There are 2 messages totalling 110 lines in this issue

Topics of the day:

1. NASA ASTRONAUT STARTS AGENCY'S FIRST BILINGUAL TWITTER
2. NASA PHOENIX WATER ICE, SOIL FINDINGS POINT TO CLIMATE CYCLES

Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 10:48:11 -0500 From: info@JSC NASA GOV Subject: NASA ASTRONAUT STARTS AGENCY'S FIRST BILINGUAL TWITTER

July 2, 2009

Katherine Trinidad Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1100

Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111

Report #M09-121

NASA ASTRONAUT STARTS AGENCY'S FIRST BILINGUAL TWITTER

HOUSTON – NASA astronaut Jose Hernandez, set to fly aboard space shuttle Discovery in August, is providing insights about his training on Twitter in both English and Spanish It will be the agency’s first bilingual Twitter

Hernandez, who considers Stockton, Calif , his hometown, grew up in a migrant farming family, traveling each year between Mexico and California He did not learn English until the age of 12

Hernandez, whose Twitter account is astro_jose, can be followed at:

http://www twitter com/astro_jose

“I was inspired to pursue a dream to one day work in space while listening to the radio news about space exploration while working in the fields of northern California,” Hernandez said “I hope to spread that excitement about space, science and engineering and inspire others to follow their dreams by sharing my activities and interacting with my followers on Twitter ”

Selected as an astronaut by NASA in May 2004, Hernandez will make his first spaceflight on the STS-128 shuttle mission that will continue assembly of the International Space Station During the mission, he will oversee the transfer of supplies and equipment between the shuttle and station, assist with robotics operations and serve as a flight engineer in the shuttle cockpit during launch and landing It will be the first shuttle mission to feature two Latino astronauts Danny Olivas, who also is of Mexican descent, is among Hernandez’s six crewmates

For Hernandez's complete biography, visit:

http://www jsc nasa gov/Bios/htmlbios/hernandez-jm html

For more information about the STS-128 mission, visit:

http://www nasa gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts128

For more information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www nasa gov/station

For a list of NASA missions providing updates on social media Web sites, visit:

http://www nasa gov/collaborate

-end-

#

NASA Johnson Space Center Mission Status Reports and other information are available automatically by sending an Internet electronic mail message to listserv@listserver jsc nasa gov In the body of the message (not the subject line) users should type "subscribe hsfnews" (no quotes) This will add the e-mail address that sent the subscribe message to the news release distribution list The system will reply with a confirmation via e-mail of each subscription Once you have subscribed you will receive future news releases via e-mail To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to listserv@listserver jsc nasa gov with the following command in the body of your e-mail message: "unsubscribe hsfnews" (no quotes) or from another account, besides the account used to subscribe: "unsubscribe hsfnews youremail@yourdomain com" (no quotes)

Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 15:29:57 -0500 From: info@JSC NASA GOV Subject: NASA PHOENIX WATER ICE, SOIL FINDINGS POINT TO CLIMATE CYCLES

July 6, 2009

William P Jeffs Johnson Space Center, Houston July 6, 2009

Report #J09-015

NASA PHOENIX WATER ICE, SOIL FINDINGS POINT TO CLIMATE CYCLES

HOUSTON—NASA’s Phoenix mission landed inside the Martian Arctic Circle on May 25, 2008 Phoenix’s instruments searched for water ice and for evidence of mineral nutrients essential to life in the Martian soil Both were found

Phoenix's goal was to determine the habitability of the northern polar region of Mars The water ice found and the soil chemistry and minerals observed lead scientists to believe that the landing site had a wetter and warmer climate in the last few million years and could again in the future

Interpretations of data that Phoenix returned during its five months of operation are reported in the July 3 issue of the journal Science Scientists in the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) Directorate at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston are among the co-authors of three of the papers: “H2O at the Phoenix Landing Site,” “Detection of Perchlorate and the Soluble Chemistry of Martian Soil at the Phoenix Lander Site” and “Evidence for Calcium Carbonate at the Mars Phoenix Landing Site ” The ARES scientists are Doug Ming, Dick Morris, Paul Niles and Brad Sutter

The announcement on July 30, 2008, that the science team had discovered water ice at the Phoenix landing site was a promising sign that the Mars environment could be habitable to life In “H2O at the Phoenix Landing Site,” the authors cite evidence for subsurface water ice exposed by digging with the robotic arm scoop and several lines of evidence that support the interpretation that the Martian soil has thin films of water

“It was fantastic to see that the water ice was actually present just below the surface and to watch it sublimate away, just like the ice in my freezer at home,” said Morris

In “Detection of Perchlorate and the Soluble Chemistry of Martian Soil at the Phoenix Lander Site,” the authors state that chemical analysis of the soil revealed that most of the soluble chlorine is in the form of perchlorate Perchlorate was detected in soil analyzed by the wet chemistry lab aboard the Phoenix Lander Soil perchlorate is found on Earth but only at low concentration in the most hyper-arid regions like the Atacama Desert in northern Chile Atmospheric processes responsible for perchlorate formation in the Atacama could also be operating on Mars

Perchlorate, which strongly attracts water, makes up a few percent of the composition in all three soil samples analyzed by the wet chemistry laboratory It could pull humidity from the Martian air At higher concentrations, it might combine with water as a brine that stays liquid at Martian surface temperatures Some microbes on Earth use perchlorate as food and it is also a strong oxidizer that releases oxygen when heated

“The discovery of perchlorate salts was a big surprise,” said Ming “We did not detect any organic molecules, but it is possible that if organic compounds were present in soil they were burned by the perchlorate oxidizer during heating and not detected by Phoenix instruments ” Organic compounds are the building blocks of life

In “Evidence for Calcium Carbonate at the Mars Phoenix Landing Site,” the authors discuss the discovery of calcium carbonate in the soils around the Phoenix landing site The authors suggest that the calcium carbonate detected “is most consistent with formation in the past by the interaction of atmospheric carbon dioxide with liquid films of water on particle surfaces " Carbonates are generally products of aqueous processes and may hold important clues about the history of liquid water on the surface of Mars

“The detection of calcium carbonate was very exciting for us,” said Sutter “The calcium carbonate concentration at the Phoenix landing site is about about four percent by weight, and it was especially rewarding to see that our laboratory work was crucial in making that determination ”

“The Phoenix discovery of carbonates in the soils of Mars has turned the previously popular notion of an acidic Mars on its head,” said Niles “We are now faced with two contrasting chemical views – acidic and alkaline The next decade of Martian science will be focused on unraveling these two intertwined but opposing views of the conditions of water on the Martian surface ”

For more about Phoenix, visit:

http://www nasa gov/phoenix

-end-

#

NASA Johnson Space Center Mission Status Reports and other information are available automatically by sending an Internet electronic mail message to listserv@listserver jsc nasa gov In the body of the message (not the subject line) users should type "subscribe hsfnews" (no quotes) This will add the e-mail address that sent the subscribe message to the news release distribution list The system will reply with a confirmation via e-mail of each subscription Once you have subscribed you will receive future news releases via e-mail To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to listserv@listserver jsc nasa gov with the following command in the body of your e-mail message: "unsubscribe hsfnews" (no quotes) or from another account, besides the account used to subscribe: "unsubscribe hsfnews youremail@yourdomain com" (no quotes)

End of HSFNEWS Digest - 27 Jun 2009 to 7 Jul 2009 (#2009-68)

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