Posted on 06/07/2008 9:48:41 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Scientists ran into a snag when trying to deliver a sample of Martian arctic soil to one of the instruments on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, mission controllers said on Saturday.
The lander's robotic arm released a handful of clumpy Martian soil onto a screened opening of the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA) on Friday, but the instrument did not confirm that any of the sample passed through the screen.
Images taken on Friday show soil resting on the screen over an open sample-delivery door of TEGA, which is designed to heat up soil samples and analyze the vapors they give off to determine the soil's composition.
The researchers have not yet determined why none of the sample appears to have gotten past the screen, but they have begun proposing possibilities.
"I think it's the cloddiness of the soil and not having enough fine granular material," said Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis, the digging czar for the $420 million Phoenix mission.
The Phoenix lander touched down on the red planet on May 25 to begin a planned three-month mission to hunt for buried water ice in the northern polar region of Mars. It is equipped with a scoop-tipped robotic arm, weather station, wet chemistry lab and eight ovens to study samples of Martian terrain and determine if the region could have once supported primitive life.
TEGA's screen is designed to let through particles up to 0.04 inch (1 millimeter) across while keeping out larger particles, in order to prevent clogging a funnel pathway to a tiny oven inside.
Mission scientists said they planned to send new commands to Phoenix to try to shake the sample into the oven as early as Monday. They'll spend Sunday developing the plan for the following Martian day.
The small vibration tool can shake the oven screen across a variety of frequencies, ranging from a light tapping to moderate shake, mission managers said.
"The soil that we're looking at is probably sandy and it has a lot of fine grains and dust, but it is also a little bit cohesive," Arvidson said. "I'm pretty confident that if we shake this stuff, we'll get some in."
For future samples, they may use the robotic arm to prepare a site by poking and prodding the Martian surface to break up clumps and clods. They may also collect smaller scoops of material to pour directly into the oven.
While this is the first oven they've tried to pour samples into, it is designated Oven 4 of eight. Despite the overflow of soil across the other oven doors, mission managers are confident the extra stuff won't hinder the opening of other instruments.
The TEGA ovens have an opening just 2 mm wide and are designed to collect about 30 milligrams of material for baking.
Phoenix's planned activities for Saturday include horizontally extending a trench, dubbed "Dodo," where the lander dug two practice scoops earlier this week, and taking additional images of a small pile of soil that was scooped up and dropped onto the surface during the second of those practice digs.
"We are hoping to learn more about the soil's physical properties at this site," Arvidson said. "It may be more cohesive than what we have seen at earlier Mars landing sites."
ping
Yeah, like making it to Blockbuster before closing time but forgetting to bring the DVDs you need to return.
Sigh...I wouldn’t be surprised.
Perhaps Mr. Davis knows the answer to that.
spaceflightnow.com
An image beamed back to Earth from the Phoenix Mars lander early Saturday shows the platform’s robotic arm has dumped a load of dirt near the opening of a tiny high-temperature oven, but a sensor inside the instrument did not detect any soil traveling through the narrow portal.
This particular lander has no capability to ‘move’ anywhere.
“Yeah, like making it to Blockbuster before closing time but forgetting to bring the DVDs you need to return.”
Are you serious? They have 7 other test units plus all of the other items they have. This is like sending a complicated scientific experiment 100 millions miles and realizing there is a minor glitch based on information you learned after arrival.
Thanks for clarifying that — soil, it is then.
No, like driving your car across the country by remote control and missing the slot in the return by 1/4" the first time you try. So you'll try again in a while.
Why are you and some of the other folks on here so negative about an amazing feat of technology? I wonder if Michelle Obama was ever proud of NASA.
Did you happen to notice that was a quote from another poster. Thats what the “” meant.
I agree with you as you should know from my posts on this thread.
Sorry. I realized that at the time, but sent it to the wrong person. I guess I was a bit foggy after getting home after a long day of driving.
So it's the soil's fault.
Okie dokie.
It's on pads, not wheels; it can't 'drive' anywhere.
i seems ignorant to me as well for people to criticize this effort as if its driving down to blockbuster.
No, it's not the soil's fault, it's just a fact. It is clear they have a method for dealing with this. The whole point is no one has every seen this soil, so it could range from powder, to sandy, to gravel, to clay, and mixes of these. This stuff happens to clump together, so it isn't as simple as it were loose sand. (If I dug a chunk of my beautiful, black topsoil out and put it on a screen, very little would fall through since it is a bit damp. If I jiggle the screen, it will start to break down and some will come through.) If it had been sandy, it would have gone through the screen. Since it is clumpy, they have a vibration system that will jiggle it around and grind off some find bits that will fall through the screen.
It's kind of like hiring a contractor to give an estimate over the phone for digging out a basement. He can't do that. He has to come find out what is under the surface. Soft dirt? Sand? Clay? Shale? Solid rock? The difference is that he can drill and test it easily. NASA has a slight disadvantage being tens of million of miles away. Why are so many people trying to make them out as stupid guys who never imagined that the soil might be stiff and have no solution to the problem?
Remember the Mars rover that got stuck last year? They unstuck it. Remember those same rovers that were intended for a short mission? They far surpassed that due to superior American engineering. Do they make mistakes? Yes. Do they do things no one else has done? All the time.
We get pissed when the left criticizes our military for every little incident or mistake, but some people want to jump all over NASA before the experiment is even finished. NASA has played an important part in our national defense. They are on our side. Any country in the world would gladly trade their space program with ours just as they would trade their military.
Let's give them a bit of time to complete the process they planned before we jump all over them. Some people here are sounding like Harry Damn Reid. "The surge failed. We've lost the war in Iraq." "Well, the dirt didn't go through the screen on day one. So, the mission is a failure. All is lost." I'm not USMC, but I was in the Army in the early 70s and never left the US. My part was small but it burns me no end when people jump on the military or trash our country or burn our flag. NASA is a tiny piece of that flag, just as each of us is. Until they are taken over by the muzzl'ems, I'm glad they're on my team.
Any vibration tool without a "jackhammer" setting is useless.
If they vibrate the thing, it will wear off enough grains (1 millimeter or less) to go through the screen. They don’t need to pulverize the stuff. If they did, they would have built in a crusher.
Do you really think they didn’t try this thing out on as many different kinds of soil as they could find? Do you think they didn’t consult soil experts to see what they thought?
If it was a private venture ... no problem. But if it was another taxpayer funded boondoggle I can see this almost one billion dollar investment far better spent on something like the Veterans Administration for our wounded troops.
Scooping dirt with a fancy erector set ain't my idea of money well spent ... especially tax payer money.
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