Comments on: Phoenix Sprinkles Successfully

By: zeb

zeb — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:40:51 +0000

Hee hee…Phoenix soiled itself…

By: neoguru

neoguru — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:14:58 +0000

The ovens are NOT reusable. We get 8 chances.

By: davey

davey — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:30:16 +0000

I was asking the same thing to myself. In addition, what is NASA's solution to dust collecting on the solar panels over time? It seems to me that some simple wiper blades of some kind could extend the mission life dramatically.

By: Astrofiend

Astrofiend — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:18:26 +0000

"# trux Says:
June 11th, 2008 at 1:50 pm

Does anyone of you know if the spectrometer ovens are reusable? Can they be emptied, cleaned up, and used for another sample? From what I hear it looks like it is not the case, and that they have only eight attempts (one for each of the eight cells) to analyze samples. Well, now only seven, but hopefully at least the second sample gets baken and analyzed)."

I was wondering that too, and I think that you are probably correct – the ovens are once only and they have 8 shots. If that is the case, I guess the case can be made that a) the mission is nominally going for not much over 90 days so there's no point in including capability for much more than 8 'bakes', and b) the robotic arm can reach to a limited radius only, so if they choose their samples carefully with solid scientific justification then 8 samples should be able to provide fairly good coverage.

Having said that, if it is the case that they are 'use once', then they seriously stuffed up by not attempting a 'sprinkling' of the sample before just dumping it on the first oven port and hoping all went well…

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:36:02 +0000

Don't get me wrong – I think the people who put Phoenix on Mars are doing a great job. But it seems kind of sloppy to be sprinkling dirt all over the lander, sensitive equipment and possibly the solar panels. Wasn't there a better place to practice sprinkling samples? Like on the landing feet, maybe?

By: trux

trux — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:50:00 +0000

By: Gary

Gary — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:27:32 +0000

Every time I read something like this its like having to learn to tie your shoes again. Everything becomes so much more difficult remotely controlling something millions of miles away, and having to think about the consequences of each action before you do it.

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:56:22 +0000

Maids on MARS!!!

By: Al Hall

Al Hall — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:47:32 +0000

I want to see it sprinkle water ice..

By: Jozef K

Jozef K — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:05:11 +0000

Please tell me those cables are tied together with duct tape.

By: Jorge

Jorge — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:41:40 +0000

One question: By what method do they clean up the extra stuff that gets piled up on top of the deck and the instrument hatches? Surely there must be some way?…