Phoenix Finds No Water on Mars Surface… So Far
Written by Ian O'Neill
The results are now in from the first sample of Mars regolith to be baked in Phoenix's oven. It's not good news… there's no water. After a difficult time of actually delivering the sample to the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA) - a.k.a. the "oven" - scientists were hopeful for a clear science run. They were finally able to sift the clumpy regolith through the TEGA screen last week. However, the sample was waiting on the deck of Phoenix for some time until tests could be carried out on the sample; it seems probable that any water ice will have sublimed into the thin atmosphere. This first null result by no means suggests the area is devoid of water, Phoenix has many more water-finding tricks up its sleeves yet…
On June 11th, Phoenix mission control breathed a sigh of relief as they found a solution to the problem of getting the clumpy Mars regolith through the oven screen. Over the weekend they were able to carry out the first tests on the sample and it appears that everything functioned as it should when the sample was heated to 35°C (95°F). At this temperature any water in the sample will have melted. In the second phase of the test, the sample was heated up to 175°C (350°F). No water vapour was detected.
"We saw no water coming off the soil whatsoever" - William Boynton, TEGA team leader, University of Arizona.
Scientists are in no way surprised or discouraged about this early result. The regolith sample sat atop the lander's TEGA hatch for several days whilst scientists tried to find an answer as to why no particles had fallen into the oven. It is believed that any water ice in the sample will have quickly vaporized in the Martian sunlight and thin atmosphere. As the atmospheric pressure is so low on Mars, exposed water ice cannot melt into liquid water, it will sublime straight to water vapour (by-passing the liquid phase).
Over the coming days, scientists will instruct Phoenix to fire up the TEGA again to heat the sample to 1000°C (1800°F). This will vaporize minerals that might be chemically bound to H2O, CO2 or SO2 and then use instrumentation to measure the vented gases. Scientists are very confident that, although water has not been directly detected today, they will detect evidence of its existence in the next round of tests.
Whilst the drama unfolds in the lander's oven, Phoenix continues its excavation work on the surface with its robotic arm. It has just expanded a trench (a 3D visualization can be seen at the top of this post) by linking the two trenches "Dodo" and "BabyBear" into a new united "Dodo-Goldilocks" trench. This is the location where scientists noticed white sediment last Friday, so they will be keen to learn whether this is water or salt.
Source: Space.com
Filed under: Mars
June 23rd, 2008 at 7:16 am
Sir, I am truly amazed that a site I thought to be dedicated to the serious discussion about astronomy and space exploration allows contributions from crack-pot conspiracy theorist. There are plenty of groups on the net for them to indulge themselves and their lunatic ideas and not to bother us. They take up space and time [no pun intended] and I'm sick of having to wade through the utterly pointless postings. No one truly thought that NASA would find evidence of life in the first trench dug so give them time. Sure a moblie lab would have been great but we're still in the very early days of exploration.
Paul.
June 24th, 2008 at 1:01 am
With reference to the last post from Paul Eaton Jones.
Well said sir.
A pity that I had to wade through pages of rubbish to find your sensible post. Had I not had the patience, I could have ended up thinking this otherwise excellent site was just another sounding board for 'crack pot conspiracy theorists' and given up reading it.
June 25th, 2008 at 5:04 am
if it is any reassurance to these 'crackpot conspiracy theorists' i would have to remind them of the fact that mars is indeed a red planet which im sure most of us would agree on, with red dirt, and let us not let forget that it does indeed have its own weather systems which include light winds which cover most of the planet due to mars having an atmosphere however thin it may be, but regardless we can agree on the fact that red dirt will be more than likely picked up by this wind and cover all visible aspects of the phoenix lander. as well as carrying this dirt all over the planet and indeed into the atmosphere itself creating invisible 'computer renditions'.
It is not some dead atmosphereless weatherless rock of a planet like the moon, so is it not possible that the reason this craft seems so covered in dirt is simply because of that or that a possibility is that it was kicked up into the air from the landing thrusters and settled slowly over time due to mars lower gravity?
all the things that these debunkers have tried to blame as computer rendered images on NASA's part can be explained away by simple planetary phenomenon.
sure i would have to agree on the fact that there are things NASA does not want us to know, its like that with all big businesses but NASA'S all about space exploration and i cant see them staging a massive multimillion dollar hoax saying they went to mars when they didn't, when they could have actually spent the same amount of money going there in the first place.
the next thing we'll hear is that the space shuttles NASA have in their hangers don't really work and its all a public stunt with pre recorded news crews and that NASA have indeed sent probes to cydonia and found that the structures they found were indeed million year old pyramids but no we can't let the fact that intelligent life other than humans exists in the universe leak into the general public, lets keep them in blissful ignorance….
June 28th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
THANK GOD NO WATER ON MARS WE WILL HAVE TO CARRY THE DRINKING WATER WITH US TO MARS AT LEAST IT HAS AN ATOMOSHPHERE NOT DEAD LIKE THE MOON TERRAFORMING MARS WILL REQUIRE SOME VERY CREATIVE TECHNOLOGY IF THE DEMOCRATS WOUD
SPEND SOME OF THEIR CAMPAIGN MONEY
ON MARS RESEARCH AND OIL DRILLING WE MIGHT GET HUMANS THERE BEFORE
2050