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Phoenix stretches arm, experiences short circuit |
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Written by Derek Kessler on
Saturday, 31 May 2008
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 NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander is stretching out. Working from Earth, operators have managed to successfully unfold the lander’s eight-foot-long arm. The arm was manipulated so that the camera at its end could look underneath the lander, a blind spot for the top-mounted stereo camera. The images showed an area where the lander’s rocket motor had blown away the overlying soil, exposing tabular formations that appear to be either ice or rock.
Phoenix operators are working the arm in preparation for the first soil contact. A shovel mounted at the end of the arm will be used to dig up to a meter into the Martian soil and retrieve samples for chemical analysis. Soil samples will be run through a mass spectrometer to determine their chemical composition, and then they will be baked and any vapors that are emitted will be analyzed. Mission controllers are hoping for organic compounds like methane to be emitted. The analyses will allow astronomers and biologists to determine if Mars could have ever supported life.
Meanwhile, the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA) has encountered what appears to be a short circuit. The glitch has arisen in a heating filament that is used to ionize vapors before they are sent to the TEGA’s detectors. The TEGA has two filaments that are used to ionize the gases, so mission scientists are working to determine whether they can operate the analyzer with just the one operational filament. Mission control will also be transmitting diagnostic instructions to Phoenix.
While the engineers and scientists work on the TEGA, the rest of the Phoenix team will be focusing on the robotic arm and scoop. They will image all three lander footpads to ensure that the craft is stably planted, and then they will perform a soil touch – they will use the scoop to create a dent in the nearby soil and then will turn the scoop over so the camera can get a good look. The soil touch is to make sure that controllers know just how far away the soil is.
After touching the ground, the arm and scoop will be used to repeatedly dig into the soil and dump it. Call it practice.
Having already photographed Phoenix from orbit while landing, an unprecendented feat in its own right, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has made another pass over the Vastitas Borealis region (dubbed “Green Valley” by mission controllers) and imaged the lander with both solar arrays deployed. The MRO also caught a glimpse of where Phoenix’s heat shield bounced and landed after being jettisoned, and a large white smudge about 300 meters from Phoenix that is most likely the lander’s parachute.
Unfortunately since then, the MRO has encountered an unexplained radio problem that appears to be preventing it from relaying data to and from Phoenix and Earth. While engineers are hoping to sort the issue out, if it doesn’t correct itself in a few days they will switch to using Mars Odyssey as the primary communications relay.
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