[meteorite-list] Phoenix Lander

[Francis Graham]

Dear List
  Mark Ford has a point. In the Apollo Lunar Missions, right away as soon as they emerged from the LM, the astronauts obtained a basket of moon rocks and sent it up to the LM. The reasoning was, if something went amiss, and they had to leave the lunar surface soon after landing, they would not return empty-handed. This was called a "contingency sample".
  The argument also applies to unmanned missions. Phoenix might have had a provision for an immediate contingency analysis designed in to its program, but, at risk of peril, did not, and waited a week. 
  Nonetheless it is a good idea to do contingency sampling. It might be also a good idea for a future  Mars sample return mission to obtain an immediate contingency sample. If things go wrong, and the scoop arm later malfunctions while picking around for interesting stuff, or some such, at least they can blast the hurried small contingency sample off Mars and back to Earth.  
  One can apply this also to astronomy. One might collect what data one can, even low grade, right away, in case it clouds up. Then do careful instrument tweaking if clouds stay away.   In meteorite collecting, one can grab a few random samples around the crater ejecta and then, if the situation remains pleasant, seek out better samples elsewhere. Seems like a smart idea.
   There is a host of practical problems to which this idea can be applied, where time=increased chance of difficulties.


Francis Graham