Phoenix Lander Digging and Analyzing Soil as Darkness Gathers

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Phoenix Lander Digging and Analyzing Soil as Darkness Gathers

This image shows bluish-white frost seen on the Martian surface near NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander. The image was taken by the lander's Surface Stereo Imager on the 131st Martian day, or sol, of the mission (Oct. 7, 2008). Frost is expected to continue to appear in images as the winter approaches Mars' northern plains. The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development is by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver. (NASA/JPL-Calech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University)

This image from the lander's Surface Stereo Imager shows soil delivery to NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander's Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer. The image was taken on the 131st Martian day, or sol, of the mission (Oct. 7, 2008). At the bottom of the image is the chute for delivering samples to MECA's microscopes. On the right side are the four chemistry cells with soil residue piled up on exposed surfaces. The farthest cell has a large pile of material from an area of the Phoenix workspace called "Stone Soup." This area is deep in the trough at a polygon boundary, and its soil was so sticky it wouldn't even go through the funnel. One of Phoenix's solar panels is shown in the background of this image. (NASA/JPL-Calech/University of Arizona/Max Planck Institute)

Winter is closing in, but UA's Phoenix lander is still working hard.

By University Communications
October 8, 2008

As fall approaches Mars' northern plains, the Phoenix Lander continues to dig into the red planet's soil and deliver samples to its onboard science instruments for analysis.

Over the past two weeks, Phoenix's nearly 2.4-meter-long (8 foot) arm moved a rock named "Headless" about 0.4 meters (16 inches) and snapped an image of the rock with its camera. Then the robotic arm scraped the soil underneath the rock and delivered a few teaspoonfuls of soil onto the lander's optical and atomic-force microscopes. These microscopes are part of Phoenix's Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer.

Scientists are conducting preliminary analysis of this soil sample, nicknamed "Captain Hessian." The soil piqued their interest because it may contain a high concentration of salts, said Diana Blaney, a scientist on the Phoenix mission with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

As water evaporates in arctic and arid environments on Earth, it leaves behind salt which can be found under or around rocks, Blaney said. "That's why we wanted to look under Headless, to see if there's a higher concentration of salts there."

Phoenix scientists also want to analyze a hard, icy layer beneath the Martian soil surface. Excavating to that icy layer underneath a rock might give scientists clues about processes affecting the ice. So the robotic arm has dug into a trench called "La Mancha" in part to see how deep the Martian ice table is.

The Phoenix team also plans to dig a trench laterally across some of the existing trenches to reveal a cross section, or profile, of the soil's icy layer.

"We hope to learn more about how the ice depth is controlled by physical processes," said Phoenix co-investigator Mike Mellon of the University of Colorado, Boulder. "By looking at how ice depth varies, we can pin down how it got there."

The Phoenix lander, originally planned for a three-month mission on Mars, is now in its fifth month. The lander's weather instruments have detected water-ice haze clouds in the northern Martian sky, and temperatures are getting colder as the daylight hours wane.

Phoenix faces an increasing drop in solar energy as the sun dips longer below the Martian horizon. Mission engineers and scientists expect this power decline to curtail activities in the coming weeks. As darkness deepens, Phoenix will become primarily a weather station and will likely cease all activity by the end of the year.

The Phoenix mission is led by Peter Smith at The University of Arizona with project management at the NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and development partnership at Lockheed Martin in Denver. International contributions come from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus in Denmark; the Max Planck Institute in Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute.