Mars Cave-Exploration Mission Entices Scientists

NASA is mapping out a strategy to return bits of rock and soil from the Martian surface to Earth, but the most intriguing Red Planet samples lie in underground caverns, some scientists say. The space agency's next steps at Mars are geared toward mounting a sample-return mission, which is widely viewed as the best way to look for signs of Red Planet life. Such signs are perhaps more likely to be found in material pulled from the subsurface, so some researchers hope NASA's first Martian sample-return effort won't be its last. "While I'm very much interested in a surface sample-return to get us over this hump of doing it, of course I immediately want to go on and start sampling more cryptic materials in lava-tube caves," said astrobiologist and cave scientist Penny Boston, of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro. "I would love that." The Martian underground Subterranean formations are quite common on Mars, Boston said. Orbiting spacecraft have spotted many snaking lava tubes, for example, which were created by long-ago Red Planet volcanism. [Photos: Mars Caves and Lava Tubes] "I could probably scrape up a few hundred examples on Mars, and I think that the numbers are only going to increase as the interest in these structures increases," Boston told SPACE.com. Such caverns may preserve a bounty of information about Martian history and evolution, including its past and current potential to host life. "Something like the lava tubes could be wonderful traps for material from past climate regimes, particles from previous epochs on Mars," Boston said, noting that liquid water is known to have flowed across the Martian surface long ago. Lava-tube caves on Earth commonly trap volatile materials such as water, she added. "We suspect that there may be examples of that on Mars," Boston said. "The ability to tap into frozen volatiles would be fabulous. And maybe bug bodies — maybe frozen little bodies. You never know." [Related: Crew picked for ultimate space voyage] The frigid, dry and radiation-bombed Martian surface is unlikely to host life as we know it today, many researchers say. But organisms might be able to survive in a Red Planet lava tube or other underground habitat, where conditions could be far more benign. "The subsurface is going to be radically different from the surface," Boston said. "Every indication we have from caves of all different kinds all over this planet shows that it doesn't take much separation vertically for a radically different environment." No easy task Exploring the surface of another world with a rover is a challenging enough proposition, and investigating the subsurface would be even more difficult. [The Boldest Mars Missions in History] For starters, any potential cave-exploration mission would need to make a pinpoint landing quite close to the cavern mouth, Boston said. NASA has improved its Martian touchdown precision greatly over the years — landing-zone ellipses have shrunk from 62 by 174 miles (100 by 280 kilometers) for the 1976 Viking mission to just 4 by 12 miles (6 by 19 km) for the Curiosity rover, which landed this past August — but further strides would likely be necessary. The actual cavern exploration would require technological advances as well. Cave rovers would have to be far more autonomous than their surface brethren, for example, since overlying rock would decrease the ability to communicate with Earth, said roboticist Red Whittaker, of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. [Slideshow: Dazzling distant galaxies] Cave robots would need to be nimble navigators, constructing maps of their dark surroundings and then picking their way through the boulder-strewn tunnels. Just getting into a Martian lava tube — and getting out again, in the case of a sample-return mission — also presents a daunting challenge. Some can be accessed via "skylights," holes in the ground where the tube's roof has collapsed. A rover might be able to rappel down the side of such holes, Whittaker said Nov. 14 at the 2012 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts meeting in Virginia. But this maneuver could knock rocks loose, potentially endangering the robot and the mission. So another option is to string a line across the hole's mouth and have the tightrope-walking robot descend to the floor on a tether like a spider. "I like simple, so that's a good choice," Whittaker said. Alternatively, the spelunking robot could leap into the cave, behaving like a "self-contained cannon," he added. Whittaker is considering such options as he develops a NIAC-funded prototype mission concept called "Spelunker," which would explore a lunar skylight and cave. Reason for optimism Scientists and engineers aren't ready to send cave-exploring robots to Mars yet, but such a misson is eminently possible, Whittaker said. "What we're discussing here is just the grand leap," Whittaker said. "It's not just new in terms of destination and agenda, but the technologies that are required to do these missions are both very new to space and also within reach." Boston voiced optimism that a spelunking Mars robot could be ready to launch by the early 2030s or so. Development of the necessary technologies should be helped along by the fact that they have important applications here on Earth, she said, citing autonomous search-and-rescue robots as one example. "I think we're really working up to it," Boston said. "I think we're coming into an era where a lot of things that we've found very, very difficult in the past are going to become increasingly easy. And so I'm certainly hoping [a mission could occur] within the next 20 years, where I can hope to still be alive to see it," she added with a laugh. Aiding human exploration An unmanned mission to explore the Martian underground could also aid efforts to send astronauts to the Red Planet, Boston said. Lava tubes are probably the most promising spots to establish human settlements on Mars, she said. But scientists would need to send robotic scouts to such sites first, to make sure they're safe for habitation and to check them out for indigenous life-forms (which could theoretically harm, or be harmed by, astronauts in their midst). Launching a lunar-cave mission — something along the lines of Whittaker's Spelunker concept, perhaps — would be a good way to get the ball rolling toward a similar effort on Mars, Boston said. And the success of near-surface Mars sample-return could set the table for a sister mission to a Red Planet cave. "I think that once we get over this technological and psychological barrier of finally bringing something back from Mars that we can study, that the next step is going to be easier, because we'll already have looked over that cliff, and jumped over and gotten to the other side," Boston said. "It will embolden us, I hope, at the same time that the technology is advancing."

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Freed scientist finds little change or hope in Russia

KRASNOYARSK, Russia (Reuters) - Grey, pale and thin, Valentin Danilov has changed more than the country that jailed him in 2004 for selling state secrets to China. The 66-year-old Russian physicist, whose face is now criss-crossed with deep wrinkles, could not be blamed for suffering from "deja vu" when he was released on Saturday from a Siberian penal colony on spying charges he says were politically motivated. President Vladimir Putin, now 60, is back in the Kremlin for a third term, corruption is rife, the unreformed economy is creaking under the weight of its dependence on energy exports, and opponents are still being imprisoned. Danilov, whose case human rights activists cite as evidence that Putin uses Russia's weak courts to persecute his enemies, sees little hope of rapid change. "Nothing has changed," Danilov said in an interview, putting some of the blame on Russia's 142 million people. "The authorities do not descend on us from the moon. They are the choice of the nation. So the authorities reflect the state of the nation," he told Reuters a few hours after his release from the high-fenced penal colony. News of one major change did reach him during his last year in the colony in a grimy industrial area outside the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, 6,500 km (4,000 miles) east of Moscow - reports that people had taken to the streets to protest. Demonstrations against Putin in Moscow and other big cities began a year ago, caused by anger over allegations of fraud in a parliamentary election won by the Kremlin leader's party, but they have largely lost momentum and the opposition is divided. Reflecting on the possibility of free and fair elections, and the possibility of political upheaval, Danilov said: "The nation is not yet ready." NEW CRACKDOWN? Dressed formally in a red tie and grey jacket, Danilov was speaking in an apartment in the city where he was born and jailed, and which was once part of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's network of Gulag prison camps. A researcher at Krasnoyarsk State University, he was first arrested in 2001. He admitted selling information about satellite technology to a Chinese company but he, other scientists and human rights activists said the information had already been available from public sources. An initial decision to acquit him was overturned and he was sentenced to 14 years in prison in a second trial. A Krasnoyarsk court granted him parole earlier this month, citing good behavior and poor health. Asked how he felt about finally stepping outside the prison walls, he said "there were no feelings", but added that he had no regrets and that he regarded himself as a political prisoner. At the time of Danilov's trial, Putin's opponents said the president was clamping down on academics who had contacts with foreign countries. They say his release showed that the Kremlin no longer regarded the physicist as a threat. Opposition members see similarities between what happened to Danilov and the pressure being put on them now in Moscow. Citing legal cases such as the sentencing of members of the Pussy Riot punk band over an anti-Putin protest in a Russian Orthodox Church, they say the Kremlin is using the legal system to smother dissent. Putin denies this but several opposition leaders face criminal charges and the parliament has adopted a slew of laws over the last half year which opponents say could be applied against them. These include tightening checks on lobby and campaign groups that have foreign funding, forcing them to register as "foreign agents", and broadening the definition of treason. "As for President Putin, I guess everybody would be the same as him in his place. The court makes the tsar," Danilov said, avoiding direct criticism of the president but condemning the circle around him. "The problem is not one of law but of how the judging is done." He read widely about Russia's legal system during his time in prison, and said the judiciary was still open to political manipulation. NO PLANS TO ENTER POLITICS After nearly a decade behind bars, including in colonies populated by murderers, Danilov's brown eyes are still penetrating and his wits sharp. He deflects questions about his health but is not a broken man. He does not want to look back, refusing to go into detail about his life in prison or his health. "It's like serving in the army, only that a man in the army has fewer rights. By taking the military oath, a soldier gives up some of his rights. While in prison, the prisoner can at least call in a lawyer and make complaints about abuse of rights," he said. Among people he admires, he listed several Putin critics - opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, former world chess champion Garry Kasparov and human rights campaigner Lyudmila Alexeyeva. He praised the entry into politics of Mikhail Prokhorov, a rich tycoon who challenged Putin in the March presidential election while denying accusations of being a "Kremlin stooge". Beyond retirement age, and worn down by his years in prison, Danilov signals that a new fight with the state or taking on a role in opposition is the last thing on his mind. He wants to go back to work soon to try out ideas he developed while he had time on his hands in jail. He also says he is ready to play an advisory role on how to reform Russia's outdated penal system. He aims to rebuild his strength and family ties with his daughter, granddaughter and wife of 41 years who lives in Novosibirsk, also in Siberia. Danilov said he had no plans to flee Russia or deal with space research again. He plans to keep in touch with people he met behind bars, including a man sentenced for murder whom he helped to obtain higher education. Putting a positive spin on his years in jail, he said: "They say that to get to know a country well, one must visit its cemeteries and prison. I used to visit cemeteries often and now I've been to prison too. "So you can really believe me when I say I know perfectly fine now what Russia is," he said. He paused for a moment and, smiling, switched to English to quote the title of a Shakespeare play: "All's well that ends well."

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Science fund cuts could hurt EU recovery, scientists warn

LONDON (Reuters) - Cutting science funding in the European Union would threaten economic recovery in the bloc, the heads of scientific organisations said on Friday after such cuts were proposed. "We believe it would be deeply damaging to future economic growth if we were to cut funding now," Andrew Harrison, director general of Grenoble-based neutron research centre the Institut Laue-Langevin, told Reuters. EU leaders on Friday abandoned talks to find a deal on the bloc's budget for 2014-2020 but European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, who chaired the summit, proposed cuts in a number of areas, including research and innovation, in an effort to reach a deal. According to a document seen by Reuters, Van Rompuy's proposal penciled in a 139.5 billion euro ($180.8 billion) budget under the competitiveness-for-growth heading, which includes the EU's flagship Horizon 2020 research funding programme. This is a further cut from a Van Rompuy proposal earlier this week of 152 billion euros and down sharply from an original Commission proposal of 164 billion euros. Although it is unclear if there would be any knock-on effect from the proposed cuts on Horizon 2020 when talks resume early next year, the original budget for the research programme was 80 billion euros, roughly half the original pot. European scientists, whose funding is already under pressure from the economic downturn, will be alarmed at the prospect of cuts to one of the biggest science budgets in the world. Harrison, of the Grenoble-based research centre, joined in a lobbying effort with seven other world-leading research organisations calling on the Commission to defend science funding ahead of the budget summit. In a letter to Commission President Jose-Manuel Barroso that was also signed by Rolf Heuer, director general of the CERN research centre near Geneva, the organisations warned that science should be central to Europe's long-term prosperity. "At a time when a return to growth is the most pressing policy priority across Europe, it is absolutely vital that investment in our scientific resources (both human and technical) is sustained," they said. The signatories also included Iain Mattaj, head of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory; Alvaro Gimenez Canete, director of science and robotic exploration at the European Space Agency and Tim de Zeeuw, head of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). "We are all world leading in our fields," said Harrison. "We are cautioning very strongly against cuts now." LONG-TERM BENEFITS Harrison said that although researchers needed to do a better job in demonstrating the economic value of research, there was no doubt about the long-term benefits of investment in science. "Europe is not going to compete in the mass labour market or in natural resources, we are only going to compete because we are smarter," he said. "Right now I'm not fantastically confident." Van Rompuy's proposal earmarked nearly 13 billion euros for specific projects, including Galileo, the European replacement for the Global Positioning System satellite network, and the ITER nuclear fusion research project. But Horizon 2020 will be the mainstay of EU research grants and the implications for the funding programme remain unclear. "Science isn't going to die if they don't implement Horizon 2020 fully," said Bruno Leibundgut, director for science at ESO. "But these countries are going to suffer from this five or 10 years down the line." ($1 = 0.7717 euros)

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Scientists: Galapagos tortoise can be revived

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Lonesome George, the late reptile prince of the Galapagos Islands, may be dead, but scientists now say he may not be the last giant tortoise of his species after all. Researchers say they may be able to resurrect the Pinta Island subspecies by launching a cross-breeding program with 17 other tortoises found to contain genetic material similar to that of Lonesome George, who died June 24 at the Pacific Ocean archipelago off Ecuador's coast after repeated failed efforts to reproduce. Edwin Naula, director of the Galapagos National Park, said in a telephone interview on Thursday that the probability is high it can be accomplished. "It would be the first time that a species was recovered after having been declared extinct," Naula said. But it won't happen overnight. "This is going to take about 100 to 150 years," Naula added. Scientists took DNA samples from 1,600 tortoises on Wolf volcano, and found the Pinta variety in 17, though their overall genetic makeup varied. Through cross-breeding, "100 percent pure species" can be achieved, said Naula, a biologist. He said the 17 tortoises were being transferred from Isabela island, where the volcano is located, to the park's breeding center at Santa Cruz, the main island on the archipelago whose unique flora and fauna helped inspire Charles Darwin's work on evolution. The results are to be published in the journal Biological Conservation, the park said. The study on Wolf volcano was conducted by Yale University and the Galapagos park with financial help from the Galapagos Conservancy. In a news release, the park said scientists speculate that giant tortoises from Pinta island might have arrived at Wolf volcano after being taken off by whaling ships for food and later cast overboard. At least 14 species of giant tortoise originally inhabited the islands' 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) off Ecuador's coast and 10 survive. A visit to Lonesome George became de rigueur for celebrities and common folk alike among the 180,000 people who annually visit the Galapagos. Before humans arrived, the islands were home to tens of thousands of giant tortoises. The number fell to about 3,000 in 1974, but the recovery program run by the national park and the Charles Darwin Foundation has succeeded in increasing the overall population to 20,000. Lonesome George's age at death was not known, but scientists believed he was about 100, not especially old for a giant tortoise.

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Timeline - How the world found out about global warming

(Reuters) - A U.N. conference in Qatar next week is the latest attempt to combat global warming after mounting evidence that human activity is disrupting the climate. Here is a timeline of the road to action on global warming: 300 BC - Theophrastus, a student of the Greek philosopher Aristotle, documents that human activity can affect climate. He observes that drainage of marshes cools an area around Thessaly and that clearing of forests near Philippi warms the climate. 1896 - Sweden's Svante Arrhenius becomes the first to quantify carbon dioxide's role in keeping the planet warm. He later concluded that the burning of coal could cause a "noticeable increase" in carbon levels over centuries. 1957-58 - U.S. scientist Charles Keeling sets up stations to measure carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere at the South Pole and at Mauna Loa, Hawaii. The measurements have shown a steady rise. 1988 - The United Nations sets up the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to assess the scientific evidence. 1992 - World leaders agree the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, which sets a non-binding goal of stabilising greenhouse gas emissions by 2000 at 1990 levels - a target not met overall. 1997 - The Kyoto Protocol is agreed in Japan; developed nations agree to cut their greenhouse gas emissions on average by at least 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12. The United States stays out of the deal. 2007 - The IPCC says it is at least 90 percent certain that humans are to blame for most of the warming trend of the past 50 years. It also says signs that the planet is warming are "unequivocal". 2009 - A conference of 193 countries agrees to "take note" of a new Copenhagen Accord to fight climate change, after U.N. talks in Denmark. The accord is not legally binding and does not commit countries to agree a binding successor to the Kyoto Protocol when its first stage ends in 2012. 2011 - U.N. climate talks in Durban, South Africa, agree to negotiate a new accord by 2015 that is "applicable to all" and will come into force from 2020. Sources: Reuters, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, "Why We Disagree about Climate Change" by Mike Hulme, founding director of the Tyndall Centre.

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