NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander Uses Soil Probe And Swiss Scope

MARSDAILY

This images from the Robotic Arm Camera on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander records the first time that the four spikes of the lander's thermal and electrical conductivity probe were inserted into Martian soil. The image were taken on July 8, 2008, during the Phoenix mission's 43rd Martian day, or sol, since landing. The insertion visible from the shadows cast on the ground on that sol was a validation test of the procedure. The spikes on the probe are about 1.5 centimeters or half an inch long. The science team will use the probe tool to assess how easily heat and electricity move through the soil from one spike to another. Such measurements can provide information about frozen or unfrozen water in the soil. The probe is mounted on the "knuckle" of Phoenix's Robotic Arm. It has already been used for assessing water vapor in the atmosphere when it is held above the ground. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Max Planck Institute

by Staff Writers
Pasadena CA (SPX) Jul 11, 2008
NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has touched Martian soil with a fork-like probe for the first time and begun using a microscope that examines shapes of tiny particles by touching them.

Phoenix's robotic arm pushed the fork-like probe's four spikes into undisturbed soil Tuesday as a validation test of the insertion procedure. The prongs of this thermal and electrical conductivity probe are about 1.5 centimeters, or half an inch, long.

The science team will use the probe tool to assess how easily heat and electricity move through the soil from one spike to another. Such measurements can provide information about frozen or unfrozen water in the soil.

The probe sits on a "knuckle" of the 2.35-meter-long (7.7-foot-long) robotic arm. Held up in the air, it has provided assessments of water vapor in the atmosphere several times since Phoenix's May 25 landing on far-northern Mars.

Researchers anticipate getting the probe's first soil measurements following a second placement into the ground, planned as part of today's Phoenix activities on Mars.

Phoenix also has returned the first image from its atomic force microscope. This Swiss-made microscope builds an image of the surface of a particle by sensing it with a sharp tip at the end of a spring, all microfabricated from a sliver of silicon.

The sensor rides up and down following the contour of the surface, providing information about the target's shape.

"The same day we first touched a target with the thermal and electrical conductivity probe, we first touched another target with a needle about three orders of magnitude smaller -- one of the tips of our atomic force microscope," said Michael Hecht of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., lead scientist for the suite of instruments on Phoenix that includes both the conductivity probe and the microscopy station.

The atomic force microscope can provide details of soil-particle shapes as small as about 100 nanometers, less than one-hundredth the width of a human hair. This is about 20 times smaller than what can be resolved with Phoenix's optical microscope, which has provided much higher-magnification imaging than anything seen on Mars previously.

The first touch of an atomic force microscope tip to a substrate on the microscopy station's sample-presentation wheel served as a validation test. The substrate will be used to hold soil particles in place for inspection by the microscope.

The microscope's first imaging began Wednesday and produced a calibration image of a grooved substrate. "It's just amazing when you think that the entire area in this image fits on an eyelash. I'm looking forward to exciting things to come," Hecht said.

With these developments in the past two days, the spacecraft has put to use all the capabilities of its Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer, or MECA, suite of instruments. Researchers have begun analyzing data this week from the second sample of soil tested by MECA's wet chemistry laboratory.

Meanwhile, the Phoenix team is checking for the best method to gather a sample of Martian ice to analyze using the lander's Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, which heats samples and identifies vapors from them.

Researchers are using Phoenix's robotic arm to clear off a patch of hard material uncovered in a shallow trench informally called "Snow White." They plan in coming days to begin using a motorized rasp on the back of the arm's scoop to loosen bits of the hard material, which is expected to be rich in frozen water.

The atomic force microscope for Phoenix was provided by a consortium led by the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland.

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS
Solar Energy Solutions
Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ...

Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News

MARSDAILY

Phoenix Mars Lander Continues Sample-Collection Tests

Tucson, AZ (SPX) Jul 09, 2008
NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander's science and engineering teams are testing methods to get an icy sample into the Robotic Arm scoop for delivery to the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA). Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis, Phoenix's "dig czar," said the hard Martian surface that Phoenix has reached proved to be a difficult target, comparing the process to scraping a sidewalk.

CIVIL NUCLEAR UN chief renews appeal to Iran to halt uranium enrichment Water ban upheld after French nuclear leak US welcomes India's decision to move ahead with nuke deal French authorities keep water ban after nuclear leak	CLIMATE SCIENCE Global Temperature Report: June 2008 World ports tackle greenhouse gas emissions 'Serious omission' in G8 summit climate pledge: IPCC chief G8 leaders agree on halving emissions by 2050
FARM NEWS China to urgently boost GM crop development Indian state facing famine after rat plague: report CO2 Increase In The Atmosphere Augments Tolerance Of Barley To Salinity Rich nations pledge action on food, oil, but deadlock on climate	FLORA AND FAUNA Flatfish Fossils Fill In Evolutionary Missing Link US DoE Joint Genome Institute Announces New Genome Sequencing Projects Canada rejects Brussels ban on its seal skins Big Brains Arose Twice In Higher Primates
ROCKET SCIENCE NASA Plans To Test Space Shuttle Replacement In Spring 2009 ATK Receives Contract For US Air Force Sounding Rocket Contract SpaceX Conducts Static Test Firing Of Next Falcon 1 Rocket Pratt And Whitney Rocketdyne Contract Option For Solar Thermal Propulsion Rocket Engine	NUCLEAR SPACE Nuclear Power In Space - Part 2 Outside View: Nuclear future in space Nuclear Power In Space
EARTH OBSERVATION India And France Joint Working Group Meet To Discuss Space NASA Mission To Be Crystal Ball Into Future Of Oceans And Past Seas Raytheon Submits Proposal For NOAA Environmental Satellite Ground Segment ESA Satellite Assesses Damage Of Norway's Largest Fire	TECH SPACE Thales Alenia Space To Deliver Very-High-Resolution Optical Imaging Instrument To Astrium Swerve Left To Avoid That Satellite Google lets people create custom virtual realms Thales Alenia Space To Cooperate With IAI In The Amos-4 Satellite

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright Space.TV Corporation. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space.TV Corp on any Web page published or hosted by Space.TV Corp. Privacy Statement