

Mars Exploration Rover Landing site. Nr. 2 Melas Chasma. Credit: NASA/Kees Veenenbos

The global effort to halt climate change by 2100 could cost a total of $3 trillion, according to a popularly quoted study published by the German Institute for Economic Research.

However, economist Andrew Lilico, writing in the Telegraph, has proposed an alternative use for these funds: the terraforming of Mars.

Lilico argues that the benefits payback would occur during the same timescale: if we started now, we could have a blue Mars within 100 years. A green Mars wouldn't be achieved until at least 100 years later, with a fully operational ecosystem perhaps taking a total of 600 years.

The cost of terraforming Mars. Credit: NASA/National Geographic/Discovery Channel

The proposition has potential. Instead of trying to halt global warming on Earth, a process requiring the coordination of the world's business leaders and governments, why not kick-start global warming on Mars? It seems counter-intuitive, but by warming Mars, and seeding it with algae, bacteria and plants, the planet would eventually yield its own ecosystem, and in time provide a habitable atmosphere for human civilization.

The main hurdle to the plan would be the cost. An agency or agencies involved in the terraforming process would need a budget of $3 trillion. The impetus to undertake such a massive project would have to be present to raise such funds. While it makes sense to begin building a second home for our species, and others, convincing enough investors of this may be difficult, especially while many countries are still under-developed and humanitarian aid puts continual stress on resources.

Global energy investment vastly overtakes the amount required to either halt climate change or terraform Mars, according to Lilico. With a many-decades payback period, spending on energy and energy efficiency between now and 2035 is estimated at $40 trillion. Safeguarding a second home for humankind could be undertaken at a fraction of that expenditure.

Life on Earth is vulnerable to asteroid strikes, nuclear war, pandemic viruses, catastrophic vulcanism and no end of other potential triggers of extinction events. By choosing to remain solely on Earth, we are placing all of our eggs in one basket. Lilico's suggestion, by drawing a parallel between the costs of halting climate change on one planet and initiating it on another, has highlighted the comparative economic ease with which we could begin humanity's next chapter with a whole new set of horizons.

Subglacial Ecosystem Hints at Extraterrestrial Life

Artist's interpretation of a subglacial lake on Europa. Credit: Britney Schmidt/Dead Pixel VFX/Univ. of Texas at Austin.

A new paper published in the Nature journal has concluded that there is indeed a microbial ecosystem underneath the Antarctic ice sheet, providing evidence that ends decades of speculation about whether life can exist in such extreme habitats. The ecosystem is ancient and diverse, holding in the region of 4,000 distinct species of microorganisms.

A microbe examined as part of the study. Credit: Trista Vick-Majors.

Lead researcher Brent Christner told the Telegraph: "This does nothing but strengthen the case for life on other icy bodies in solar system and beyond. The first time we went to Antarctica and the first place we selected to drill a hole we found life. So it’s not much of a stretch that in similar conditions, like on the icy moon of Jupiter, Europa, life could exist there."

Video: Microbial Life Discovered Beneath Antarctic Ice Sheet. Credit: National Science Foundation

The research made use of a NASA designed and funded submarine in conjunction with the international Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling (WISSARD) project. The submarine was used to access Lake Whillans, on the West Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf. The NASA JPL website describes the site as a "20-square-mile (50-square-kilometer) lake... totally devoid of sunlight (with) a temperature of 31 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 0.5 degrees Celsius). It is part of a vast Antarctic subglacial aquatic system that covers an area about the size of the continental United States."

The paper characterizes the ecosystem found beneath the ice layer covering Lake Whillans as "chemosynthetically driven... inhabited by a diverse assemblage of bacteria and archaea".

However, astrobiologist Chris McKay of NASA's Ames Research Center was critical of the suggestion that this finding has off-wold implications. Commenting on the paper, but not connected to it, McKay told Space.com: "First, it is clear that the water sampled is from a system that is flowing through ice and out to the ocean.

"Second, and related to this, the results are not indicative of an ecosystem that is growing in a dark, nutrient-limited system. They are consistent with debris from the overlying ice — known to contain micro-organisms — flowing through and out to the ocean. Interesting in its own right, but not a model for an isolated ice-covered ecosystem."

The research is part of a trend in astrobiology towards investigating habitats that most closely resemble ice worlds such as Enceladus and Europa. By studying terrestrial analogues of these conjectured subglacial environments, the likelihood of their habitability may be weighed. There is growing confidence that extraterrestrial life exists in such environments; so much so that NASA is currently investing in a Europa orbiting mission, while ESA are developing in a program called JUICE which aims to launch a mission to Jupiter and its moons Ganymede, Callisto and Europa in 2022, with a projected arrival in 2030.

High Risk of Major Iceland Volcano Eruption, Aviation Sector Warned

Eyjafjallajökull erupted in 2010, affecting millions of people. Credit: REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Iceland's Met Office has raised Bardarbunga's eruption risk level to orange. This means that a volcanic eruption is possible, and is the fourth highest risk level. The fifth and final level, color-coded red, would indicate that an eruption is imminent, or that it had occurred. Also spelled Bárðarbunga, the volcano is larger than Eyjafjallajökull, a small ice cap, which erupted in 2010 causing chaos to the aviation industry. Flight operators have been notified of the increased risk of disruption to services.

The Met Office stated on their website that "This is the strongest earthquake measured in the region since 1996. As evidence of magma movement shallower than 10 km implies increased potential of a volcanic eruption, the Bárðarbunga aviation color code has been changed to orange."

Earthquake activity in the vicinity began on August 16th and has been ongoing since then, with 1155 earthquakes recorded in this time, the largest being a magnitude-4 quake that hit August 18th.

Iceland's recent seismic activity. Credit: Iceland Met Office

What could an eruption of Bardarbunga hold? There may be a repeat of events similar to those of 2011 when Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted. They may include:

• Shut down of European flights
• Passengers left stranded
• Airlines losing millions in lost revenue

Part of the Vatnajökull glacier may also melt, triggering a massive, sudden flood in the area. Iceland's hydroelectric plants could also be endangered.

If the eruption does occur and it is bigger than the 2011 Eyjafjallajökull eruption, the amount of airborne ash and other particulates could have a major impact on climate and agriculture across the northern hemisphere, dropping temperatures and reducing sunlight.

Dave McGarvie, a volcanologist from the Open University in Scotland, remained positive, however, and said in a statement: "The clues from the pattern of earthquakes show that seismic energy is being expended in two main clusters — one to the northeast on the glacier margin, and one to the east under the ice.

"The good news for air travel is that both these clusters are away from the heart of the main volcano, as it's in the heart that the kind of magma is produced which leads to highly explosive eruptions that produce the abundant fine ash capable of being transported long distances through the atmosphere."

Sizing Up a Super-Earth, Saturn's Embryonic Moon, and Teleconnected Clouds

Measuring a "Super-Earth". Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

It's high time AstrobioWire did its first all-in-one news round-up, so here it is. These are some of the best news articles to come out of NASA so far this year (we'll focus on NASA this time, since their research is so very news-friendly).

You may have seen some of these nuggets orbiting the social mediasphere already, while others may have eluded your scopes entirely. Either way, stand by for awesomeness in 3...2...1...

• Supercritical Water Starts Fires in Space: "When supercritical water is mixed with organic material, a chemical reaction takes place—oxidation. It's a form of burning without flames."
• Super-Earth Measured With Extreme Accuracy: "A team led by Sarah Ballard, a NASA Carl Sagan Fellow at the University of Washington in Seattle, recently measured the diameter of a "super Earth" to within an accuracy of 148 miles total or about 1 percent — remarkable accuracy for an exoplanet located about 300 light years from Earth."
• NASA to Conduct Astronaut Twin Experiment: "The interesting thing about Scott is, he's a twin. His brother Mark is also an astronaut, now retired. While Scott, the test subject, spends one year circling Earth at 17,000 mph, Mark will remain behind as a control."
• Is Saturn Forming a New Moon? "We have not seen anything like this before. We may be looking at the act of birth, where this object is just leaving the rings and heading off to be a moon in its own right."

  

  A moon is born? NASA's Cassini captures a disturbance in Saturn's outer ring. Source: NASA

• Teleconnected Clouds Interact Poles Apart: "New data from NASA's AIM spacecraft have revealed "teleconnections" in Earth's atmosphere that stretch all the way from the North Pole to the South Pole and back again, linking weather and climate more closely than simple geography would suggest."
• There's Definitely Water in the Asteroid Belt: "This is the first time water vapor has been unequivocally detected on Ceres or any other object in the asteroid belt and provides proof that Ceres has an icy surface and an atmosphere."

If that didn't whet your appetite, check out the Science News section at NASA for more great stories.

Send Your Name to Mars: NASA Launches Name Flying Initiative

This is a virtual boarding pass for a flight to Mars, cooked up by the geniuses at NASA. Looks pretty awesome doesn't it? Perhaps this is how boarding passes for Mars flights will really look one day, hopefully within our lifetime.

Sadly, I won't be going to Mars just yet - but at least my name will be! You can send your own name to Mars on Orion's flight test by following this link: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/participate/send-your-name/orion-first-flight/#name-form Make sure you register soon, though, because the closing date is October 31st, 2014.

Why Can't Monkeys Own Copyrights?

"Macaca nigra self-portrait". Picture credit: Self-portrait by the depicted Macaca nigra female. Licensed under public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

In the first case of its kind, the ownership of copyright by a non-human is being contested. The picture above is of a series of 'selfies' taken by a female Macaca nigra, and is currently listed by Wikipedia as being in the public domain:

"This file is in the public domain, because as the work of a non-human animal, it has no human author in whom copyright is vested."

But is this the correct stance to take? David Slater, a photographer who claims that the copyright belongs to him, outlined his argument in an interview with the Telegraph:

"A monkey pressed the button, but I did all the setting up."

The key thing here is the button-pressing. If I press the button on my camera to take a picture, the picture has been taken by me and I own the copyright. It makes no difference whether my wife put the batteries in the camera, or if someone else adjusted the strap. The picture, and the copyright, belong to me.

So why does the Macaca nigra female who took the photograph not own the copyright? Because in US copyright law, nothing but a human being can own a copyright. This is an anthropocentric stance that must surely change if we are to accept that other species can have the same mental and emotional inner lives and relationships that humans do.

Non-human hominids should have at least basic rights comparable to those enjoyed by humans, an argument that has perhaps been made most vocally by The Great Ape Project (GAP), which argues that these rights should include:

• The right to life
• The right to freedom
• The right not to be tortured

Some governments have already given apes some basic legal rights. For instance, the Spanish Parliament approved a resolution in 2008 giving apes the rights listed above, while in Britain current Home Office guidelines forbid experimentation on chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas. But much more needs to be done. All primates, and other 'higher animals', such as elephants, whales and dolphins, should be protected by strict laws enshrining similar rights to those protecting humans.

While Macaca nigra is not an ape but a monkey, securing rights for great apes other than humans would have a direct impact on the legal personhood of other primates, and a knock-on effect on the conference of legal rights for other sentient, non-hominid, animals.

Whether they are apes, birds, or aquatic mammals, sentient animals should undeniably have rights. Basic ones, such as the right to life, will do for now; others, such as the ownership of copyright, must surely follow one day.

Until then, the monkey made the picture, and as far as I am concerned the copyright belongs to her.