[meteorite-list] NASA Phoenix Lander Bakes Sample, Arm Digs Deeper

Tue Jun 17 20:30:00 EDT 2008

"I guess that means only 8 experiments and then it becomes a high 
dollar garbage can.."

Pete, "only?"  "high dollar garbage can?"??  That sounds a bit too 
aggressive of a criticism for my taste in light of the historic 
accomplishments in progress on the frigid Polar surface of Mars.

Have you ever cleaned out an oven?  Decontaminated it without having 
any water or liquids?  I guess NASA preferred not to wrap the baked 
goods in aluminum baggies and not make the Mars under the lander a 
garbage heap of disposable crap and contaminating solvents.  I'm not 
critical of that.

I don't what you are thinking, but 8 oven cycles sounds like 8 times 
infinity more quality oven time than "we" had before.

Best wishes,
Doug
PS Speaking about learning to clean out the oven, I recommend to you 
the comedy movie, "A Day without a Mexican", and think Mars instead of 
California :)  If that is too testy, how 'bout "To Build a Fire" by 
Jack London?

-----Original Message-----
From: Pete Shugar <pshugar at clearwire.net>
To: Mike Bandli <fuzzfoot at comcast.net>; 'Ron Baalke' 
<baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>; 'Meteorite Mailing List' 
<meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 6:26 pm
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] NASA Phoenix Lander Bakes Sample, Arm 
Digs Deeper

I guess that means only 8 experiments and then it becomes a high dollar 
garbage can.. 
Pete 

----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Bandli" <fuzzfoot at comcast.net> 
To: "'Pete Shugar'" <pshugar at clearwire.net>; "'Ron Baalke'" 
<baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>; "'Meteorite Mailing List'" 
<meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com> 
Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 3:20 PM 
Subject: RE: [meteorite-list] NASA Phoenix Lander Bakes Sample,Arm Digs 
Deeper 

> Hi Pete, 
> 
> Unfortunately, all eight of the ovens cannot be emptied or re-used 
for > other 
> tests. I believe I remember hearing it had something to do with 
saving 
> weight on the craft. 
> 
> Best, 
> 
> Mike Bandli 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com 
> [mailto:meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of 
Pete 
> Shugar 
> Sent: Monday, June 16, 2008 12:40 PM 
> To: Ron Baalke; Meteorite Mailing List 
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] NASA Phoenix Lander Bakes Sample,Arm 
Digs 
> Deeper 
> 
> My question is: 
> If there are only 8 ovens on the Lander, what happens when they are 
> all full? Is there a provision to dump the ovens and reuse them? 
> Pete 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Ron Baalke" 
<baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov> 
> To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com> 
> Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 12:54 PM 
> Subject: [meteorite-list] NASA Phoenix Lander Bakes Sample, Arm Digs 
> Deeper 
> 
> 
>> 
>> http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-111b 
>> 
>> NASA Phoenix Lander Bakes Sample, Arm Digs Deeper 
>> Jet Propulsion Laboratory 
>> June 16, 2008 
>> 
>> TUCSON, Ariz. -- One of the ovens on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander 
>> continued baking its first sample of Martian soil over the weekend, 
>> while the Robotic Arm dug deeper into the soil to learn more about 
white 
>> material first revealed on June 3. 
>> 
>> "The oven is working very well and living up to our expectations," 
said 
>> Phoenix co-investigator Bill Boynton of the University of Arizona, 
>> Tucson. Boynton leads the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA), 
or 
>> oven instrument, for Phoenix. 
>> 
>> Phoenix has eight separate tiny ovens to bake and sniff the soil and 
>> look for volatile ingredients, such as water. This baking is 
performed 
>> at three different temperature ranges. 
>> 
>> On Sol 18 (June 12), the lander's Robotic Arm dug deeper into the 
two 
>> trenches, informally called "Dodo" and "Goldilocks," where white 
>> material was previously found. This created one large trench, now 
called 
>> "Dodo-Goldilocks." 
>> 
>> "We have continued to excavate in the Dodo-Goldilocks trench to 
expose 
>> more of the light-toned material, and we will monitor the site," 
said 
>> Robotic Arm lead scientist Ray Arvidson of the University of 
Washington, 
>> St. Louis. "If the material is ice, it should change with time. 
Frost 
>> may form on it, or it could slowly sublimate." Sublimation is the 
>> process where a solid changes directly into gas. 
>> 
>> The Dodo-Goldilocks trench is 22 centimeters wide (8.7 inches) and 
35 
>> centimeters long (13.8 inches). The trench is seven to eight 
centimeters 
>> (2.7 to 3 inches) deep at its deepest. The deepest portion is 
closest to 
>> the lander. 
>> 
>> The white material is located only at the shallowest part of the 
trench, 
>> farthest from the lander, indicating that it is not continuous 
>> throughout the excavated site. The trench might be exposing a ledge, 
or 
>> only a portion of a slab, of the white material, according to 
scientists. 
>> 
>> The Phoenix mission is led by Peter 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. For more about Phoenix, visit: 
>> http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix and http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu. 
>> 
>> 
------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

>> 
>> 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 
>> 
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