Martian Quarantine Facility

Has anyone seen a press release regarding JSC starting construction of the
$4M Martian crew quarantine facility? With all the silliness in the paper
recently regarding Martian face eating virus, I'm surprised no one brought
this up that JSC is ahead of the game.

Haven't seen such a release. JSC already has an
isolation facility for lunar, martian, and space dust samples.


"sh'maal" wrote in message
...
Has anyone seen a press release regarding JSC starting construction of the
$4M Martian crew quarantine facility? With all the silliness in the paper
recently regarding Martian face eating virus, I'm surprised no one brought
this up that JSC is ahead of the game.

Heh heh....the Florida Today spin would have been "Mars Harbors Secret
Plague." Still, the prospect of returning Mars samples is a concern.
KB
-------
December 03, 2004

The threat from life on Mars
By Nigel Hawkes
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...385572,00.html
Earth's defences may need to be boosted against risk of potentially
deadly microbes returning on space probes

EARTH must take precautions to avoid contamination from lifeforms that
must now be presumed to exist on Mars, leading scientists gave warning
yesterday. Potentially deadly microorganisms could be returned to Earth
on a probe which is being planned to collect samples from the Martian
surface.

The warning comes after a detailed scientific analysis of data sent back
by the roving vehicle Opportunity which landed on Mars on January 25.

Jeffrey Kargel of the US Geological Survey said that protection of our
own planet from alien forms of life requires the assumption that Martian
life exists. "Before proceeding with sample returns or human missions to
Mars, we must review measures for planetary biological protection."

His warning appears in Science magazine in an article accompanying the
first formal publication of the mass of data from Opportunity, which
continues to operate on the Martian surface.

The search for life on Mars, now more than a century old, is still not
finally resolved. But the odds that life existed there and may still
exist are shortening, according to planetary experts, Dr Kargel said.

Nobody any longer expects Martian life forms to be anything like those on
Earth. But there remains a possibility that bacteria or other microscopic
organisms may survive in regions where there is still water. On Earth,
almost every imaginable habitat, including deep underground, has
specialised bacteria - called extremophiles - living and thriving.

The risks are twofold: probes sent from Earth may contaminate Mars with
terrestrial bacteria, wrecking future studies of Martian life; or, more
important, bacteria brought back from Mars may contaminate the Earth with
unpredictable effects.

Similar precautions were taken at the time of the Apollo Moon landings.
Astronauts returned to Earth were kept in quarantine after they landed
for fear they might be infected with a lunar bug. None was.

Although the presence of water on the red planet can be considered
proved, of life there are only hints. One is the presence of the gas
methane, which might be produced by forms of life. On Earth, life can
exist in areas as acidic and salty as Meridiani Planum, where Opportunity
landed - examples are the ancient mines of Rio Tinto in Andalucia, Spain,
or the salty Permian Basin in Texas. But few earthly species survive in
environments that are at the same time very cold, very acidic, and very
salty - and none that do survive in such conditions produce methane.

"But maybe on Mars they do," says Dr Kargel, the author of a recent book
on the latest ideas about Mars. Or maybe, he suggests, the organisms that
produced the Martian methane live in areas more hospitable than Meridiani
Planum.

Analysing the data collected by Opportunity, a team led by the rovers'
principal investigator, Dr Steve Squyres, of Cornell University,
concludes that the sedimentary rocks found by Opportunity preserve a
record of environmental conditions different from any on Mars today.

"Liquid water was once present intermittently at the Martian surface at
Meridiani, and at times it saturated the subsurface," the team concludes.
"Because liquid water is a prerequisite for life, we infer that
conditions at Meridiani may have been habitable for some period of time
in Martian history."

Opportunity has explored two craters, Eagle and Endurance, near its
landing site. In both areas, layers in the bedrock showed that it had
been laid down as sediments, implying past oceans and voids in the rock
were probably caused by the dissolution of salt.

Opportunity also found quantities of small spheres, named "blueberries" -
even though they are grey, not blue. These marbles consist of the
iron-rich mineral haematite. Similar spheres have been found in the
deserts of southern Utah, formed as iron-rich water seeped through
sandstone.

The new contract, awarded in April, is for Martian crew quarantine. What
caught my attention is the solicitation was released last September 2003.
Somebody was sure they had a lock on congressional approval.


"Jim Oberg" wrote in message
...
Haven't seen such a release. JSC already has an
isolation facility for lunar, martian, and space dust samples.


"sh'maal" wrote in message
...
Has anyone seen a press release regarding JSC starting construction of
the
$4M Martian crew quarantine facility? With all the silliness in the paper
recently regarding Martian face eating virus, I'm surprised no one
brought
this up that JSC is ahead of the game.

I found a budget request to complete an astronaut quarantine facility at
$4.9 million total.

http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/56694main_Op_Plan_12032004.pdf

Do you have a link to the press release?

Has anyone seen a press release regarding
JSC starting construction of the
$4M Martian crew quarantine facility?

There is an astronaut quarantine facility in the works.

With all the silliness in the paper
recently regarding Martian face eating virus,

What the popular press says is irrelevant.

I'm surprised no one brought
this up that JSC is ahead of the game.

This forum is for the dissemination of information. Do you have any?

The new contract, awarded in April, is for Martian crew quarantine.

It is for astronaut quarantine.

What caught my attention is the solicitation
was released last September 2003. Somebody
was sure they had a lock on congressional approval.

Well for one thing the greater part of the $4.9 million was budgeted in
FY 2003 that started in Sept 2002.. The last $1.9 million to finish up
the facility was in the FY 2004 budget that starts in Sept 2003. Run
that by me again about the timing and the congression approval. If you
want to share info with this forum, please do, but it seems to me that
the purpose of your post was to try to get someone to kiss your ass..

As KB points out in a later thread, I stand corrected.

The building under construction is an astronaut quarantine facility, not a
Martian Crew facility. Details may be found at:

http://www1.eps.gov/servlet/Documents/R/717703/434189

The Request For Proposal (RFP) was released in August 2003 with contract
award in my 2004. To those familiar with JSC it's the construction on 5th
street, down from building 5. In summary there are 12 bedrooms, kitchen,
exercise room, medical exam room, dining room etc. Also something called a
rock building site(?) My supposition that this was for Mars crew was a
repeat of JSC comments. It is true that any 12 astroanuts could use the
quarantine facility, not just Mars/Lunar/ Constellation. Note that this a
quarantine building not an isolation facility.

Sorry for the confusion.



"sh'maal" wrote in message
...
Has anyone seen a press release regarding JSC starting construction of the
$4M Martian crew quarantine facility? With all the silliness in the paper
recently regarding Martian face eating virus, I'm surprised no one brought
this up that JSC is ahead of the game.

I updated my initial thread to address your comments, but am puzzled by the
kya/kma; perhaps a troll?

"Revision" k@tdot-com wrote in message
...
Has anyone seen a press release regarding
JSC starting construction of the
$4M Martian crew quarantine facility?

There is an astronaut quarantine facility in the works.

With all the silliness in the paper
recently regarding Martian face eating virus,

What the popular press says is irrelevant.

I'm surprised no one brought
this up that JSC is ahead of the game.

This forum is for the dissemination of information. Do you have any?

The new contract, awarded in April, is for Martian crew quarantine.

It is for astronaut quarantine.

What caught my attention is the solicitation
was released last September 2003. Somebody
was sure they had a lock on congressional approval.

Well for one thing the greater part of the $4.9 million was budgeted in
FY 2003 that started in Sept 2002.. The last $1.9 million to finish up
the facility was in the FY 2004 budget that starts in Sept 2003. Run
that by me again about the timing and the congression approval. If you
want to share info with this forum, please do, but it seems to me that
the purpose of your post was to try to get someone to kiss your ass..

The reason why I think this concept is so odd,
is that the crew will be in 'quarantine' for the entire trip
home. Anything harmful is bound to manifest itself
during that period. Maybe the facility is to protect
the crew from infection from EARTH, with their
weakened immune systems.



"sh'maal" wrote in message
...
Has anyone seen a press release regarding JSC starting construction of the
$4M Martian crew quarantine facility? With all the silliness in the paper
recently regarding Martian face eating virus, I'm surprised no one brought
this up that JSC is ahead of the game.

http://www1.eps.gov/servlet/Documents/R/717703/434189

I don't read microsoft virus word files from internet. Pretty stupid for NASA
to publish some documents in that proprietary format. Ironic that they want to
build a virus-free building and yet use virus infested tools for documentation.

Is this a pre-flight facility to ensure astronauts don't catch a cold before
launch ?