Scientists believe NASA’s Phoenix Mars lander exposed bits of ice while recently digging a trench in the soil of the Martian arctic, the mission’s principal investigator said Thursday. Crumbs of bright material initially photographed in the trench later vanished, meaning they must have been frozen water that vaporized after being exposed, Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson, said in a statement.
“These little clumps completely disappearing over the course of a few days, that is perfect evidence that it’s ice,” Smith said.
June 20th, 2008
Mars lander finds bits of ice, scientists say
June 18th, 2008
Mars team ponders whether lander sees ice or salt
Is the white stuff in the Martian soil ice or salt? That’s the question bedeviling scientists in the three weeks since the Phoenix lander began digging into Mars’ north pole region to study whether the arctic could be habitable.
Shallow trenches excavated by the lander’s backhoe-like robotic arm have turned up specks and at times even stripes of mysterious white material mixed in with the clumpy, reddish dirt.
Phoenix merged two previously dug trenches over the weekend into a single pit measuring a little over a foot long and 3 inches deep. The new trench was excavated at the edge of a polygon-shaped pattern in the ground that may have been formed by the seasonal melting of underground ice.
June 17th, 2008
Phoenix Bakes First Batch Of Martian Soil Aviation Week
The Phoenix Mars lander’s organic chemistry instrument is about half way through its first multi-day/multi-temperature heating cycle in a search for water ice and organics on the Martian surface.
At the same time, the lander’s robotic arm is beginning to dig deeper at one location to the left front of the vehicle, while also reaching further right to start a new trench in more pillow-like material. The pillow-like soil is at the center of a soil polygon at the landing site, while the deepening trench is in a liner depression.
The Alliance Spacesystems (ASI) arm has been working perfectly and is easier to target than the much smaller ASI arms on the rovers Spirit and Opportunity, says Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis, Mo. He is a lead science investigator on both the Phoenix and rover programs.
June 9th, 2008
Martian Soil Sample Clogs Phoenix Probe’s Oven
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.
May 31st, 2008
Pictures boost hopes for Mars ice discovery
Sharp new images received Saturday from the Phoenix lander largely convinced scientists that the spacecraft’s thrusters had uncovered a large patch of ice just below the Martian surface, team members said. That bodes well for the mission’s main goal of digging for ice that can be tested for evidence of organic compounds that are the chemical building blocks of life. Team members said Friday that photos showing the ground beneath the lander suggested that the vehicle was resting on splotches of ice. Washington University scientist Ray Arvidson said the spacecraft’s thrusters may have blown away dirt covering the ice when the robot landed one week ago.
May 28th, 2008
Phoenix Mars Lander’s Robotic Arm Ready To Dig InformationWeek
After successfully marking a series of “firsts” for NASA, the Phoenix Mars Lander suffered radio problems, delaying the start of its main task: digging into frozen soil. NASA said the radio problems were short-lived and the UHF radio system has been restored.
May 28th, 2008
NASA restores radio contact with Phoenix Mars lander
NASA has cleared up a malfunction that for several hours caused a rupture in communications between Phoenix Mars Lander, the US space agency said Wednesday. NASA said a “transient event” had knocked out UHF radio transmissions between Phoenix and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which relays data and instructions between the Phoenix and Earth.
May 27th, 2008
Phoenix Mars Lander Spotted from Space
A spacecraft orbiting Mars has photographed the Phoenix Mars Lander on the surface of the red planet, NASA scientists announced today. Mission controllers also said the mission seems to have hit its first snag as the radio on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which communicates with Phoenix, has shut itself off due to an unknown problem. Despite this setback, Phoenix seems to be doing just fine.
May 26th, 2008
Camera On Mars Orbiter Snaps Phoenix During Landing ScienceDaily
A telescopic camera in orbit around Mars caught a view of NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander suspended from its parachute during the lander’s successful arrival at Mars Sunday evening, May 25. The image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter marks the first time ever one spacecraft has photographed another one in the act of landing on Mars.
May 25th, 2008
Touchdown! Phoenix Spacecraft Lands on Mars
NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander has apparently survived the fiery plunge through the Martian atmosphere and landed on the red planet’s arctic plains, with mission scientists eagerly awaiting word on the health of the spacecraft. “Phoenix has landed! Phoenix has landed!” shouted a NASA commentator. “Welcome to the northern plains of Mars!”