[meteorite-list] NASA's Phoenix Lander Has An Oven Full Of Martian Soil

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-104

NASA's Phoenix Lander Has An Oven Full Of Martian Soil
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
June 11, 2008

TUCSON, Ariz. - NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has filled its first oven
with Martian soil.

"We have an oven full," Phoenix co-investigator Bill Boynton of the
University of Arizona, Tucson, said today. "It took 10 seconds to fill
the oven. The ground moved."

Boynton leads the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer instrument, or TEGA,
for Phoenix. The instrument has eight separate tiny ovens to bake and
sniff the soil to assess its volatile ingredients, such as water.

The lander's Robotic Arm delivered a partial scoopful of clumpy soil
from a trench informally called "Baby Bear" to the number 4 oven on TEGA
last Friday, June 6, which was 12 days after landing.

A screen covers each of TEGA's eight ovens. The screen is to prevent
larger bits of soil from clogging the narrow port to each oven so that
fine particles fill the oven cavity, which is no wider than a pencil
lead. Each TEGA chute also has a whirligig mechanism that vibrates the
screen to help shake small particles through.

Only a few particles got through when the screen on oven number 4 was
vibrated on June 6, 8 and 9.

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 of the University of Arizona. "We're interested in learning what
sort of chemical and mineral activity has caused the particles to clump
and stick together."

Plans prepared by the Phoenix team for the lander's activities on
Thursday, June 12 include sprinkling Martian soil on the delivery port
for the spacecraft's Optical Microscope and taking additional portions
of a high-resolution color panorama of the lander's surroundings.

The Phoenix mission is led by Smith with project management at JPL and
development partnership at Lockheed Martin, located in 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.

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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