,

CARNEGIE INSTITUT I ON OF WASHINGTON

2801 UPTON STREET. N. W., WASHINGTON 8, D. C .

OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR

Dr . John McCarthy Computation Center Stanford University Stanford, California

Dear Dr . McCarthy :

WOOOLEY 6 -0334

November 3, 1965

I note that you have participated in studies sponsored by the Space Science Board on the biology and exploration of Mars . Recently I have performed model experiments ,rhich convince me t hat condit ions imposed by the geophysics of Mars make it highly improbable that organic compounds have been synthesized there and that accordingly life could not originate on the planet .

My findings Hill be published in the December 1 i ssue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sc i ences . Hm,ever , in vieH of your act i v i ty Hith respect to t his problem, I thought you Hould be interested in an advance copy \·rhich I am enclosing .

Sincerely yours ,

!~.f~~ Director

, ... -=-" .,"

Abiogenic Synthesis in the ¥artian Environment Philip H. Abelson

Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Hashington, Hash . , D. C.

At the spring meeting of the National Academy of Sciences, a committee

of the Space Science Board took the follm-ring Posit ion? "The biological

exploration of Mars is a scientific undertaking of the greatest validity and

significance . Its realization ,·rill be a milestone in the history of human

achievement . Its importance and the consequences for biology justify the

highest priority among all objectives in space science -- indeed in the space

program as a '·Thole . "

The Martian environment is hostile to both life and organic chemicals .

Intense ultraviolet light , of 2000 AO i·rave length, l1hich destroys both life

2 and many chemicals penetrates to the surface of the nearly dry planet .

Ozone formed as a result of action of ultraviolet light is in contact ,·rith

the planetary surface . 3

Even more destructive is the combination of radia-

tion excitation and chemical attack. Certain porphyrins can survive f or

400 million years in a reducing environment in the dark. In visible l i ght ,

in the presence of oxygen, they are destroyed in a feH hours .

!Vater content of the total atmospheric column Mars is extremely dry. 2 4

is only O. OOl g/cm . 5 6

Life cannot function in such an arid environment . '

Lederberg and Sagan7 have attempted to minimize the Hater problem by suggest -

ing that ,·rater might be available at local hot spots . Evidence from

8 Mariner 4 makes this suggestion appear unsound. Mars does not shm-r evidence

of tectonic activity usually associated Hith hot springs . Under the small

atmospheric pressure of Mars, ,·rater ,·rould boil at about lO° C. The presence

of dust storms on Mars indicates high Hind velocities and consequent large

rates of evaporation from any pool of ,·rater near its boiling temperature .

In order to create life it is necessary abiologically first to

synthesize at least some organic chemicals . In this paper I ,·rill present

· . 2 new data that makes it unlikely that organic chemicals are being formed on

Mars or have been synthesized there in the past. I will describe some

experiments which indicate that abiogenic synthesis must be conducted in a

highly reducing environment. Mars with its low mass loses hydrogen quickly

and the necessary reducing environment to permit synthesis is not present

now nor is it likely to have been present for long in the past. Mars has

a mass 0.108 that of Earth. Correspondingly, the escape velocity from the

surface of Mars is 5.0 km/sec while that from Earth is 11.2 km/sec. Near

Earth the presence of a magnetic field tends to prevent escape of ionized

particles. No such barrier is associated with Mars. 9

The Mi11erlO experiments of ten years ago, which produced amino

acids from methane, ammonia and water, have been hailed as demonstrating

that the creation of life on Earth was inevitable. Examination of Miller's

papers shows that the results also provide an implicit warning that the

creation of life on Mars would not be easy. While creating small amounts

of amino acids the irradiation produced larger amounts of other substances

including hydrogen. Some of the products of the experiment are shown in

Table 1.

4T In Miller's experiments the hydrogen was retained in his apparatus. On Mars the hydrogen would escape as it was formed. Any original methane-

ammonia mixture would be quickly changed to a more oxidized gas.

In the new experiments a series of mixtures of C02, N2, H20 and H2

.have been studied. The experiments show that large amounts of hydrogen

must be present in order to obtain appreciable quantities of amino acids.

The major amino acid was glycine. The results are presented in· Table 2.

3

At first sight it is surprising that such high proportions of hydrogen

must be present to achieve synthesis of amino acids. However, consideration

of some of the photochemistry involved makes the results seem reasonable.

In comparison with other molecules, molecular hydrogen is relatively inert

to ultraviolet radiation.

In the real situation on Mars, this relative inertness of hydrogen has

special significance because of the spectral distribution of solar radiation.

The effective wave lengths ll for reactions and the corresponding energies l2

available are shown in Table 3.

~\ Perusal of Steacie's~3 books on atomic and free radical reactions yields

the further generalization that organic compounds containing hydrogen are

much easier to split than is elemental hydrogen.

I will now present arguments that the Mars atmosphere was probably

never sufficiently reducing for abiogenic synthesis to occur and at

most that the atmosphere might have been adequately reducing for a very

short time.

To provide a background for discussion of the Martian environment,

I will briefly review some facets of Earth history. Most geochemists

14 accept the view advanced by Rubey and others that chemicals in the Earth's -

atmosphere and oceans are a product of outgassing of the interior of the

planet a process which continues today_ Rubey estimated that during the

planet's history the following amounts per cm2

of volatiles have appeared

at the surface: H2

@, 3.2 x 105 g; CO2, 1.8x104 g; and N2, 8xl0

2 g. The

gases were accompanied by an equivalent reducing capacity of 4xl02 g. H2.

4

In the early history of Earth the atmosphere was probably quite reduc-

ing. Carbon dioxide issuing from volcanoes quickly dissolved in the oceans

where it combined with alkaline s~bstances brought in by weathering of land.

Gases such as CO and H2 and the N2 tended to remain in the atmosphere. Solar

radiation produced more complicated molecules. These dissolved in the oceans,

where they could be shielded from ultraviolet radiation. In such a benign

environment many organic chemicals can survive millions of years, permitting

slow accumulation.

On Mars the sequence of events has been different. Only small amounts

of volatile substances have reached the atmosphere which could not be highly

reducing by reason of H2 escape.

The most telling argument against an initial dense atmosphere on our

planet, reflecting cosmic abundances of the elements, is the comparative absence

of krypton and xenon in the present atmosphere. Mars, with its light_mass, must

have been even less effective than earth in holding volatile substances. Today

Mars cannot retain atomic oxygen 0 During the process of its formation when

gravitational attraction was even less, it could not have retained methane. The

present atmosphere of Mars must have been derived largely from two sources:

(1) outgassing associated with localized heat generated by meteorite impact, or

(2) a mild degree of planetary outgassing. Either process would bring volatiles

to the surface gradually. Their composition would resemble those which appeared

at the surface of Earth.

An estimate of the amount of volatiles which have reached the surface

of Mars can be obtained by considering the fate of nitrogen. On Earth almost

all the nitrogen which has reached the surface is now in the atmosphere.

Actually~ nitrogen has not yet been detected on Mars. The only gases definitely

known to be in the Martian atmosphere are water vapor, 0.001 g/cm2, and carbon

5

15/ dioxide, 12.0 g/cm2~\/ The presence of nitrogen is assumed in order to account

for the total pressure of the atmospheres. Kuiper15

estimates that the unknown gas involved represents 10 g/cm2o If all of this is. ,.

assumed to be nitrogen the quantity is small in comparison to that on Earth,

and it indicates that Mars has not been outgassed to a degree comparable to

that of Eartho The Mariner 4 pictures are in accord with this view, for they

show no evidence of the tectonic activity which accompanies outgassing.

Another factor affecting Martian history is the small 8moun~of

thermal energy reaching the planet. Mars is 1.52 times farther away from the

sun than is Earth and accordingly receives only 43% as much radiation. As a

result, the average surface temperature of Mars is 30-40 oK lower than Earth. 5

Correspondingly, the humidity of the atmosphere is so low that rain does not 16

fall. Without rain and weathering, the mechanisms for absorption of C02 would

be ineffective. Hence the present amount of C02 in the Martian atmosphere may

approach the total· that has ever reached the surfaceo

A small amount of water is present on'Marso Does it represent the

last residual of water that arrived at the surface countless years ago? Prob-

ably not. The H20 now present may be due to the solar wind. In one year about

1015 atoms/cm2 of hydrogen strike the Mars atmosphere. There are now about 2 x 1019

2 atoms of hydrogen per cm of Mars. The present Martian water could be the result

of a transient equilibrium with the contribution of the solar wind balancing

the present escape rateo

One of the crucial facts about Mars is the small amount of chemicals

in the atmosphere in terms of amounts of solar radiation. Suppose that all the

hypothetical nitrogen on Mars was initially present as ammonia. This would

amount to about 4 x 1023 molecules per cm2• If the outgassing process required

109 years, the annual production would be 4 x 1014 cm2• Each cm2 of Mars each

6

year receives 1021 quanta of wave length less than 2250 A. Thus if all nitrogen arrived as ammonia and at one time (a most unlikely combination of events),

solar radiation would destroy it in a t~e of the order of a thousand years.

Alternatively, if the ammonia were produced gradually, each molecule would be

greeted by more than 106 quanta capable of destroying ~t. The process would be

irreversible for the product, inert hydrogen, would be quickly lost. Similar

arguments can be" applied to consideration of the fate of any water or methane

which might have appeared on Mars. The combination of solar radiation and ease

of hydrogen escape have acted to produce and maintain on Mars an environment

unsuitable for abiogenic synthesis.

--~'--' :'::':::--- . .,,---:.--

1proposed biological exploration of Mars between 1969 and 1973, Nature,

206, 974 (1965). /VV

2 Evans, D. C., Science, 149, 969 (1965). ~

3Goody, R. M., Weather, 12, 3 (1957). /VV

~Kuiper, G. P., The Atmosphere of the Earth and Planets, 2nd edition

(University of Chicago Press, 1952); and Spinrad, H., G. MUnch, and L. D. Kaplan,

Astrophysical J., 137, ~

1319 (1963).

5Abe1son, P. H. , these proceedin~s, 47, ;vV

575 (1961).

6 The Martian environment, Science, 147, 683 (1965). Abelson, P. H. ,

~

7Lederberg, J., and C.' Sagan, these Proceedings, 48, 1473 (1962). ,...,..,

8Leighton, R. B., B. C. Murray, R. P. Sharp, J. D. Allen, and R. K. Sloan,

Science, 149, 627 (1965). ,.I'VV

9 Van Allen, J. A., L. A. Frank, S. M. Krimigis, and H. K. Hills, Science,

149, 1228 (1965); O'Ga11agher, J. J., and J. A. Simpson, Science, 149,1223 ~ ,...,....,

(1965); Smith, E. J., L. DaviS, Jr., P. J. Coleman, Jr., and D. E. Jones,

Science, 149, 1241 (1965). ~

l~iller, S. L., J. Am. Chern. Soc., 77, 2351 (1955). ,..,..,

11Mi1ler, S. L., and H. C. Urey, Science, 130, 245 (1959). ~

l~ousey, R., The solar spectrum in space, Astronautics, p. 32 (July 1961).

l3Steacie, E. W. R., Atomic and Free Radical Reactions, 2nd edition, vo1s.

1 and 2 (Am. Chern. Soc o Monograph, Reinhold Publishing Corp., New York, 1954).

14 Rubey, W. W., Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., 62, 1111 (1951).

15K . G P' .. ll1per, • ., pr1vate commun1cat10n.

l6Kuiper, G. P., Communications of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory,

University of Arizona,~, 90 (1964).

IT

Table 1 '

Products Formed Miller Experiment 1955

Glycine Alanine CO N2

H2 CO2

47 mg. 30

420 210

161

100

The reaction mixture contained 532

mg. C, and the yield of glycine based

on carbon was 2.8%.

!!

Table 2

Products of Irradiation of Gas Mixtures

t' Starting Gases, cm. Hg Percent Carbon Fixed

CO2 N2 H2O H2 Total Carbon As Glycine

12 6 2.5 0.2

~

t

,,",,";

Table 3

Thresholds for Photolysis and Energy Available

Substance

.NH

3 H2O

CO2 CO

N2

.. H2

Effective o Threshold A

2250 1850'

1690 1545 liOO

900

.~

Solar Energy . At i\.< Threshold ergs cm-2 sec-l

300 42·

12

5. 0.87

< 0.6

•• J ..

...

STANFORD UNIVERSITY STANFORD. CALIFORNIA

COMPUTATION CENTER

January 13, 1965

Dr. Orr E. Reynolds Director, Bio-Science Programs Office of Space Science and Application National Aeronautic and Space Administration Washington 25, D.C.

Dear Dr. Reynolds:

Enclosed is a draft of "A Proposal for the Study of Computer Control of External Devices and an Automated Biological Laboratory". Sorry for the long delay in getting it out. Stanford will submit a formal proposal as soon as we have your reactions to this one.

Area Code: 41, Phone: DA 1-1)00

EawuioD 189'

As we mention in the proposal there is a possibility of additional support for this work from A.R.P.A. Dr. Ivan Sutherland, Director of Information Processing, The Pentagon, Room-3D-200, Advanced Research Projects Agency, Washington, D.C. 20301, is the person with who~ we have been talking.

I hope the results of the summer study were helpful to you.

JMcC/fst

Encl als

9J: :;;~ &tit; John McCarthy Professor of Computer Science

and .?, C) , j, . 'l~_~~/J\' /~JQ'shua~erberg

j Professor of Genetics

COMPUTATION CENTER

Dr. Orr E. Reynolds

STANFORD UNIVERSITY STANFORD. CALIFORNIA

January 13, 1965

Director, Bio-Science Programs Office of Space Science and Application National Aeronautic and Space Administration Washington 25, D.C.

Dear Dr. Reynolds:

Enclosed is a draft of "A Proposal for the Study of Computer Control of External Devices and an Automated Biological Laboratory". Sorry for the long delay in getting it out. Stanford will submit a formal proposal as soon as we have your reactions to this one.

luea Code: 41, Phone: DA 1-1300

EatauioD 289'

As we mention in the proposal there is a possibility of additional support for this work from A.R.P.A. Dr. Ivan Sutherland, Director of Information Processing, The Pentagon, Room-3D-200, Advanced Research Projects Agency, Washington, D.C. 20301, is the person with who~ we have been talking.

I hope the results of the summer study were helpful to you.

JMcC/fst

Encl als

Sincerely yours,

0) on ~. /l--ff--. r "

STANFORD UNIVERSITY STANFORD, CALIFORNIA

COMPUTATION CENTER

January 13, 1965 Area Code: 41, Phone: DA 1·~lOO

Elltmsion 189'

Dr. Orr E. Reynolds Director, Bio-Science Programs Office of Space Science and Application National Aeronautic and Space Administration Washington 25, D.C.

Dear Dr. Reynolds:

Enclosed is a draft of "A Proposal for the Study of Computer Control of External Devices and an Automated Biological Laboratory". Sorry for the long delay in getting it out. Stanford will submit a formal proposal as soon as we have your reactions to this one.

As we mention in the proposal there is a possibility of additional support for this work from A.R.P.A. Dr. Ivan Sutherland, Director of Information Processing, The Pentagon, Room-3D-200, Advanced Research Projects Agency, Washington, D.C. 20301, is the person with who~ we have been talking.

I hope the results of the summer study were helpful to you.

JMcC/fst

Encl als

Sincerely yours,

frL· 11J f &It;. John McCarthy Professor of Computer Science

and .p-C) . J..." l '- ~LM_~~.)....../IJ\' ~;rQshUa teaerberg

./ Professor of Gene:tics

,

January 1" 1965

Dr. Orr E. Reynolds Director, Bio-Science Programs Office of Space Science and Applicat ion National Aeronautic and Space Administration Washington 25, D.C.

Dear Dr. Reynolds:

Enclosed is a draft of "A Proposal for the Study of Computer Control of External Devices and an Automated Biological Laboratory". Sorry for the long delay in getting it out. Stanford will submit a formal proposal as soon as we have your reactions to this one.

As we mention in t he proposal there is a possibility of additional support for this work from A.R.P.A. Dr. Ivan Sutherland, Director of Information Processing, The Pentagon, Room-,D-200, Advanced Research Projects Agency, Washington D. C. 20,01, is the person wi t h whom we have been talking.

I hope the results of the summer study were helpful to you.

JMcC/ f st

Encl , ~s

Sincerely yours,

John McCarthy Professor of Computer Science

and

Joshua Lederberg Professor of Genetics

b v.b.

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A PROPOSA~ FOR THE STUDY OF

COMPUTER CONTROL OF EXTERNAL DEVICES

AND AN AUTOMATED BIOLOGlCAL LABORATORY

John McCarthy, Professor Qf Computer Science

Principal Investigator

Josh~a Lederberg, Professor of penetics

Co-Principal Investigator

INTRODUCTION

This proposal is presented jointly by the Instrumentation Rese~rch Laboratory in the Genetics Department and the Artificial Intelligence Group of the Computer Science Department at Stanford University.

We ~ntend to collaborate in research in several connected areas, namely:

1. The design of an automated biological laboratory.

2. Computer control of experiments in chemistry, biology, physiology and medicine~

3. Computer control of external devices in general.

4. Artificial intelligence.

For this purpose we need a laboratory the core of which will be a large general purpose computer suitable for very sophisticated control processes, but which will also contain other apparatus such as an artificial eye consisting of a TV camera and storage tube that will permit the com~uter to look at the outside world; a mecnanical hand operated by the computer; and connections to laboratory apparatus such as a mass spectrometer.

The remaining sections of this proposal are the following:

a) Purpose of the Project

b) Immediate Projects

c) Long-range Goals

d) Minimal Equipment Plans

e) Extended Equipment Plan and Possible Other Support

f) Budget

g) Other Support for the Computer

h) Personnel

i) Appendices

At least until such time as these arrangements might superseded by an even more comprehensive control facility, the computer will be installed and maintained in the Instrumentation Research Laboratory. at the Medic~l School. In this way, full use will be made of equipment and operating support of existing programs.

Purpose of the Project

This joint project of the Artificial Intelligence Group and the Instrumentation Research Laboratory arises as a result of our partici-pation in the Space Science Board's summer study on the biological exploration of Mars. This participation led to our conviction that the unmanned exploration of the planets and Mars in particular requires an automated laboratory. This laboratory must be controlled by a computer which in turn is controlled from ~he earth. The reasons for this belief are fully expressed in the paper "The Automated Biological Laboratory" which we are incorporating as appendix A of this proposal and which must be read to fully understand our point of view about how how to combine remote control from the earth arid on-board computer programs in the most effective way.

Besides their use in space research, automated biological laboratories will have an important role on earth. In particular, automated laboratory techniques are essential to cope with the full complexity of chromosomes and proteins of terrestrial organisms. See the paper "Program in Molecular Neurobiol~gy" by Lederberg which we incorporate as appendix B.

The Artificial Intelligence Group at Stanford finds the automated biological laboratory an excellent focus for work in computer control of external devices, pattern recognition, and heuristic programming. Appendix C discusses some of the work of the artificial intelligence group.

We believe that both the specific projects we expect to undertake right away and longer range research in artificial intelligence, computer control, and instrumentation will contribute to NASA's goal of 'planetary exploration.

Immediate Projects

Three projects will be undertaken immediately:

1. Computer programmed eye-hand coordination. This has many applications to the automated biological laboratory, and its effective~ ness will affect strongly what the laboratory can be prog!ammed to do. It is also a key problem from the point of view of artificial intelligence. The work on this will mainly be carried on by the Artificial Intelligence Group.

2. Computer control of a mass spectrometer. Monitoring the operations of a high-resolution and a fast-scanning instrument, maintaining files of past data, and logical interpretation of the spectra.

2

,. Computer controlled wet chemistry: conventional laboratory operations typical of molecular biology

The Artificial Intelligence Group will take the responsibility for the programming support of the computer.

In the near future the Computer Science Department expects to establish a new laboratory dedicated to the control of external devices. Among the subjects studied in this ,laboratory will be~

1. Visual pattern recognition. Looking for objects in pictures of given types, e.g. the pedestrians in a picture of a road, or airports in a picture taken from a plane ..

2. Control of vehicles such as cars and planes using visual infor-mation.

,. The proposed automatic biological laboratory to Mars.

4. Recognition of tracks in bubble and spark chambers.

5. Speech recognition aimed at a phonetic typewriter.

6. Computer control of assembly processes.

1. Artificial intelligence. Logically this could be separate but it is'involved inthe other projects and requires the same computer facilities.

The reasons for undertaking this work in the Computer Science Department are:

1. Computer Science should include the use of a computer to provide the intelligence of a system as well as the use of a computer to provide answers on paper. Therefore, our educational work will be unbalanced unless this is included in our program.

2. We believe that the next major technological advances in our society will require computer controlled systems. For example, we are willing to argue at length that computer control of cars will solve the traffic problem; that automatic delivery systems will raise our effective standard of living; and that computer control of airplanes is necessary to make non-airline flying useful to large number of people.

Long Range Plans

The Instrumentation Research Laboratory seeks to establish a working example of full computer-controlled operation of a laboratory in molecular biology.

3

As the first step in this direction, we propose to optimize the use of a mass spectrometer for ultra-micro biochemical analysis by online use of a computer to monitor the sample-handling, mass-scan, and data-acquisition from the instrument, and the reduction and logical interpre-tation of the mass spectra. The latter functions will be developed primarily on an offline basis for applications in terrestrial biochemistry. However, as prototypes for an exobiological search and detection scheme for analysis of organic materials in soil and in the atmosphere, these functions should also be done on line.

Instrumental hardware is being developed under other auspices for the use of mass spectrometry in scanning mode, i.e. to study the distri-bution of nucleotides, lipids, proteins, etc., in micro-sections of biological specimens, e.g. nerve cells and chromosomes. The raw data output from such a system is enormous and can only be interpreted with the help of extensive computation. A computer large enough to have a flexible programming capability will greatly simplify the design of the control hardware as well as the data interpretation.

Appendices D and E, on algorithms for compositional interpretation and topological mapping of organic molecular structures, illustrate the first step in programming "chemical intelligence". We propose now to apply the heuristic procedured developed by the Artificial Intelligence Group to develop more economical approaches to hypothesis-formation in matching actual spectra.

Few realistic problems in experimental science are so apt to the extension of computer logic.

On a more opportunistic basis, we also propose to tie the computer into such analytical operations as ultracentrifugation and its photo-densitrometric readout, particle-, cell- and colony-counting, paper-, column- and gas-chromatography, scintillation counting, spectrophotometry, spectrofulorimetry, spectropolarimetry, as these are used on a day-to-day basis in our department's research on genetic chemistry (for an example, see Appendix B), immunochemistry, and the protein chemistry of the brain.

Another program that would focus the interest~ of both groups, as well as attract sUbstantial practical interest from other medical researchers (e.g. Professor L. Luzzatti of the Pediatrics Dept.) is the automatic analysis of chromosome sets. At its extreme, this is a sophisticated problem in pattern-recognition. Possibly long before this is achieved the computer would unburden the cytologist of'the most tedious labor of searching the slides, measuring the chromosomes and sorting the lists of lengths, freeing him for more creative judgments~

At the instigation of Professor G. Khorana of the University of Wisconsin, we are also studying the possibility of computer-controlled automation of the chemical synthesis of complex polynucleotiedes.

4

However, we cannot make a definite commitment on this project until we have had more experience on simpler ones, and can recruit specially qualified assistance.

We have already had considerable experience with the small LINC computer along these lines and find it extremely useful, but subject to real limitation in precision (word size) and fast memory capacity, mainly associated with the programming systems. Full software develop-ment for the LINC might be as costly as the purchase of a larger computer and would also be subject to real limitations even for relatively simple problems.

Both groups participating in the project are convinced of the importance of the proposed automated biological laboratory for exploring Mars. If NASA proceeds in this direction we are eager to help especially in the areas of planning computer programming, and experiment selection and design.

Minimal Equipment Plan

The computer equipment planned here is based frankly on the amount of support we were told we can hope for. It is a minimal plan in the following respects:

1. It will not provide enough memory for work in artificial intelli-gence for several years. This will force the Artificial Intelligence Group to divide its programming systems efforts between the IBM 7090 at the Computation Center and the PDP-6 in our new laboratory. This will also limit the sophistication of the control programs that can be written.

2. Not enough memory or secondary storage is provided for a.time-sharing system. Therefore, the machine can easily be jammed when several people have large programs to debug.

3. The system places extensive reliance on the already heavily committed time-sharing system of the Computation Center. Delays and breakdowns there will cause the project to lose time.

On the other hand, our plans do provide for a fast computer with good real-time interaction capability and which is expandable to meet the deficiencies mentioned above.

The plan for computer equipment is based on the Digital Equipment Corporation's PDP-6 computer. We plan also to negotiate with at least IBM and Control Data in addition, but they would have to make sub-stantial discounts in order to compete in price.

Here is the equipment, together with the prices of the components, that we wish to obtain.

5

I. Minimum Program Cost through Fiscal Year 1967 (with immediat.e purchase of PDP-6).

A. PDP-6 and Related Equipment.

Arithmetic processor type 166. This is a 36 bit word length single address binary computer with a 2 microsecond memory

Core memory type 163· 16,384 words

Paper tape punch

Paper tape reader

Data control type 136. For attaching external devices

Display monitor and control

State sales tax at 4%

Shipping and installation (est. cost)

Total PDP-6 Cost

Time sharing connection

2 Teletypes at 3 000

TV system

Electromechanical hand

Total Cost Related Equipment

TOTAL HARDWARE COSTS

B. Personnel.

Fiscal year 1965

Fiscal year 1966 (and yearly thereafter)

2 Systems programmers 2 Applications programmers 1 Electrical engineer 1 Secretary 4 Grad. research assistants (incl.

summers)

Staff Benefits. at 8.5% of salaries

TOTAL PERSONNEL COSTS

,C. Indirect Costs at 42% of Salaries only

TOTAL COSTS THROUGH FISCAL YEAR 1966

6

146 100

126 000

5 500

9 000

10 000

40 000

13 464

6 000

356 064

10 000

6 000

40 000

10 000

66 000

422 064

15 000

20 000 20 000 10 000 5 000

20 000

75 000

7 650

97 650

~7 800

557 514

E. Fiscal Year 1967

Personnel (as above)

Benefits

Indirect costs

TOTAL PROGRAM (MINIMUM LEVEL) THROUGH JUNE 1967 (FY 1967)

75 000

6375

31 500

The budget for this program could be met by the gr~nt of $100,000 (personnel and some equipment) for the fiscal year ending July 1965, and $457,514 for the following year. The cost for the continuation of this program through July 1967 (FY 1967) would be $112,875, for a grand total necessary through FY 1967 of $670,389.

The Digital Equipment Corporation equipment can be rented at 1/30th of the purchase price per month, with 75% of the rental paid in the first year applicable to the purchase of the equipment. On this basis, the annual budgets would be as follows:

II. Minimum Program Cost through Fiscal Year 1967 (with initial rental of PDP-6).

A. Fiscal Years 1965 and 1966-

PDP-6 Rental (12/30th) Time sharing connection 2 Teletypes at 3 000 TV System Electromechanical hand

Total Hardware FY 1965 and 1966 Personnel Benefits Indirect costs

Total Other

TOTAL FISCAL YEARS 1965 and 1966

B. Fiscal Year 1967

Balance due on PDP-6 Personnel Benefits Indirect costs

TOTAL FISCAL YEAR 1967

142 426 10 000

6 000 40 000 10 000

75 000 5 375

31 500

249 244 75 000

6 375 31 500

TOTAL PROGRAM (MINIMUM LEVEL) THROUGH JUNE 1967 (FY 1967) WITH INITIAL RENTAL OF PDP-6

7

208 426

112 875

321 301

362 119

783 420

The budget for this program could be met by a grant of $100,900 for the year ending July 1965, $221,300 for year ending July 1966 and $362,119 for year ending July 1967.

If we have the basis of providing the Digital Equipment Company with a fairly firm letter of intent in February, we can expect delivery of their equipment by August of that year.

Extended Equipment Plan and Possible Other Support

We are hoping that NASA will be able to provide more than first indicated, and we also hope for support from other government agencies. If additional support were available we would probably spend it in the following ways:

Capital Equipment

1. $20,000 more on the eye-hand for a more workmanlike job.

2. $21,400 for a microtape system for local storage of programs and data~

3. $20,000 for a data communication system and 4 more teletypes.

4. $126,000 for 16384 more words of core.

5. $30,000 for fast memory to speed up the computer.

6. $110,000 for a magnetic drum system that would permit a time-sharing system.

7. $252,000 for 32,768 more words of core. This would permit a trans-fer of the artificial intelligence work from the IBM 7090.

8. $180,000 for a second processor that would permit simultaneous real-time and time-shared operation.

9. $30,000 for a line printer

10. $100,00 estimated for a disk file

At this point we would be independent of the Computation Center.

11. Still more core.

If we could plan a large system soon we would have a better bargaining position with respect to the manufacturer. A system that would permit an effective simulation of all functions of the proposed automated biological laboratory might cost $3,500,000 for the computer including two processors, 256,000 w9rds memory of core, a time-sharing system, a multi-console display system, and facilities for controlling a number of experiments. Other apparatus might come to $1,000,000 and personnel costs might run $500,000' to $1,000,000 per year. We believe that the prompty support of such a

8

laboratory would incre~se the probability of a successful biological landing on Mars and would make a sUbstantial contribution to the art of controlling experiments by computer.

Recently, core memory costs have been coming down. In particular, Digital Equipment has told us that if we buy a large memory all at once we can get it much cheaper.

Income

Fiscal 1965

Fiscal 1966

Total

Expenditures

Personnel (fiscal 1965)

Personnel (fiscal 1966)

Personnel overhead

Equipment costs

Total

Discrepancy

Budget

$100,000

350,000

$450,000

$ 15,000

75,000

422,000

62,000 + overhead

This discrepancy is to be made up by leasing part of the equipment.

Other Support

Besides NASA, other government agencies have expressed interest in supporting research in the areas mentioned in this proposal. Specifically, the Advanced Research Projects Agency has supported the Artificial Intelli-gence Group and we are asking them to increase their level of support in the following directions:

1. To help with the PDP-6 computer. To the extent that they do, we will expand the configuration as indicated in the section on equipment.

2. Computer-controlled hand. They are interested in supporting the design of a hand, intended from the start to be computer controlled.

3. Computer eye. They may support work elsewhere on a computer eye and give us one.

4. Additional personnel for work in artificial intelligence.

9

The AEC is interested in supporting the work of Professor William Miller who has just come to Stanford from Argonne National Laboratory and has a joint appointment between the Computer Science Department and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. Professor Miller works in the area of computer recognition of pictures from spark and bubble chambers, and in computer control of experiments. We hope he will be able to Jo~n us, since if he uses the same machine our problems with programming systems and training students will be eased.

Two of the larger computer manufacturers have expressed interest in supporting work in this area. The computers they would like us to use are more expensive than the PDP-6 and very large discounts or other support would be required in order to justify switching.

None of the other potential support is definite yet so please don't wait for them to act.

Personnel

Computer Science Department

Dr. John McCarthy, Professor of Computer Science, Director, Artificial Intelligence Group.

Dr. Edward Feigenbaum, Associate Professor of Computer Science, Associate Director, Artificial Intelligence Group.

Harry Ratchford Raj Reddy Gary Feldman

Stephen Russell Harold Gilman

Department of Genetics, School of Medicine

Dr. Joshua Lederberg, Director, Kennedy Laboratories for Molecular Medicine

Dr. Elliott Levinthal, Program Director, Instrumentation Research Laboratory, and its staff, including Dr. Bert Halpern, Dr. Sidney Liebes, Lee Hundley, Harrison Horn, Nicholas Veiades.

The entire staff of the Department of Genetics, including Professors Eric Shooter, Walter Bodmer and Leonard Herzenberg, and associated fellows and students, will be involved in the automation of laboratory procedures. In addition, Professors Carl Djerassi (Chemistry) and Lubert Stryer (Biochemistry) will collaborate in these applications with special reference to mass spectrometry and analyticalphotochem-istry respectively.

10

•

APPENDICES

Appendix A

Glaser, D., McCarthy, J, and Minsky, M. 1964. The Automated Biological Laboratory.

Appendix B

Lederberg, J., 1962. Program in Molecular Neurobiology. (Submission to National Institute for Neurological Diseases and Blindness in connection with grant no. NB-04270.)

Appendix C

Feigenbaum, E. 1964. Artificial Intelligence Research.

Appendix D

Lederberg, J., 1963. An Instrumentation Crisis in Biology.

Appendix E

Lederberg, J~ and M. Wrightman, 1964. A Subalgol Program for Calculation of Molecular Compositional Formulas from Mass Spectral Data. NASA, Sci. and Tech. Aerospace Reports (STAR) No.

Appendix F

Ganesan, A.T. and J. Lederberg, 1964. Physical and Biological Studies on Transforming DNA~ J. Mol. BioI. 2: 695

,. l

APPENDIX C

Artificial Intelligence Research

A piece of computing hardware, by itself, can not exercise control over an external device. Control is exercised by means of the computer's "software"--the program of calculations, decisions, and operations given to the machine. To control a complex apparatus requires a complex program. To control the behavior of a device that is operating in a rather general-purpose manner, relatively independent of human intervention, in environments of great novelty whose structure is not well known to the programmer in advance, is a programming problem at the edge of what the computer science is now capable of.

Such control calls for techniques that are being developed by a field of research called artificial intelligence research. The task of this research is to exploit the pure information processing and logical capabilities of computers for the construction of programs for complex decision-making, rational problem solving, pattern detection and identification, hypothesis formation, etc. -- activity usually thought to require some degree of in-telligence in its performance when it is done by human beings.

The goal of artificial intelligence research is to discover systems and techniques that will allow such activity to be performed successfully by computer.

The essence of intelligent problem solving in complex tasks is controlled search, since the number of combinations of possibilities to "try" is astro-nomical in any meaningful problem. Methods for reducing to a practical level the amount of search necessary for effective problem solving are called heuris-tic methods. Heuristic programming is a branch of artificial intelligence research that deals in the discovery and implementation on computers of heuristic problem-solving methods. Heuristic programming is the specialty of the Artificial Intelligence Group at Stanford.

Another focus of this Group's work is concerned with decision processes and heuristics for pattern recognition -- detection of patterns in data, and classification for identification and further use by other problem solving programs. On one level this concerns recognition of objects in a quasi-visual field (such as a TV camera-storage tube combination would produce). At a more complex level, just now beginning to be investigated, it concerns the processes of empirical induction--detecting regularities in sets or sequences of events, interpreting these and forming hypotheses on the basis of previously stored (but modifiable) models of the environment and its processes, experiments to test and revise hypotheses, etc.

"Software" of the type described above is virtually mandatory for the control of the kind of automated biological laboratory being proposed. The laboratory will be relatively independent of human operators' it will be exploring a novel environment about which our best expectati~n is that m~ny

unexpected conditions .will be encountered. Thus, the artificial intelligence research proposed is to be seen, not as an adjunct, but as a vital integral part of the laboratory project. Basic research on the problems and tech-niques ne~ded to produce the requisite software are fully as important and justified as research directed toward the "hardware" design of the laboratory.

AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY P. O. BOX 6248. PROVIDENCE. R. 1.02904

TEL.521-1113 AREA 401

April 29, 1966

Professor John McCarthy' Computer Science Department Stanford, California 94305

Dear Professor McCarthy:

Enclosed is your subsistence check for $16 for the April

Symposium.

Professor Schwarts has been appointed editor of the Pro-

ceedings of the Symposium, and as soon as we receive your manuscript,

I will mail you your stipend of $300.

jw enclosure

Sincerely yours,

,~-.Q'.~ Jacqueline Walker Meeting Arrangements Section

T-

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IFIP TECmnCAL COMMITTEENo2

PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES

Dear Colleaguo,

September 29, 1966

WORKING CONFERENCE PISA 1966

SYMBOL MANIPULATION LANGUAO.r:S - " -.

The Working Confol'enco is clo:;od a;.i.d ! wwt to thnnk again dl of you tor ht\ving come to Fiaa r".'lc! COll~t;r1hu-~od with your presence to the Guccess of tlle Conforence i tealf.

Certainly thero 18 much work still to bo dono e.nd ! hope that the Conference has ouccedofi in estabUlilhing bette:!' contacts between all of us.

Moreover I hope that ull 0:£ you. hll.vfj good. memorise of Pias t\nd that the opportunity will arleo again to come back hore.

Here enclosod yov- will find tI:.o complete list of addrossee of llar-GiciproncEl on Syu'lbol Mr,nipulCl"tion Lllllguages.

Yours sinc01'sly.

IA. Carc;coialo {U Porino}

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NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMIN ISTRATION WASHINGTON. D.C. 20546

In Reply Refer To : SB (GD:jh) 9 April 1965

MEMORANDUM

TO: Members, Ad Hoc Bioscience Working Group

FROM: SB/Manager of Advanced Projects

SUBJECT : Report of the Ad Hoc Bioscience Horking Group

Attached herewith is a copy of the draft of subject report. I would appreciate having your comments and suggested changes in my hands before April 21, 1965, since I must present the findings of the Group to the Bioscience Subcommittee of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Space Science Steering Committee on April 27, 1965. Unless I have your comments by April 21, I must assume your concurrence with the draft report.

May I again thank you for your hard work and valuable contributions to the Group's findings and, recommen~ation~s. /

,y/ \ ~ . % . ,/ .'?-. -:.-~dY/(,

C"-,,, Geo e H. Dunc

Enclosure a/s

Mager, Advanced Projects Bioscience Programs Office of Space Science

and Applications (Chairman, Ad Hoc Bioscience Horking Group)

•

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION WASH INGTON, D.C. 20546

In Reply Refer To : SB (GD:jh) 9 April 1965

MEMORANDUM

TO: Director, Bioscience Programs

FROM: SB/Manager of Advanced Projects

SUBJECT : Report of the Ad Hoc Bioscience Working Group

The Bioscience Horking Group met at Newport Beach, California,

22- 26 March 1965, for the purpose of formulating the specific biological

science mission objectives for the Voyager landings on Mars in 1971

and 1973. After deliberation, the Group determined that it could not

approach the biological science mission objectives without considering

the state -of-the-art and resulting specific experiments. In addition,

the Group concluded that, because of the impact of i nformation

obtained by fly-by or orbiter upon any plans for the science payload

of a l ander, it should consider possible science payloads for such

spacecraft .

The Group unanimously made the following general recommendations:

1. High priority should be given to an orbiter in 1969, rather

than a fly-by, because of the greater amount of data and the capability

for a seasonal look. A fly-by should be accepted only if an orbiter

is impossible .

2

2. It would be desirable to have an orbiter preceed a

lander, but not at the expense of missing the 1971 opportunity

to land.

3. There is no doubt that lite cannot be detected from an

orbi ter. It life is to be detected and characterized, . a landing

must be accomplished. Therefore, the lander program must be

emphasized as soon as possible.

4. ~ether with the commitment to Voyager, a major

commitment to tbe SRT in biOSCience, aimed at supporting the

Voyager experiments, must be made.

5. Emphasis must be increased on the foUowing:

a. Improved power supply (Rm).

b. Improved communications.

c. Soil sampling devices, with first priority on

obtaining larger samples ( Z 1 kg).

NOTE: Such increased emphasis should ~ result

in decreased emphasis on the longer-range SRT

projects.

6. Voyager landings are unique as canpared to all previous

space and planetary missions, since most instruments must be

used tor more than one experiment.

The success ot Voyager experiments depends upon the cooperation of

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experimenters selected from the scientific community; experimenters

accustomed to designing their own instruments and who may well

resent having to share a cormnon instrument. NASA Headquarters must

accelerate their current efforts to solve the problem of how best

to insure the cooperation of the "scientific community" under

these conditions.

Finally, the Group unanimously concurred in the reports submitted

by its three subcommittees. (See attached copies).

Enclosures a/s

George H. Duncan Chai~~, Ad Hoc Bioscience

Working Group

:REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON MARrIAN LANDERS

The Committee "Go consider liars landers consisted of A. Douglas

MacLaren, Vance oyama., George Hobby, Gerry Soffen, Edward Evans,

and was chaired by Wolf Vishniac. Jerry stuart contributed addi-

tional information. The Committee considered two landing vehicles,

one containing up to fifty pounds scientific payload, and the other

a scientific payload between 100 and 300 pounds. The Committee

considered payloads which would be most economical: the largest

amount of information that could be obtained in the smallest

array of apparatus, as well as the largest amount of useful

information that was likely to be obtained per number of bits e

The Committee also considered the logical sequence in which

such experiments might be carried out, the coherence of the

investigation carried out by any one payload, and the contribution

that information so obtained might make to future investigations.

Ideally, the complement of any one experiment should be available,

sterilizable, amenable to automatic programming, and be applicable

to the study of soil samples.

The following pages are a brief summary of the detailed dis-

cussions which were held, and it is clear that each item requires

con~iderable amplification. The payloads described on pp. l~ and 12

are the unanimous recommendation of the COmmittee, the suggested

sequence of operations was drawn up later by the Chairmano The

specific recommendations listed in the discussion section also

have the Committee's unanimous support.

-2-

SAMPLING

We viewed the sampling as the single most important problem

that confronts the design of a.n unmanned lander. The performance

of anyone investigation is strictly dependent on the availability

of a sample and on its size. This dependence upon the availa-

bility of a sample which must be obtained regardless of the

nature of the surface on which the lander may light places

a considerable demand on the sophistication of the sampling

equipment.

A sampling device must obtain a sample with high reliability,

regardless which technique may be employed (sticky surfaces, suction,

either alone or with abrasives, coring, drilling, explosive fragment-

at ion, or scooping). Ideally the sample should consist of small

particles or be sufficiently friable to permit chemical processing.

Since there are limits below which one cannot perform satisfactor,y

chemical analyses the size of the sample will determine the nature

of the experiments that may be performed upon it. We have conside·red

as the example of the most diffic~lt soil to work with a terrestrial

desert soil which may contain 0.1% organic matter or less. Of

such soil 10 grams would be a lower limit for extensive analytical

procedures, while a desirable sample would be in the order of 100

grams to 1 kilogram. In addition to obtaining a. sample, ancillary

eqUipment should be able to measure the sample and parcel it out

to various experiments that may compete for the same sample. A

metering of the sample will give us not only the basis for any

quantitative measurement, but Will also tell us whether or not any

.. ,

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-3-

sample has been introduced in anyone experiment, so the experiment

will not go through the programmed motions without a sample having

been introduced.

Each landed instrument package should contain several sampling

devices so chosen that at least one of them should be successful.

venturi suction devices, although capable of the induction of

sizable.samples in suitable soil, are bound to be successful at

least in the milligram range 0 Even smooth rock has enough dust

or sandy material on it which could be collected by some such

device. Devices for obtaining larger samples ,\-Tould have to

find a suitable substrate on which to operate. It is therefore

desirable that at least the largest sampling device (100 gra.ms to

1 kilogram) be equiped with suffiCiently sophisticated sensors to

allow it to tell whether it rests on rocky surface or on loose

soil. This would preclude the sampler from exhausting its power ...

supply or suffer mechanical damage on a rocky surface. Some roving

capability should be built in, so that the sampler could reach

out and test for surfaces of various hardness and begin its sampling

on the proper ground. Roving capability is also important to

escape the burned area should retrorockets be used and to avoid

splinters of wood if balsa is used as an impact limiter. The im-

portance of sampling devices is such that the Committee feels justi-

fied in aSSigning a large fraction of the lander weight to the sampling

operation. Since at present the only devices available work reliably

in the milligram range, the Committee recommends strongly that larger

Sampling devices be deveiopedo

-4-

~ne subsequent sections discuss the performance of a landed

complement of instruments in terms of the sample required for each

experiment. We list the measurements that may be performed without

any solid sample, with samples of one or more milligrams, 1 to 10

grams, and with amounts over 100 grams.

ENV1RONMENTAL MEASUREMENTS REQUIRING NO SOLID SAMPLE

~idity. Relative humidity should be measured immediately

above the surface as well as below. Such measurements could be

carried out for instance with an ~03 detector in which conductivity

is a function of water adso:rption. MeasU'e1ents belo'" the surface

of the soil could be carried out by the incorporation of such a

detector in a probe which will penetrate the soil. This same

probe would include some of the measuring devices or attachments

mentioned below. The measurement of humidity below ground would

not be a measure directly of the water content of the soil but of

. the water in equilibrium ,dth the gas phase in the soil. Humidity

should be measured at intervals for a full Martian day in order to

obtain the diurnal variation.

Temperature. A temperature measurement should accompany the

humidity measurements both·:.above ground and belo",.

Pressure. A single measurement of atmospheric pressure should

be carried out.

Atmospheric Composition. We suggest a gas chromatographic

ana.lysis.~ of the gases found in the atmosphere and below the 'Soil.

Of particular interest is the determination of oxygen. The sensi-

tivity of the oxygen measurement should be sensitive to a v~~~·~t ::-',:;;: ,':

. :f:·{ .' i ~: .

;.

-5-

least 2 orders of magnitude below the nominal maximum value for

oxygen (0.025 mb~ 10-6mols/liter). Should gas chromatography

not be sufficiently sensitive we suggest an exploration of methods

such as the use of kr,yptonate or fluorescence quenching. Other

gases that may be detected and measured by gas chromatography

would include a confirmation for the values assigned to carbon

dioxide, and a search for gases of potential biological significance

such as H2S, NH3, qH4, CO, oxides of nitrogen such as N20, NO, and

N02, and HCN. In terrestrial biology these gases may be metabolic

end products ,as well as substrates. Some of these gases may con-

.1

ceivably occur at higher concentrations in the atmosphere underground.

Radiation. It is of interest to determine the flux of ultra-, 0

violet light between 1850 and 3000 A. This could either be measured

by a broad band determination or by resolving it into about 100 o A bands. A series of filters and a thermopile are suggested as

one type of detector. The determination of ionizing radiation

has been considered only for secondary missions.

Surf"ace Structure. A study of the mineralogical structure

and chemical composition of the surface could possibly be obtained

by x-ray diffraction, infra-red reflectance spectroscopy, and alpha

scattering.

EXPERIMENTS ~-1ITH MILLIGRPJ.1 SAMPLES

Organic Matter. Milligram amounts of soil can be pyrolyzed

and volatile material condensed on a flat plate. A small non-

specific uv source and a non-selective detector of visible light

could determine the formation of fluorescent material which is

~onned from all organic matter during pyrolysis.

-6-

Growth ~ Catalytic Activity. Milligram samples can be used

to detect chemical activities such as the evolution of gases or

change in pH. These experiments may take the form of pro-

viding labeled organic substrates and looking for the evolution

of radioactive gases or a determination of the increase of par-

ticles in either distilled water, salt solutions, or in the

presence of' organic compounds. Gas evolution, which can be

detected either by measurement of radioactivity or by gas chroma-

tography, may take place either in solution or in soil samples

barely moistened with the appropriate reagents. The increase

in particles can be measured only in a liquid medium by light scattering

which may detect 103 particles.

The organic substrates might be sterilizable carbon compounds

in such combinations that some of them might be used by micro-

organisms, or one that is easily decomposed such as urea. Urea

is commonly found and decomposed in the soil, but it may also

have a non-biological Origin and therefore be found even in the

absence of living organisms. Its ".decomposi tion could be detected

by observing the evolution of ammonia and carbon dioxide. Various

salt solutions may be deSigned to support organisms that could

occupy the ecological niches expected on YArs, and should make

allowance for the possibility that high salt concentration is

a Martian device of' water preservation.

EXPERDfENTS "lITH GRAM SAMPLES

Soil Composition. In addition to the experiments described -above which can be perfonned on milligram samples, larger samples

of Martian soil can be heated to obtain volatile gases Whi~q~~

-7-

driven off under these conditions. After driving off H20, and possibly (

NH3 and C~, the heating can be continued until pyrolysis occurs.

The f'ragments of what may have been organic compounds may then be

passed through a gas chromatograph into a mass spectrometer. The

combination of the gas chromatogr,aph and mass spectrometer for the

study of' pyrolyzed soil samples is recommended on the basis of its

operational simplicity, versatility, and scope. It is limite~ by

the data capability. It is recommended that despite this limitation

this' technique can be valuable since suitable programming may

select ~or the transmission of' a few peaks of major interest. The

transmission of a full GC/MS scan will have to wait for the strength-

ening of' the data link.

Compounds of High Molecular Weight. It is of' interest to deter-

mine the occurrence of compounds of high molecular weight. Such

compounds may be organiC compounds and be of biological significance,

either as the products of' 11 ving organisms or as the accumulation

of some prebiotic chemical events. From the point of view of' the

origin and evolution of life the occurrence of any compound of

molecular weight above 500 or 1000 may be of interest, even if it

is not a carbon compound. The techniques that have been proposed

for such studies, such as dialysis and dye absorption (J-band) do

not distinguish adequately between high molecular weight organic

compounds and colloidal clays such as bentonite. We recommend

that the use of a molecular sieve technique of which several have

been developed in recent years and are capable of determining

molecular weights in ranges of' interest to biologists (Sepbadex,

derivatives of agar, and poly.amides s~Ch as Bio-Gel).

I

i •

c

-8-

Identification of Amino Acids and Their Optical Isomers. Amino

acids may occur in soil either as the result of biological activity

or may arise in prebiotic chemical events. Amino acids may there-

fore occur in Yartian soil regardless whether living organisms

exist or not. In that event it is of interest not only to identify

the amino acid but. to determine whether one optical isomer pre-

dominates. A technique which is capable of doing both ~gain

exploits the capabilities of the gas chromatograph. If one

optical isomer of an optically active alcohol is used to esterify

the amino acids, gas chromatography can distinguish the optical

isomers of the amino acids. An extension of this technique

1?romises to carry .out similar operations with esterified optically

active carbohydrates. Such an instrument would be useful not

only in analysis of soil but in the analysis of Martian organisms

should it have been possible to cultivate them in a growth experiment.

Fluorimetry. An examination of soil samples by spectral fluori-

metric techniques may identify several classes of organic compounds

of potential biological significance. The use of two monochromators,

or at least of two sets of filters, allows the selective use of various

wavelengths of exciting light in addition to a measurement of the

emission band. Such examination would·reveal compounds related

to photodynamiC pigments, porphyrins, phenazines including flavins,

quinones, proteins, nucleic acids, and others.

Elementary Analysis. We recommend the development of apparatus

capable to carry out a chemical elementary analysis of the major

soil constituents. Although no such automatic apparatus exists

at the moment we believe that this and other wet.ch~mical tec~iques

are amenable to automation.

-9-

EXPERIMENTS WITH 100 GRAM - 1 KILOGRAM SAMPLES

Soil Respiration. In addition to, all the analyses that have

been mentioned above, large samples of soil lend themselves to

measurements of activities observed in the total soil~ A large

sample may be monitored for gas exchanges, paying particular atten-

tion to carbon dioxide and ammonia. Such gas exchanges may be

monitored on the original sample and upon the addition of water or

various solutions of minerals and organic compounds. An alternative

to carrying out experiments with large samples in the instrument

capsule might be an experiment perf o TImed in situ. Possibly a section

of soil might be. sufficiently isolated by a suitable shroud to

carr,y out such measurments without necessity of removing the sample

from its location.

The availability of large samples of soil suggest growth experi-

ments in which the medium is an aqueous extract of such soil. The

preparation of a Martian soil extract and its use as a growth

medium may turn out to have many advantages over whatever might

be supplied in the instrument capsule.

Photosynthesis. Since all life depends on the energy conversion

from radiant energy to chemical energy it would be desirable to test

for the occurrence of photosynthesis. The only definite experiment

included in these recommendations is part of the growth experiment

in which the occurrence of light dependent growth may be tested.

The Committee feels it desirable to see a procedure developed

which would search for photosynthesis in a sensitive and more

direct fashion. Light dependent C02 fixation appears promising

and can ~e made sensitive by the use of c1402, but since C02

-10-

fixation is not a necessar,y, though likely, concomitant of photo-

synthesis, the development 'of another approach may be desiroable.

Pending such development we recommend an experiment in which C02

fixation is measured as a function of light.

PICTURES

Although pictures of Mars would be extremely desirable their

demand on the communication link are such that their transmission

at present would interfere with the transmission of data from

other experiments. The Committee feels very strongly that the

amount of information obtained from pictures is small on a per

bit basis compared to what can be learned from many other experi-

ments, and that pictures should therefore be assigned a secondar,y

priority. Given the choice, tpe Committee feels that the various

analytical experiments that have been proposed will provide us

with more valuable information than pictures are likely to do.

Nevertheless, efforts should be made to improve the communi-

cation link to the point where the troansmission of an occasional

pictUre (101 bits) would not interfere with other experiments. Should

it be possible to obtain such pictures the following observations

appear desirable: a) to see an experiment in vrhich growth may have

taken place, either macroscopically or microscopically; b) to ob-

serve the environment in which the spacecraft is operating and

em>ecially in which the sampler is collecting Martian soil; and

c) to obse~e a sample being taken in a close-up picture. The

obserVation of a mechanical device obtaining a soil sample may

-11-

give us a strong, visual impression of the Martian soil. It is

strongly recommended that all efforts be made to improve the

communication link, including the development of better or larger

transmission antennae and power supplies. In this connection

we urge NASA to request from the AEC the development of Rl'G or

similar_ devices that will extend the availability of energy both

in level and time.

SUGGESTED PAYLOAD CONFIGURATIONS

Two payloads are considered here, one including 50 pounds

of scientific instruments, not counting the data processing equip-

ment, and the other approaching 300 pounds.

Fifty-Pound Payload

1. Detection of water in the atmosphere

2. Gas chromatograph for atmospheric analysis

3. Measurement of atmospheric pressure

4. Photometry of ultraviolet light

5 • Probe for soil examination which will

include water detection and other devices

6. Temperature measurement for inclusion in 5 and

'1

7 • Gas intake for soi1. probe to lead to gas

chromatograph

8. Sampling devices from milligram range to

10 gram range

9. Fluorimetric detection of' organic compounds

10. Combustion device for t~e detection of carbon,

1 pol.lXJd:,~ ':

1 pounds

1 pound

3 pounds

6 pounds

1 pound

1. pound

1.5 pounds

5 pounds

hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur in gas chromatography 5 pound~ ,

-12-

11. Growth experiment, "biological amplification

of sample", incl. "enzyme" 5 pounds

TOTAL 50 pounds

263 Pound Lander -Items 1-10 .ab·ove 45 pounds

12. Sampler for 100 gram to 1 kilogram range,

including roving capability and soil testing 40 pounds

13. Sample processing (sifting, distribution,

extraction, measurements of pH and conductivity) 15 pounds

14. Detection of amino acids and separa. tion of

optical isomers 25 pounds

15. Fluorimetr~c examina~ion of soil 15 pounds

16. Growth experiment, more sophisticated than

Item 11 above 15 pounds

17. Detection of catalytiC activities ("enzyme

experiments") 3 pounds

18. Soil respiration measurements on large sample 10 pounds

19. Detection of high molecular weight compounds

and molecular sieving 5 pounds

20. Mass spectroscopy to follow gas chromatography 25 pounds

21. Photosynthesis detection 10 pounds

22. X-ray diffractometer 15 pounds

23· Measurement of alpha scattering 30 pounds

24. Elementary analysis 10 pounds

TOTAL 263 pounds

...,

j I

,\ treospharic coc:posi tion (2)

Insertion of Probo Into Ground (S) i

it succossf'ul.

ccmpos1t1on (7, S & 2)

if successful ------__ _

Detection of organic compounds by, fluorescence upon pyrolysis (9)

I-

I

may provide medium '

affects design of med1U11l

~~1~ '--

I

_I I

i

I I BzQ2ar1mants within broken Una contained in 50 lba pqload. all exper1r;lients in 263 lbs

payload. Figures in parentheses reter to aperiments listed on pp. 11-12.

'I if successful ~_

-, ~-Ti------~

Determination of pH and conductivity (13)

CompoWlds of high molecular weight (19 JK::K.:------

Amino acid detection and optical activity (14 & 2)

Fluorescent compounds (15)

X-ray diffraction (22)

a-5cattering (23)

Elementary anal¥sis (24')

Soil respiration or !tin situ" experiment (18)

REPORT OF SUB-COMMITTEE OF DATA PROCESSING AND CONTROL

The subcommittee on Information Processing and control consisted of

the following individuals:

1. J. McCarthy, Stanford University (chairman and reporter)

2. J. C. Busby, U.S. Navy Aviation Supply Depot, Philadelphia

3. J. Stewart, JPL

4. J. Stallkamp, JPL

5. D. Slaughter, JPL

The job of the committee was to recommend whether a stored program digital

computer should be used to control the ABL and to compress information for

transmission. Available to the subcommittee was the report, The Automated

Biological Laboratory, by Glaser, McCarthy, and Minsky coming from the National

Academy of Sciences summer study and some general inf~rmation on progress

in computer development. It was felt to be necessary to make a report that made

fewer assumptions about size of payload and drew fewer conclusions about the

manner of operation of the ABL than did the summer study report.

We discussed the availability of suitable computers, and a number of

potential applications including:

1. Compression of pictures for transmission. The reduction in the number

of bits transmitted ranges from a factor of 2 in the worst case to a factor

of 106 in cases where the objects that may be of interest in the picture are

well known (from previous pictures) and only special information is required.

2. Compression of mass spectrograms and gas chromatograms. A factor of

7 is readily obtained by describing in terms of position, height and width.

.;.-

- .

3. Control of a wet chemistry laboratory. I

4. Control of a sampling device using visual information.

5. Control of a lens cap used to protect the TV camera during dust-storms.

An example of the use of the computer for adapting to environmental conditions.

The results of the committee meeting are represented by the following

a~reed upon assumptions, facts, and conclusions:

Assumptions:

1. The ABL will be designed to obtain information from several sensors,

to inter-relate and utilize this information in its subsequent operations, and

to transmit at least a portion of this information to Earth.

2. The total scientific payload, including the computer and its input-

output will not be less than 100 pounds.

Facts:

1. The use of an adequate digital computer to process data on Mars will

enable a reduction in the amount of information to be transmitted to Earth

by a factor of at least 2-. The reduction in communication power may pay for

the computer.

2. The use of a central memory and data processing capability enables

the ABL, when on Mars, to control both experiments and support operations

in a more integrated and flexible manner than would otherwise be possible.

3. Since the program fed to the computer can readily be altered up

until shortly before launch time, plans can be changed to take advantages of

advances in knowledge of Mars and in techniques of information processing at

a relatively late point of time in the ABL development program. Changes in

programs consistent with the capabilities of the equipment can be made after

arrival on Mars.

2

4. Programs for providing meaningful control over operations of the ABL

will require a minimum of 107 to 108

bits of information storage. This may

be divided into 2 x 105 of core and the rest taped unless the full memory

is available in homogeneous form; e.g. thin film.

5. Supporting Technical Research on the design of an adequate computer

for the ABL can proceed on the basis of general design parameters and need not

await detailed determination of experiments to be conducted nor supporting

operations to be carried out.

6. Supporting Technical Research on general purpose computer programs for

achieving artificial intelligence capabilities will, if successful, lead to

expanded capabilities in the Space Program and in Earth-based activities that

are of even greater importance than the "payoff" for the ABL.

Conclusions:

1. The ABL should include a relatively sophisticated stored program

digital computer, to which information from ABL sensors should be fed, and

whose internal operations will thereafter determine which further operations

are to be carried out and what information is transmitted to Earth.

2. When the number of experiments and supporting operations become

sufficiently complex, planning should be directed towards the provision of

common tools and f'acili ties which can be used for a variety of tasks : __ under

central computer control, rather than providing separate tools and facilities

designed for only limited use.

3. Supporting Research and Technology is required in the following areas:

a. Sterilizable, multi-megabit memory computers weighir~ approximately

35 pounds, whose design emphasizes low power drain and de-emphasizes speed.

b. General purpose digital computer programs for controlling external

equipment, recognizing patterns, and achieving artificial intelligence capabil~ties

in general.

4. Supporting research in both computers and programming should commence

as soon as possible.

REPORT OF THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON FLY-BYS AND ORBITERS

At the Newport Beach meeting of March 21 - 26 a subcommittee was

formed to inve stigate the usefulne s s of £1y- by s and orbiter s in 1969 and

1971 for the biological exploration of Mars. The subcommittee consisted

of W. Stroud, G. Mamikunian, C. Campen, D. Easter, and D. Rea, Chair-

man. The following is a report of this subcommittee f s findings. In reading

this it should be understood that the group did not have access to the vast

amount of hard data available, nor did it have the time to adequately investi-

gate all phases of this intricate problem. However the participants were

familiar with many asp'ects of the problem and despite the adverse circmn-

stances were capable of semi-quantative analysis of the problem and of

means of attacking it.· The product should be viewed in this light and no

effort should be made to construe it as being a definitive work.

1. The Prime Goal of 1969 and 1971

This was considered to be the selection of a landing site and

landing' time for automated biological laboratories (A. B. L. f s), and

the provision of engineering design data desirable in implementing

the biological goals.

II. The Rationale behind the Mis sion J i;'-,

::: A. Biological . .I 1 ). \ 1. \QThe detection of micro-environments, local areas where

internal activity has incl:eased the surface temperature

and availability of water. An acceptable re solution for

this problem was considered to be 5 kIn.

2.

- 2 -

A greater understanding of the nature and origin of the dark

areas and the darkening wave. In view of the current impor-

tance attached to the darkening wave it is most important to

obtain further information which might resolve the question

of whether its origin is biological or not. The detection of

evidence s of volcanic activity and of topographical structure

could make significant contributions to an increased under-

standing of this problem. An acceptable resolution was taken

to be 5 kIn but increased resolution would be most desirable.

B. Engineering.

1. The determination of the density structure and composition

of the atmosphere. This is important in designing the con-

figuration of the entry capsule.

2. The determination of surface characteristics important in

de signing the lande r .

a. The surface roughness. The resolution should be 10

.meters or better.

b. The bearing strength of the surface. For this a re solu-,

tion of 5 krn was considered acceptable since the e sti-

mated uncertainty in placing a lander on the surface was

considered to be 500 krn.

lll. Experiments

A. A non- survivable probe.

Such a probe would measure the composition and density struc-

ture and should be flown as the engineering requirements dictate.

If measurements of the surface pressure being .carried out at the

- 3 -

current opposition indicate the pressure is high, e. g. 50.±. 20 mb,

then the probe is probably unnecessary. However if the derived

pressure is low, e. g. 25 + 10 mb, then the probe, is indicated.

B. A sugge sted orbite r payload.

1. Low re solution complement.

This consists of four overlapping maps obtained with a spatial

resolution of 5 km (20 km for the microwave) and would pro-

vide information on micro-environments, the dark areas and

the darkening wave, and the bearing strength of the surface.

a. Broad band visual picture in the red

bits per element

6

b. Surface infrared brightne s s temperature

c. Surface microwave brightness temperature

d. Water vapor abundance

The number of bits per re solved element = 16. 25, for a

map covering the planetary area the num?er of bits is

7 4 x 10 .

2. Medium resolution complement.

6

4

4

This mea surement with a re solution of O. 5 km. would provide

information on the dark areas and nature of the darkening

wave and on the pre sence of