Latest Phoenix Images: Ice or Salt?

The Phoenix lander team revealed the latest images from the mission at a press briefing on Friday. This first image shows an area dug by Phoenix’s scoop, which disclosed a bright surface just a few inches down, which may be ice. “There’s still some debate about the bright material,” said Phoenix Principle Investigator Peter Smith. “Not everyone is sure that this is ice. So there’s been some debate on our team, centering around that perhaps there’s a salt layer just under the soil that also would be bright. Everyone does believe there’s ice under the surface, and whether this is ice or not is the question. The other question is, is this thick ice that goes down deep beneath the surface, or is this a thin layer and we’ll be able to scrape through? So being able to scrape with our scoop is a high priority for us.”


This pair of images taken by the Optical Microscope on NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander offers a side-by-side comparison of an airfall dust sample collected on a substrate exposed during landing (left) and a soil sample scooped up from the surface of the ground beside the lander. In both cases the sample is collected on a silicone substrate, which provides a sticky surface holding sample particles for observation by the microscope.

Similar fine particles at the resolution limit of the microscope are seen in both samples, indicating that the soil has formed from settling of dust.

The microscope took the image on the left during Phoenix’s Sol 9 (June 3, 2008), or the ninth Martian day after landing. It took the image on the right during Sol 17 (June 11, 2008).

The scale bar is 1 millimeter (0.04 inch).


This is the latest color image of Phoenix, its surroundings and the scoop with soil.


While we can’t look inside the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA) oven which will “bake” the Martian soil to test the type of gases that are released, we can see that some of the soil has gone into TEGA. “We were finally successful and some of the material has slid down over the screen” said Smith, “sort of like material going over a cheese grater, and some of the material has slid down and filled the oven. We sent the commands for the first operation of TEGA last night, but we don’t have our data back yet, so we can’t report on any results. That will be coming later next week. So this is a very exciting time for us. We find the soil is very clumpy, it’s sticky, it’s an unusual soil not at all like the types of soils we used in our tests, which worked just fine with all the instruments. So we’ve developed another method of collecting samples, which is to tilt the scoop and vibrate it, and so it shakes down a small amount of material onto the instruments.”


And finally, here’s the latest weather report for Mars, on the 17th sol of Phoenix’s stay on Mars.

Sources: Phoenix News, NASA TV

“Shake, Shake, Shake” Gets Soil into Phoenix TEGA

When Bill Boynton announced at a Phoenix lander team meeting earlier today that the troublesome, clumpy Martian soil now sits, finally, within the TEGA “oven” on Phoenix, the room erupted with cheers and a standing ovation. Boynton then launched a rendition of “Shake, Shake, Shake” he had cued-up on his laptop, and started dancing. If that mental image doesn’t make it clear, getting the soil into TEGA is big, and the entire Phoenix team is excited about the accomplishment. Boynton, who leads the investigations with the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer instrument, and his team have been trying various methods for several days to get the stubborn soil through a screen and into TEGA. The instrument will heat the soil and analyze the gases released to check for water vapor and other chemicals in the soil.

Commands to vibrate the screen were sent to Phoenix for three separate days. Boynton said that the oven might have filled because of the cumulative effects of all the vibrating, or because of changes in the soil’s cohesiveness as it sat for days on the top of the screen.

“There’s something very unusual about this soil, from a place on Mars we’ve never been before,” said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith. “We’re interested in learning what sort of chemical and mineral activity has caused the particles to clump and stick together.”

Between the shaking and the other new technique developed with the robotic arm called “sprinkling,” Smith hopes they won’t encounter future problems with getting the soil where they want it to go. “Delivering the soil is something we’re getting better at everyday,” he added.

Tomorrow, Thursday June 12, commands will be sent for the TEGA to heat the soil. Initial results may be available on Friday.

“We’ll do a low temperature bake that will tell us how much ice is in the soil,” said Boynton. ” We really don’t expect there to be much ice in the soil since it has been sitting out in the sun and vibrated through the screen. It does look like the soil has changed.”

TEGA has eight ovens to “bake” soil samples. Once an oven is used, it can’t be emptied and used again, so Phoenix has just eight chances to analyze the soil.

While there’s been some debate about the characteristics of Martian arctic soil, Smith said most researchers on the Phoenix team believe it’s a matter of when and not if Phoenix will definitely prove there is water ice region the lander sits on. “There are very few people who don’t believe there’s ice under the soil,” he said. “There also could be a crusty layer of salt on top because of evaporation.”

“We all have a lot of confidence we’ll get down to the ice,” Boynton added. “We may have exposed some in the act of landing. The MECA instrument will help the debate on salt. In a week or two we hope to get enough data to address these speculations.”

MECA is the Microscopy, Electrochemistry, and Conductivity Analyzer, which contains four single wet chemistry labs that will dissolve small amounts of soil in water, to determine the pH and what minerals are in the soil. Those tests will be done later in the mission.

Plans for today’s activities for Phoenix include sprinkling Martian soil on the delivery port for the spacecraft’s Optical Microscope and taking additional photos for a high-resolution color panorama of the lander’s surroundings.

Original News Sources: Phoenix press conference, Phoenix press release

Podcast: Missions to Mars, Part 1



With last month’s safe arrival of the Phoenix Mars Lander, Mars enthusiasts breathed a collective sigh of relief… phew. Now it’s time to search for evidence of organic molecules in the ice at Mars’ north pole. But this is just the latest in a long series of missions sent to the Red Planet. Let’s have a history lesson, and look back at the missions sent to Mars, successful and unsuccessful.

Click here to download the episode

Missions to Mars, Part 1 – Show notes and transcript

Or subscribe to: astronomycast.com/podcast.xml with your podcatching software.

Phoenix Will Try New “Sprinkle” Technique

Phoenix “vibrates” to move soil through a screen.

New motto for the Phoenix spacecraft: If at first you don’t succeed, then dust yourself off and try again. Since the Martian soil is proving to be a challenge for the Mars lander, engineers will try a new technique to try delivering the frozen arctic soil into the TEGA, or the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Anaylzer, designed to bake and sniff samples to identify key ingredients in the soil. The soil is clumping together, and won’t pass through a screen that brings it to the ovens on board the spacecraft. Engineers operating the Robotic Arm on Phoenix Lander are testing a revised method they are calling the sprinkle technique.

“We’re a little surprised at how much this material is clumping together when we dig into it,” said Doug Ming a Phoenix science team member from NASA’s Johnson Space Center, Houston.

Engineers commanded the spacecraft to vibrate the screen for 20 minutes on Sunday but detected only a few particles getting through the screen, not enough to fill the tiny oven below.

“We are going to try vibrating it one more time, and if that doesn’t work, it is likely we will use our new, revised delivery method on another thermal analyzer cell,” said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the instrument.

The arm delivered the first sample to TEGA on Friday by turning the scoop over to release its contents. The revised delivery method, which Phoenix is testing for the first time today, will hold the scoop at an angle above the delivery target and sprinkle out a small amount of the sample by vibrating the scoop. The vibration comes from running a motorized rasp on the bottom of the scoop.

Phoenix used the arm Sunday to collect a soil sample for the spacecraft’s Optical Microscope, so look for images of that procedure soon. Today’s plans include a practice of the sprinkle technique, using a small amount of soil from the sample collected Sunday. If that goes well, the Phoenix team assembled at the University of Arizona plans to sprinkle material from the same scoopful onto the microscope later this week.

The Phoenix team also discussed this picture, showing a spring on the ground near a footpad of the spacecraft. It came from Phoenix itself, when the biobarrier was opened to free the robotic arm back on May 30, the sixth Martian day of the mission.

Phoenix News

Temperature of Mars

Temperature of Mars
What is the Temperature of Mars? Image credit: NASA/JPL

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Mars is farther from the Sun than the Earth, so, as you would expect, the temperature of Mars is colder. For the most part it is very cold on Mars. The only exception is during the summer days close to or at the equator. Even at the equator, the night time temperatures fall well below zero. On those summer days, it can be around 20 degrees Celsius then plummet to -90 C at night.

Mars follows a highly elliptical orbit, so temperatures vary quite a bit as the planet travels around the Sun. Since Mars has an axial tilt similar to Earth’s(25.19 for Mars and 26.27 for Earth), the planet has seasons as well. Add to that a thin atmosphere and you can see why the planet is unable to retain heat. The Martian atmosphere is over 96% carbon dioxide. If the planet had an atmosphere to retain heat, the carbon dioxide would cause a greenhouse effect that would heat Mars to jungle like temperatures.

Scientist know the current temperature of Mars, but what about the past. Rovers and orbiters have returned images that indicate erosion patterns that can only be caused by liquid water. That would seem to indicate that Mars was once much warmer and wetter. Here on Earth, those features would have been covered in soil after a few million years. So, was Mars warmer just a few million years ago? No, Mars has been a frigid planet for at least 3 billion years and some scientist believe it has been frozen for 4 billion years. The erosion features have not disappeared because there is no current liquid water or plate tectonics to change the landscape. What wind there is, does not seem strong enough to further erode the surface.

Tracking the presence of warmer weather and liquid water on Mars is important for a few reasons. One is that liquid water is essential for the evolution of life as we know it. Some scientists still hold out hope that there is microbial life deep beneath the surface where it is warmer and water may exist. Secondly, if humans are to ever explore the planet, they would need a water source. A human mission would take nearly two years to complete and storage space would be limited. Water ice may be melted upon arrival then purified, but finding a supply of liquid water would be even more expedient.

The temperature of Mars is a minor obstacle to early human exploration, while water is more pressing. Current spacesuits would survive the surface temperatures. Now, all we have to do is find a way to get there and back without having to spend two years in a cramped modern spacecraft.

Here’s news that Mars has probably been cold for billions of years, and more information about Mars, and just how cold it gets.

Here’s an overview of temperatures on Mars. Mars News has more info on Mars.

Finally, if you’d like to learn more about Mars in general, we have done several podcast episodes about the Red Planet at Astronomy Cast. Episode 52: Mars, and Episode 91: The Search for Water on Mars.

Sources:
http://www-k12.atmos.washington.edu/k12/resources/mars_data-information/temperature_overview.html
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1160.html
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Mars&Display=Facts

Phoenix Suffers Unknown Problem with Sample Analysis Oven

Mars dirt doesn't make it to the oven for testing (NASA/UA)

The first sample for scientific analysis dug from the surface of the Mars has failed to make it to the onboard oven used to test for organic compounds and water. Mission scientists have been overviewing a picture taken by the lander after Phoenix’s 8-foot long robotic arm dropped the sample on-target, but a sensor inside the chamber has reported seeing nothing falling into the oven. The regolith sample can be clearly seen scattered over the oven doors (pictured), and the vibration plate appears to be functioning. Mission control is currently trying to understand what went wrong, so sample analysis has been postponed, possibly for a few days…

Everything was looking fine as the robotic arm reached out and dug into the Martian top layer of regolith on Sol 11 (June 5th) of the Phoenix Mars Mission. The Martian dirt was excavated from a little patch known as “Baby Bear” and then lifted above the open doors of the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA – a hi-tech oven used to bake the samples and analyze the gases emitted). The robotic arm then released the sample on to the vibrator above the open TEGA hatch. The vibrating plate, used to shake the sample into the oven chamber, was registered as working as it should. It all seemed fine, even the picture taken of the dropped regolith on the top deck of Phoenix fell in the right place. Unfortunately, the electronic “eye” inside the chamber did not detect any falling grains of dirt.

University of Arizona mission scientists are understandably concerned about this complication. “We think everything is working correctly, although we don’t really know for sure,” William Boynton, UA Tucson researcher who is overlooking the oven experiments, said in a news briefing today (Saturday). “We’re a little bit concerned about this but we have some other things to check out.

If the regolith was dropped in the right place, and the vibrating plate appears to be working as it should, why have no particles been registered as entering the open chamber? The problem could lie in the screen at the top of the TEGA. The screen will only allow small particles into the chamber for analysis. If the regolith is too compacted, or is composed of larger-than-expected particles, none may be able to enter the oven. On the other hand, the instrument readings from the vibrator are in fact wrong, meaning it is not working and particles are not being fed into the chamber.

But do not be alarmed. If the oven is broken, Phoenix has come prepared. This oven is one of eight on board, so whilst scientists try to understand the problem, at least they know they have another seven ovens to take over the mission’s primary objectives. In the mean time, mission control will send commands to the lander to analyse the area it excavated with its robotic arm and cameras.

Source: Associated Press

Closest Images Ever of Mars Dust Grains

“To see a world in a grain of sand…” – English Poet William Blake

The Phoenix science team tested out the lander’s Optical Microscope by imaging grains of sand and dust particles, some as small as one-tenth the diameter of a human hair. These are the highest resolution image ever of small soil particles from another planet. “We have images showing the diversity of mineralogy on Mars at a scale that is unprecedented in planetary exploration,” said Michael Hecht of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The microscope observed particles that had fallen onto an exposed surface of the lander. “It’s a first quick look,” Hecht said. “This experiment was partly an insurance policy for something to observe with the microscope before getting a soil sample delivered by the arm, and partly a characterization of the Optical Microscope. All the tools are working well.”

However, some of the particles may be “alien” – that is, they might have come from inside the spacecraft when Phoenix dropped to Mars surface at landing. But at first glance, many of these grains match expectations for Martian particles. “We will be using future observations of soil samples delivered by the Robotic Arm to confirm whether the types of particles in this dustfall sample are also seen in samples we can be certain are Martian in origin,” Hecht said.

The particles show a range of shapes and colors.

“You can see the amount of variety there is in what appears otherwise to be just reddish brown soil,” said Tom Pike, Phoenix science team member from Imperial College London. He noted that one translucent particle resembles a grain of salt, but that it is too early to say for sure.

Meanwhile, Phoenix received commands Thursday to collect its first soil sample to be delivered to its science lab instrument on the lander deck. Those commands were originally sent on Wednesday, but the lander didn’t receive them as the relay for the commands, the Mars Odyssey, had gone into safe mode. The orbiter may have been hit by a cosmic ray, and engineers from JPL say nominal operations of the spacecraft should return by the end of the week. This type of event has occurred a couple of times in the Odyssey mission, and engineers don’t appear overly concerned about the situation.

So, the commands were successfully re-sent via the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Look for the first science results from Phoenix within the next day or so.

Original News Source: Phoenix news release

Odyssey Possibly Hit by High-Energy Particles; Phoenix Science Run About to Begin

A successful scoop of Martian regolith (NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Max Planck Institute)

NASA’s Mars Odyssey has been switched into “safe-mode” after possibly being hit by energetic particles from the Sun, or by cosmic rays. Acting as one of two relay satellites between Earth and Phoenix, this has hindered commands to be sent to the lander, thereby slowing its progress. Phoenix is just about to start scence digging operations on the surface (Martian regolith is shown in the Phoenix test-run scoop of material, pictured). It seems likely that Odyssey will remain in the protective safe-mode until the weekend whilst operators try to understand what caused the problem. For the time being, the second relay satellite NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) will try to take up the slack and keep the lander in contact with mission control…

This is the second communications error in the otherwise flawless Phoenix Mars mission. The first occurred two days after touch down when the MRO switched its UHF radio into standby mode. Yesterday’s (Wednesday’s) error with another Mars-orbiting satellite, Odyssey, probably won’t be repaired until Saturday. Mission engineers believe the error may have occurred when energetic space particles interrupted Odyssey’s onboard memory. As a safety precaution, the onboard hardware was switched into a low-energy state to protect it from any damage. This event doesn’t seem to be serious, but it does slow down the progress of Phoenix which is currently excavating Mars material from the surface of the red planet, trying to understand the composition of permafrost layers.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has stepped in for Odyssey (NASA)

Although frustrating, this setback will not cause too many problems to Phoenix, daily commands can still be sent to the MRO and relayed to Phoenix and the first delayed science excavation run is scheduled for today. Test runs over the past few days have revealed a white substance in the fist-sized samples of regolith, so scientists are very excited to “bake” the permafrost material to see if water ice or salt deposits are present. After the preliminary tests, mission scientists believe that Phoenix’s 8-foot robotic arm is up to the task and appears to be functioning excellently.

The following steps will be carried out in the first science run scheduled to start today:

  1. Right of the test-dig area, scientists have identified three “science rich” zones. Phoenix will dig into areas known playfully as “Baby Bear”, “Mama Bear” and “Papa Bear”, after the “Goldilocks” fairy tale. Presumably they are looking for a dig that will be “just right”.
  2. The first dig will cut 3/10 of an inch into the permafrost at the location of “Baby Bear”, and scoop up the material.
  3. With the material safely in the scoop, Phoenix will swing its arm 90 degrees towards the onboard miniature oven. It will then wait for further commands.
  4. Assuming the MRO delivers the commands from mission control, Phoenix will be instructed to drop the sample into the oven so it can be baked. Instruments will be used to look deep into the vapour given off to look for signs of carbon or hydrogen-containing organic compounds. It is at this point that the lander will evaluate the samples to see whether there is in fact current water ice on the surface.

Over the next few days samples from all the Goldilocks sites will be analysed. These are exciting times, let’s hope there are no further communications problems…

Source: Associated Press (printed at Physorg.com)

Podcast: The Search for Water on Mars

With the successful touchdown of the Phoenix Lander, NASA is continuing its quest to find evidence of past and present water on Mars. This week we discuss the geologic history of Mars, and explain why NASA thinks the story of water on Mars is so important. And how this ties into the search for life on the Red Planet.

Click here to download the episode

The Search for Water on Mars – Show notes and transcript

Or subscribe to: astronomycast.com/podcast.xml with your podcatching software.

Mars Settlement Pioneers Will Face Huge Psychological Challenges

Artist impression of an astronaut on Mars (NASA)

Imagine you are on the crew of a Mars mission and you fall out with a fellow crew member. You can’t walk away from them. Imagine you are on the surface of Mars and you suffer terrible home sickness. You can’t simply fly back to your family. Imagine there is a medical emergency in your team en-route to the Red Planet. You can’t call emergency services, you’re on your own. These issues with long-period missions into space, especially on future missions to colonize Mars, could cause serious psychological issues and may jeopardise the mission. Many groups are currently working on understanding how humans could react in these situations when they are isolated and confined so far away from home, and “Mars Analogues” based here on Earth are proving to be very useful…

It may seem obvious that it is going to be mentally (let alone physically) tough for future astronauts on the first manned missions to Mars, but space organizations (like NASA and ESA) and voluntary groups such as the Mars Society are gaining a valuable insight to how we function when restricted to very confined spaces with only a handful of people for company. Mars settlement mock-ups known as “Mars analogue environments” based in locations like the Utah Desert or the Arctic island of Spitsbergen are extremely valuable to mission planners when researching how to live and work on the Martian surface. However, they are also proving to be very influential when selecting crew members who will spend all of their time together. This psychological factor may be key to the future of Mars missions that could last years.

Plans are afoot for a long 520-day mock Mars mission this year to study the effects isolation has on a group of 12 volunteers. The study is being carried out by ESA and the Russian Institute of Biomedical Problems so psychological issues can be identified and understood. It is work like this on Earth that will influence the selection of astronauts to be sent to Mars who are compatible in a work and social environment.

A lot of research has been done on astronauts ever since Yuri Gagarin was launched into orbit alone in 1961. Before Gagarin’s historic journey, doctors were very concerned that weightlessness may cause acute mental disorders such as schizophrenia. Fortunately, this was not to be the case, but there are many disorders we cannot fully test until man ventures far into interplanetary space.

2006 Arctic Mars Analogue Svalbard Expedition (Jake Maule)

It seems natural that Mars astronauts will want gifts, luxuries and other “reminders from home”, as is possible on the International Space Station, but they will be totally isolated with no ferrying of items when they leave the safety of Earth. This need can be subdued by regular communications with home (although a 40+ minute delay for communications between Earth and Mars will make any “live” conversation impossible), and generally we know the problems we’ll face should these “homesick” feelings surface.

But what happens when man loses sight of Earth? Dr. Nick Kanas, who has studied astronaut psychology at UC San Francisco, is concerned about this unknown factor. He has even given this situation a name: the “Earth out of view” phenomenon.

Nobody in the history of mankind has ever experienced the Earth as a pale, insignificant blue dot in the sky. What that might do to a crew member, nobody knows.” – Dr. Nick Kanas.

This is the nature of the task in hand, humans are going to be pushed beyond what we would consider to be a “natural” situation. Perhaps we might surprise ourselves and find that space exploration is as natural to us as it was for our ancestors to discover new continents. In fact, many astronaut psychologists are looking back into the history books to gain an insight as to what it was like for early pioneers of global exploration.

When early explorers left their home countries on the seas, they didn’t see their home countries anymore. They didn’t even have a dot to look at. It was out of sight on the other side of the world. It is not like we are reinventing the wheel. We are just doing the same thing in a different environment that was just as demanding then.” – Walter Sipes, NASA psychologist, Johnson Space Center, Houston.

These factors combined with space euphoria and the “Overview Effect”, our future Mars astronauts are possibly in for a bumpy psychological ride…

Source: CNN