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Show Thursday. By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer . CAPE CANAVERAL. Fla. i'i Joiner than a hospital operat- - and safer than a bank aj-a- falCome to NASA's Mars wait- wdm, where a t5rjrjiind rover is beine checked. d d and py "engineers and scientists covered Itrom head to toe in tight, white &impsuits for its Dec. 2 launch and uly 4, 1997, landing on the Red iofcble-checke- triple-checke- Jlanet. The rules are strict and clearly m posted outside the first of four tjlqprs leading into this nitrogen-coolemethodically vacuumed and scrubbed sanctum of the Mars Pathfinder: No perfume, after-shav-e, makeup, aerosol spray. No eating, drinking, smoking or chewing gum. No one with a cold, excessive coughing or sneezing, severe sunburn or flaking skin. . No more than five people Allowed within 16 feet of the rover, and they have to &ear latex gloves in addition to Ijhfeir bunny suits and face Jgnasks, and be grounded to prevent static electricity. Tourism is not permitted," the j gigii adds. p Tourism here? You've got to be kidding. Visitors must pass through j Space Center security j Kennedy checks and be escorted by NASA ! personnel to this gray metal build-jinlocked and equipped with cameras. Even those with special badges and access codes must adhere to the schedule; anyone entering the building after hours triggers an alarm and, within minutes, encounters armed security officers. f. The explanation for all this is simple:' the National Aeronautics and Space Administration doesn't want to contaminate Mars with earthly germs. If scientists are to ever determine once and for all that life exists or existed on Mars that's not a goal of this mission, by the way you don't want bacteria from Earth scattered all over the place. "If one person sneezed, they d, : g, ' could wipe out the whole spacecraft," explained launch operations manager Curtis Cleven, who was arrested his first day here in August trying to get in. (He'd forgotten about the security.) The worst is dirt. "In general, if somebody coughs on the spacecraft that's not nearly as bad as if somebody dropped a bunch of dirt on it," microbiologist Bob Koukol said as he prepared to test yet again for cleanliness on the first morning of October. "We're looking for the most resistant bacteria forms that we can find," said Koukol, who like Cleven normally works at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadeg soil bacna, Calif. teria, for instance, could survive the flight to Mars "quite nicely," he noted. The maximum number of spores allowed on Mars Pathfinder is 300 per square meter of surface, Koukol said, but the spacecraft likely will have far fewer at launch. Could stowaway spores cause an outbreak on Mars? "The chance of a spacecraft carrying a life form that would live on the planet is less than one in 100,000," Koukol said. This will be the first spacecraft to land on Mars since NASA's two Viking landers in 1976. The destination this time is an ancient flood plain with a wide variety of rocks, some 500 miles from where the first Viking lander plopped down. If all goes well, the rectangular, robotic rover will explore within 15 to 30 feet of the landing site and send back data on the composition of rocks and soil for at least a week, maybe even months. Another security concern, at least on Earth, are the radioactive heaters inside the rover. The three plutonium-23- 8 cells, each the size of a flashlight battery, are needed to keep the rover warm during the freezing Martian days and even icier Martian nights. Although the radioactive level is low, safety precautions must be taken. The Viking landers had even more stringent criteria for cleanliness: They were baked and steril- - , By KATY HUMAN Pallas Morning News Black holes, quasars and super-nova- e almost household f are words,voking images of exploding stars and other powerful extraterrestrial phenomena. But when people hear the word "blazar," they might think of a vehicle or a sharpnew jacket. Actually, blazars are mysterious, super-briggalaxies deep in space that may prove even more fascinating than Calvin Klein's latest design. for example, Last week, astronomers reported on the two brightest bursts of gamma rays y radiation ever seen inside or outside the galaxy. They came from a blazar called Markar-ia- n 421. Markarian 421 shines brightly from a distance of 400 million more than 2 billion trillion miles. "If you look at a light bulb that's still very bright at a very great distance, you know intrinsically that it's very powerful," says astrophysicist Anne Kinney. Markarian 421 normally gives olT a lot of light. But in May, the galaxy discharged two dramatic flares made up of particles with a trillion electron volts of energy. The most powerful Earth-base- d atom smashers produce particles that are almost that energetic, says physicist James Buckley. These outbursts set Markarian 421 apart from everything else in the sky. says James Gaidos. an astrophysicist at Purdue Universi-ty'.j- n Indiana. "It's the brightest object ever seen at these energies," he said. . ;The brilliant flares are making astrophysicists question their ideas about what goes on in the centers of active galaxies and about how gamma,' rays are spun out into space, says Carl Akerlof, an astrophysicist at the University of Michigan. "How does nature manage to be such an efficient accelerator?" he asked. Drs. Caidos, Akerlof and Buckley are' part of an international team of researchers that is studying data collected on gamma rays by the Whipple Observatory in Arizona. The researchers describe Markarian 421 's dazzling .flares and; speculate about what they mean in an article in last week's issue of the journal Nature. Blazars belong to a class of galaxies with extremely energetic cores. These galaxies, collectively called active galaxies, seem to be ht high-energ- light-year- s, COPY THE DAILY HERALD. Proo. I tah Psge B5 Spore-formin- Mystery galaxy's powerful flares amazing 1: 10, 19 chances with new Mars Rover NASA fa king no dirty . (ktobrr hr o . " 0r V S " I III si AP Photo Workers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Labs in Cape Canavral, Fla., look over the Mars Pathfinder Oct. 1 that will land on Mars July ized before launch because of experiments on board. There are no such experiments on Mars Pathfinder, part of NASA's Discovery program for planetary research that limited spacecraft development to three years and $150 million. However, because of inflation. Mars Pathfinder will now cost $171 million, Cleven said. Only part of Mars Pathfinder was baked before it arrived at Kennedy Space Center in August, namely the aluminum frame of the d rover and its wheels, the parachute, air bags, antennas and solar pan low-budg- steel-cleate- energy-generati- 4, 1997. The Mars waiting room, where the rover is being checked, double-checke- d and d by engineers and scientists triple-checke- els. Since then, the spacecraft has been wiped frequently with alcohol to remove, but not kill, any lingering spores. The inside of the rover must be as clean as the outside in case it crashes onto the Martian surface. For planetary protection engineer and chief cleaner Jack Baren-goltit seems harder this time around. With the Viking landers, "everyone who was doing it knew that they didn't have to get rid of every last spore because we were going to cook them at the end," Barengoltz said. "In this case, there's no cook at z, covered from head to toe in tight, white jumpsuits, is cleaner than a hospital operating room and safe than a bank vault. the end and so what we have is what we've got," he said. "It won't be sterile, but it's going to be very, very clean." The precautions should ease in once the heat shield is put around the cocooned lander and rover. No changes have been made to the Mars Pathfinder mission as a result of the August announcement by NASA scientists of a Mars meteorite with supposed evidence of primitive life not enough lead time. There also were no changes to the Mars Global Surveyor, to be launched Nov. 6 on a mapping expedition. It's expected to orbit Mars for at least 50 years before crashing onto the surface of the planet. Even though the Global Surveyor isn't nearly as clean as Pathfinder, scientists aren't too worried about polluting Mars when Global Surveyor finally comes crashing dow n. "That meets our international agreements for protecting the surface from contamination," said Global Surveyor project manager Glenn Cunningham. "After 50 years, everybody believes that they w ill have sampled the surface to see w hat microbes or things are there." Sense of purpose needed at work By COLLEEN O'CONNOR The Dallas Morning News energized by huge black holes in Seems as if everyone's trashing their centers, says Kinney, from work these days talking about the Space Telescope Science Instifeel how or in they betrayed by A angry is Baltimore. black hole a tute the American a sort of cosmic drain hole is now Disgruntlement region of space with a gravity so front-pag- e news. Newsweek nailed intense that nothing within a certhe national malaise recently in a tain distance can escape its pull. cover story with the blunt headThe idea is that the central black hole of an active galaxy line: "Work Is Hell." "Wages are flat," it said, sucks matter inward in a spiral pat"hours are up, bosses are morons flat a an disc called tern, forming accretion disc. "When matter is and everyone's stuffed into a cubiif he's lucky enough to have sucked into the hole," says cle Akerlof, "it loses energy, and a job." That same week in California, some of that energy is available for hundreds of people broke into else to something happen." at a conference called Nobody knows exactly what applause "Nourishing Soul in Society," that something else is, says Gaiwhen Matthew Fox, an Episcopal dos, but in the end, streams of parpriest, made a simple observation. centhe ticles are boosted out from "If your body gets injured at ter of the galaxy at stunning work, you get compensation," he speeds, close to the speed of light. said. "But if your soul gets woundIn tern's of the radiation they hey, you're on your own!" emit, blazars look different from ed Psychic wounding on the job other types of active galaxies. Most astronomers think that's contributes to the high number of people going into therapy, says because blazars are just active of "The Reinvention their with oriented jets Fox. author galaxies Work" (HarperCollins. $13.). straight toward the of pointing "A job can destroy your vision, observer. "It's like looking sense of hope," he says later your hole into the of doun straight in a phone interview. "It can bagel," says Kinney. shrink your soul, put you in a box That orientation gives astrowhere your only worldview is physicists a unique view of the radior a paycheck." security the out ation streaming jets. through But what to do? Most people And by studying the form and struccan't afford to quit. And the job ture of that radiation, says Buckley, market is tight, so landing a new forces the learn about can physicists job isn't easy. Besides, that's not that generated it. "It's what always the answer. he the human are to says. body," "There's a high value in WestBut astronomers are finding ern society about quitting your job Markarian 421's emission patterns and going for something new sudflares The up galaxy puzzling. sort of like getting on a motorcycle denly and then just as suddenly and riding off into the horizon." a more returns to quiescent phase. Dr. Howard Schechter, author says too were outbursts energetic May's the Spirit in Work: of "Rekindling for and too brief to be accounted How to Be Your Self on the Job" this kind of how models current by (Barry town Ltd.. $11.95). of galaxy works. "Sometimes that can be good, be to have models the "Either but usually it fails horribly." refined. ... or there has to be some because the job quick-fi- x That's Gaidos. new thinking." says is similar to the marital quick-fi- x In May. the team of astronomers one spouse only to divorcing containobserved two bursts, each and encounter the same in the remarry form lot of a of energy ing y gamma rays. One problems, he says. very "Six months later you realize flare lasted for an hour, the other for less than an hour. you've got the exact same issues and look at all the wrenching and "This astonishingly brief durathat's happened in tion implies that the emission bleeding region is very compact." the between, all the pain and frustraresearchers wrote in their article. tion." These experts are part of a new The scientists calculated that the source of the energy must be trend to change how we work. smaller than one light-hoacross. Some focus on internal change, a That's shorter than the distance spiritual approach that involves from the sun to Saturn, and in the looking inward for solutions. Othmodels that are currently being ers focus on external change: used, says Gaidos, "it's hard to get livening up the workplace by the energy engine ... that small." bringing a sense of fun. including high-energ- r- - ' rituals and celebration, into corporate America. The common theme linking all approaches is a sense of meaning a purpose that goes deeper than profits and paychecks. "Our work ought to be a place of joy," says Fox. "The most important practical question I could ask of any person at work is, 'What joy does your work bring to others, and what joy does your work bring yourself.'"' Discovering a sense of play is also emerging at some companies. He loves to tell the story of a dentist in California who owned a number of dental practices with a total of 35 employees. One year, he wanted to give them a $200 bonus but felt they would just use it to pay the bills. "He thought they'd come to work the next day and nothing would be changed." says Wein-stei"So he closed the business for two hours and took everyone to the shopping mall and gave them each $200 in cash. He said. 'Anything you can buy yourself in the n. "If your body gets injured at work, you get compensation. But if your soul gets wounded hey, you're on your own! A job can destroy your vision, your sense of hope. It can shrink your soul, put you in a box where your only worldview is security or a pay- check." Matthew Fox, Episcopal priest and author Photo safaris are popular with Margery Tippen, director of small business sales for Sprint Communications in Dallas. "We try to make work a fun environment," she says. "A lot of times. I like to do something to break up the day. to do something different." When she visits sales forces in distant cities, she sometimes rounds people up at 7:30 in the morning and hands out disposable cameras, along with a list of crazy the photo-safaphotos to take team in a fire truck, for example, or in a limousine or up a tree. Everyone has a great time, she says, and such experiences create organizational history. "When I go back to those towns, they always talk about the memories of the scavenger hunt, how they had so much fun and how magic it was." she says. "They say, 'We had so much fun seeing you climb that tree.' It personalizes me for them, so they see me as a real person." Matt Weinstein. author of "Managing to Have Fun" (Simon & Schuster. $2 ). has been crisscrossing the country teaching for 2 years. These days, he thinks play is critical. "People are getting downsized, working two jobs for the same salary, saying. 'There's no fun around here anymore.' It's mote important than ever to lift people's spirits, or you'll run your company into the ground." ri 1 play-at-wo- 1 next hour is yours to keep. You have to buy five different things, all for you personally. Any unspent money comes back to me." "It was like a madhouse, employees screaming about bargains to each other. Sales clerks were saying. 'What company do want to work you work for? 1 there!'" Two weeks later, he had them bring their purchases in for show and-tell. Six months later, the employees were still talking about li.j big event. "He created a shared history, coming to work was something different from picking up a paycheck. He was beginning to build a community." says Weinstein. Creating community, finding meaning, seeking joy in the workworkers are beginning to place up the ante, craving more than -- salary. "Our economic system can't run just on competition and greed." says Fox. "The human soul i hungry for a lot more than winning. The bottom line has got to be how work affects the heart, the soul, and other creatures." This month, his latest creation opens: 'the University of Creation Spirituality in Oakland. Calif., which offers maker's degree and sabbatical programs that specialize in spirituality and work. The emphasis is "bringing a sense of the sacred back to our professions by waking it in the individual and in communities, espe cially our work communities," he says. Ai.as of particular focus are integrating spirituality into business, science, religion and art. The difference between work and a job, he says, is joy. "A job is making money to pay your bills, but work is putting your heart in the world." he says. Fox's vision of reinventing work is based on the wisdom of mystical traditions from around the world: Western mystics such as Meister Eckhart and Hildegard of Bingen, Hindu scriptures called the Bhagavad Gita. or the Chinese TaoTeChing. "The great Hindu scriptures say. "They all attain perfection w hen they find joy in their work,'" he says. Employees who work in facto- ries, for example, might ponder the product they make. "Is it good for the next generation and for generations to come?" he says. "Is it good for children and for the needs of the earth, w hich is already damaged, or is it part of the problem? If it's part of the problem, it's not going to bring joy. The most it will bring is happiness joy is something deeper." Joy is often an elusive concept in American workplaces. For most workers, says Schechter, the biggest problems aren't the products but the people. "The vast majority of discontent is a poor relationship with the boss and poor relationships with he says. Schechter founded the department of organization development and transformation at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He has spent 30 years studying psychology, sociology, philosophy and religion. He believes developing a spiritual path is the most; direct path to satisfaction at work- :"People spend too much effort! struggling with solving problems in the externa! world." he says "Nothing is more disempowering! than trying to change people." Changing events in the work; w orld is "like movjust as hard ing furniture," he says. It's more useful, he believes, t? take the challenge inward and usS the difficulty as a place of growth His book. "Rekindling the Spirit in Work." is filled with exercises that include meditation, visualiza- -' tion and affirmation. These tech-- ! niques access the true self, whicK has the perfect solutions to work-- ; place Problems, he says. "This is not a facile solution1 where you meditate and the boss turns into a nice guy." he says. ' : |