The Surface Stereo Imager on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander recorded the
images combined into this movie of the lander's Robotic Arm enlarging and
combining the two trenches informally named "Dodo" (left) and
"Goldilocks."
The 21 images in this sequence were taken over a period of about 2 hours
during Phoenix's Sol 18 (June 13, 2008), or the 18th Martian day since
landing.
The main purpose of the Sol 18 dig was to dig deeper for learning the
depth of a hard underlying layer. A bright layer, possibly ice, was
increasingly exposed as the digging progressed. Further digging and
scraping in the combined Dodo-Goldilocks trench was planned for subsequent
sols.
The combined trench is about 20 centimeters (about 8 inches) wide. The
depth at the end of the Sol 18 digging is 5 to 6 centimeters (about 2
inches).
The Goldilocks trench was the source of soil samples "Baby Bear" and "Mama
Bear," which were collected on earlier sols and delivered to instruments
on the lander deck. The Dodo trench was originally dug for practice in
collecting and depositing soil samples.
The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf
of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development is by Lockheed Martin
Space Systems, Denver.
