Another Day in the Diary of the Phoenix
“We’re doing the first interactions between the robotic arm and the surface,” said Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona. “This is getting really interesting, this is what the mission’s all about.”
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On Sunday, mission scientists had some problems in the Phoenix’s “dig and dump” attempt after it landed, with the scientists deciding another dump is to be done for practice, using the robotic arm. After practice, the Phoenix team is now comfortable enough to move the lander’s 7.7 feet arm by sending instructions to the Phoenix instructions for the sample collection.
A Mars mission that is priced at $420 million dollars, the Phoenix’s entire purpose is to dig down into the Martian soil to find ice under the surface to see if habitable Martian life areas are present. The first instrument to be used will be TEGA, Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer. “The TEGA instrument has got its doors open, ready to receive a sample,” Smith said. He added that one of the doors remained only partially open, as it was on Tuesday, but that this shouldn’t affect the ability of the team to deliver a sample into the opening.
The soil samples will be scooped from three sites to the right of the original dug site, dubbed Baby Bear, Mama Bear, and Papa Bear. Once the mission scientists make sure the Phoenix gets a sample, instructions will be sent to deliver the dirt samples to the TEBA process. The Phoenix’s microscopes have analyzed some of the Martian soil that was blown up by the landing thrusters when the Phoenix hit the Martian soil, with results arriving in a day or so.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 4th, 2008 at 6:42 pm and is filed under Space Agency News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
