[meteorite-list] Phoenix Sifts for Samples, Continues Imaging Landing Site

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-102a

Phoenix Sifts for Samples, Continues Imaging Landing Site
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
June 08, 2008

On Sunday, Sol 14 of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander mission, mechanical
shakers inside the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer will attempt to
loosen clumped soils on the device's screens to allow material to fall
into the oven for analysis later in the week.

The commands for this shaking action were to be sent to the spacecraft
late morning Sunday, Pacific Daylight Time, and results will be reported
Monday, June 9. Also on Sol 14, the robotic arm will acquire a sample
from the "Baby Bear" site intended for the MECA microscopy station.
Delivery of that sample will occur no earlier than Sol 16, after testing
is done to sprinkle the sample.

A camera on Phoenix continues to image the area close to the spacecraft
to extend scientists' knowledge of the landing area and work sites.

Phoenix's Robotic Arm Camera on Saturday took additional images of areas
close to and under the lander unreachable by the larger Surface Stereo
Imager (SSI), said Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis,
Phoenix co-investigator for the Robotic Arm.

"We are mapping with the Robotic Arm Camera where the SSI can't see to
extend our knowledge of the site and to see details of the polygon
structures of the near field, close to the lander," Arvidson said.

An image from the Robotic Arm Camera taken Saturday and other raw images
are at:

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/images.php?gID=3402&cID=51

On May 30, images taken under the lander showed the descent thrusters
had cleared dirt from a smooth patch of either ice or rock. That area
has been informally named "Snow Queen." Mission scientists continue to
examine that feature.

The Phoenix mission is led by Peter Smith at the University of Arizona
with project management at JPL and development partnership at Lockheed
Martin, Denver. International contributions come from the Canadian Space
Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of
Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; Max Planck Institute, Germany; and the
Finnish Meteorological Institute. For more about Phoenix, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix and http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu .


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Media contacts: Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov

Sara Hammond 520-626-1974
University of Arizona, Tucson
shammond at lpl.arizona.edu