› Larger image This color-coded elevation map shows the "Dodo-Goldilocks" trench dug by the Robotic Arm on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University/NASA Ames Research Center + Full image and caption
NASA Phoenix Lander Bakes Sample, Arm Digs Deeper 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@jpl.nasa.gov
Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov
Sara Hammond 520-626-1974
University of Arizona, Tucson
shammond@lpl.arizona.edu
