Comments on: Phoenix Relegated to Scraping the Sidewalk

By: Van

Van — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 05:56:40 +0000

Power tools, yea! The spirit of Tool Time is on Mars!

By: Sili

Sili — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:25:16 +0000

I like Sugarrat's suggestion.

Funny to see how many armchair geologists are chiming in now.

By: neoguru

neoguru — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:18:43 +0000

I'd very much like to see an actual analysis showing water ice rather then a crude estimate of the rate of sublimation of chunks of dislodged ice. It's good evidence for water, but is not conclusive without the analytical data. Samples "drying out before they reach the oven" is a little shaky. The percentage H2O in a scraped sample should be a relatively simple analysis. Why haven't we seen it?

By: Z

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:55:35 +0000

Once Phoenix landed successfully the mission has been dissappointing in it's weak system design. With a little soil, sand, water and a freezer, anyone could have discovered flaws with a) shaking/pushing frozen dirt through a window screen (only slightly smaller than the 3mm screen grid on the lander) and b) scraping a block of frozen dirt with no means to pick up the shavings. We have certainly been spoiled with the stellar performance of the rovers, but these problems were at predictable and even to be expected.

By: s0l

s0l — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 10:51:27 +0000

Should have planned a drill to get soil/ice carrots instead of a scoop ; the problem they're encountering was pretty predictable…

Hope they manage to get through this mess…

By: alandee

alandee — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 05:06:34 +0000

Ill prepared ? or were my expectations too high ?

By: SUGARAT

SUGARAT — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:46:38 +0000

Nasa should talk to a retired backhoe operator to get tips on scooping small piles

By: SUGARAT

SUGARAT — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 23:45:17 +0000

How did they prevent soil contamination at the landing site by the descent thrusters?