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* Identification of shock quartz in northern Belize;

* Identification of an iridium anomaly at Albion in northern Belize; 
  and 

* Identification of possible condensate material from the impact's 
  vapor plume, including Pook's pebbles.

While this is the Planetary Society's third expedition to Belize, it 
is the fourth sent by the Society to study evidence of the Chicxulub 
impact. Another expedition went to Italy in 1996 to study core 
samples from that same time period.

===============================
(3) NEAP MISSION ELIGIBLE FOR NASA FUNDING
 
From: Jim Benson 
 
Greetings,
  
Scientists and researchers will be able to submit proposals for 
flying instruments and experiments on NEAP (our Near Earth Asteroid 
Prospector mission), and for purchasing data from SpaceDev's NEAP 
instruments under the next NASA Discovery Announcement of 
Opportunity, due out on March 20.
  
Below is the content of a letter to me from the NASA Office of Space 
Science:
  
National Aeronautics and
Space Administration
Headquarters
Washington, DC 20546-0001
  
January 22, 1998
  
Mr. James Benson
P. O. Box 2121
31557 Aspen Ridge Road
Steamboat Springs, CO 80477
  
Dear Mr. Benson:
  
The Near Earth Asteroid Prospector (NEAP) mission represents an 
innovative and interesting approach to acquiring scientific data 
through a private sector initiative. You have asked us to assess the 
possible place of NEAP in the Discovery program. The Discovery 
Program addresses the scientific goals of the Solar System 
Exploration Theme and the Extra-Solar Planetary Systems goals of the 
Astronomical Search for Origins Theme. NEAP clearly falls within 
this scientific scope. In short, proposals to participate in the 
NEAP mission are within the scope of the Discovery Program.
  
In addition, the Discovery Program objectives (section 2.2 of the 
draft AO) include: as a practical goal "Perform frequent, 
high-quality scientific investigations that assure the highest 
science value for the cost;" and as a supporting objective "Pursue 
innovative ways of doing business." The basic approach envisioned by 
the developers of the NEAP initiative is clearly an innovative new 
way of doing business. Because this approach is new and untried, we 
cannot, a priori, determine that the particular opportunity afforded 
will be the most cost-efficient. Such a determination must come from 
the detailed review process.
  
Finally, we note that proposing user provided instruments for the  
available pods [canisters] would appear to be potential "Mission of 
Opportunity" (section 2.3) investigations.
 
As the present draft is intended for comment, you should examine the 
draft, and may offer suggested changes. We should note that actual 
success or failure of any new concept proposed in response to the 
Discovery AO will depend on the quality of the science, the 
reasonableness of cost, and other factors, and will be judged in the 
likely context of a number of excellent competing proposals to the 
program.
  
Sincerely,
  
Carl B. Pilcher
Science Program Director (Acting)
Solar System Exploration
Office of Space Science
  
The Discovery program is open to all kinds of organizations including 
universities, for-profit companies, individuals, non-profits, etc. It 
is also open to both domestic and international participation. This 
means that prospects for NEAP are very wide and diverse.
  
NEAP is an example of adding more missions to those of traditional 
national space agencies, and results in more opportunities for more 
scientists and researchers.
  
Because Discovery, and therefore NEAP, is open to both science and 
new technology experiments, we expect a variety of proposals to be 
sent to NASA for possible funding of those instruments and 
technologies.
  
If you are a scientist or technology researcher, now is the time to 
be thinking about preparing a proposal for NASA for your experiment. 
I believe it might be possible for NASA to fund one or more complete 
missions, but because of the low cost of rides on NEAP, funding 
several experiments for such rides would provide NASA with the 
equivalent of an additional complete mission, but at a fraction of 
the cost.
  
Finally, because the NEAP launch will be insured, NEAP offers a very 
low risk approach to space and planetary exploration. Unlike 
government missions, if there is a disaster, insurance will pay for 
replacement instruments and a new launch, and the only loss will be 
time.
  
Only a short amount of time is available for sending a proposal to 
NASA. The official opening of the Announcement of Opportunity is 
scheduled for March 20, and all proposals must be submitted within 
60 days.
  
Please let me know if you or an associate is thinking about or 
planning to submitting a NEAP-based proposal to NASA under the 
Discovery program.
  
Cheers,
  
Jim Benson
Chairman, CEO

============================================
(4) COSMIC DUST DETECTED IN OUTER SOLAR SYSTEM

D.A. Gurnett*), J.A. Ansher, W.S. Kurth, and L.J. Granroth: 
Micron-sized dust particles detected in the outer solar system 
by the Voyager 1 and 2 plasma wave instruments. GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH 
LETTERS, 1997, Vol.24, No.24, pp.3125-3128

*) UNIVERSITY OF IOWA, DEPT PHYS & ASTRON, IOWA CITY, IA, 52242

During the Voyager 1 and 2 flybys of the outer planets it has been 
demonstrated that the plasma wave instrument can detect small dust 
particles striking the spacecraft. In this paper, we examine the 
Voyager plasma wave data for dust impacts in the interplanetary 
medium at heliocentric radial distances ranging from 6 to 60 
astronomical units (AU). The results show that a small but persistent 
level of dust impacts exists out to at least 30 to 50 AU. The average 
number density of these particles is about 2 x 10(-8) m(-3), and the 
average mass of the impacting particles is believed to be a few times 
10(-11) g, which corresponds to particle diameters in the micron 
range. Possible sources of these particles are planets, moons, 
asteroids, comets, and the interstellar medium. Of these, comets 
appear to be the most likely source. The number densities are only 
weakly dependent on ecliptic latitude, which indicates that the 
particles probably do not originate from planets, moons, or 
asteroids. Comparisons with interstellar dust fluxes measured in the 
inner regions of the solar system by the Ulysses spacecraft indicate 
that the particles are not of interstellar origin. Copyright 1998, 
Institute for Scientific Information Inc.

===================================
(5) DETERMINATION OF ICE COMPOSITION WITH INSTRUMENTS ON 
    COMETARY LANDERS

W.V. Boynton*), L.C.dUston, D.T. Young, J.I. Lunine, J.H, Waite, 
S.H. Bailey, J.J. Berthelier, J.L. Bertaux, V. Borrel, M.F. Burke, 
B.A. Cohen, D.H. Mccomas, J.E. Nordholt, L.G. Evans, and J.I. 
Trombka: The determination of ice composition with instruments on 
cometary landers. ACTA ASTRONAUTICA, 1997, Vol.40, No.9, pp.663-674

*) UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA, TUCSON, AZ, 85721

The determination of the composition of materials that make up comets 
is essential in trying to understand the origin of these primitive 
objects. The ices especially could be made in several different 
astrophysical settings including the solar nebula, protosatellite 
nebulae of the giant planets, and giant molecular clouds that predate 
the formation of the solar system. Each of these environments makes 
different ices with different composition. In order to-understand the 
origin of comets, one needs to determine the composition of each of 
the ice phases. For example, it is of interest to know that comets 
contain carbon monoxide, CO, but it is much more important to know 
how much of it is a pure solid phase, is trapped in clathrate 
hydrates, or is adsorbed on amorphous water ice. In addition, 
knowledge of the isotopic composition of the constituents will help 
determine the process that formed the compounds. Finally, it is 
important to understand the bulk elemental composition of the 
nucleus. When these data are compared with solar abundances, they put 
strong constraints on the macro-scale processes that formed the 
comet. A differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and an evolved-gas 
analyzer (EGA) will make the necessary association between molecular 
constituents and their host phases. This combination of instruments 
takes a small (tens of mg) sample of the comet and slowly heats it in 
a sealed oven. As the temperature is raised, the DSC precisely 
measures the heat required, and delivers the gases to the EGA. 
Changes in the heat required to raise the temperature at a controlled 
rate are used to identify phase transitions, e.g., crystallization of 
amorphous ice or melting of hexagonal ice, and the EGA correlates the 
gases released with the phase transition. The EGA consists of two 
mass spectrometers run in tandem. The first mass spectrometer is a 
magnetic-sector ion-momentum analyzer (MAG), and the second is an 
electrostatic time-of-flight analyzer (TOF). The TOF acts as a 
detector for the MAG and serves to resolve ambiguities between 
fragments of similar mass such as CO and N-2. Because most of the 
compounds of interest for the volatile ices are simple, a gas 
chromatograph is not needed and thus more integration time is 
available to determine isotopic ratios. A gamma-ray spectrometer 
(GRS) will determine the elemental abundances of the bulk cometary 
material by determining the flux of gamma rays produced from the 
interaction of the cometary material with cosmic-ray produced 
neutrons. Because the gamma rays can penetrate a distance of several 
tens of centimeters, a large volume of material is analyzed. The 
measured composition is, therefore, much more likely to be 
representative of the bulk comet than a very small sample that 
might have lost some of its volatiles. Making these measurements on a 
lander offers substantial advantages over trying to address similar 
objectives from an orbiter. For example, an orbiter instrument can 
determine the presence and isotopic composition of CO in the cometary 
coma, but only a lander can determine the phase(s) in which the CO is
located and separately determine the isotopic composition of each 
reservoir of CO. The bulk composition of the nucleus might be 
constrained from separate orbiter analyses of dust and gas in the 
coma, but the result will be very model dependent, as the ratio of 
gas to dust in the comet will vary and will not necessarily be equal 
to the bulk value. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd..

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