NASA's Phoenix Retesting Release of Martian Soil
When the lander collected and released its first scoopful of soil on Sunday, some of the sample stuck to the scoop. The team told Phoenix this morning to lift another surface sample and release it, with more extensive imaging of the steps in the process.
“We are proceeding cautiously,” said Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith of The University of Arizona. “Before we begin delivering samples to the instruments on the deck, we want a good understanding of how the soil behaves.”
An image of one of the analytical instruments received Monday night underscored the need for precise release of samples. It shows the two spring-loaded doors on one of the tiny ovens of the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer after a command for them to open in preparation for receiving the instrument's first soil sample. One opened fully, the other partially. Phoenix engineers said the opening is wide enough to receive a sample, and that it might still open further with daily temperature changes.
The Phoenix Mission is led by The University of Arizona, on behalf of NASA.
Project management of the mission is by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development is by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.
For more information about Phoenix, visit http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu and http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Sara Hammond, UA (520-626-1974; shammond@lpl.arizona.edu) Guy Webster, JPL (818-354-5011; guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov) Dwayne Brown, NASA Headquarters (202-358-1726; dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov)
Media Contact
More Information:
http://www.arizona.eduAll latest news from the category: Physics and Astronomy
This area deals with the fundamental laws and building blocks of nature and how they interact, the properties and the behavior of matter, and research into space and time and their structures.
innovations-report provides in-depth reports and articles on subjects such as astrophysics, laser technologies, nuclear, quantum, particle and solid-state physics, nanotechnologies, planetary research and findings (Mars, Venus) and developments related to the Hubble Telescope.
Newest articles
Lighting up the future
New multidisciplinary research from the University of St Andrews could lead to more efficient televisions, computer screens and lighting. Researchers at the Organic Semiconductor Centre in the School of Physics and…
Researchers crack sugarcane’s complex genetic code
Sweet success: Scientists created a highly accurate reference genome for one of the most important modern crops and found a rare example of how genes confer disease resistance in plants….
Evolution of the most powerful ocean current on Earth
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current plays an important part in global overturning circulation, the exchange of heat and CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere, and the stability of Antarctica’s ice sheets….