Phoenix on Mars - Page 12

01101001 · #**331** (**permalink**) 23-July-2008, 09:30 PM

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Originally Posted by 01101001

Where's my daily press release?

Ding!

NASA Phoenix Mission News: Phoenix Mars Lander Prepares for Next Sample Analysis (July 23):

(Sigh. Still need to scrape and watch some more.)

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Within a few sols, the team plans to collect a sample from the hard layer of Snow White for delivery to one of the eight ovens of Phoenix's Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA). Doors to the oven have been opened to receive the sample.

Cool panoramic multiple exposure of Martian land of the midnight sun

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~~Grocery List~~ Phoenix Mission Links
NASA Phoenix Mission
University of Arizona Phoenix Mars Mission
University of Arizona Phoenix Mars Mission: Lander Gallery
JPL Phoenix Mission News
NASA Phoenix Twitter Feed
NASA Phoenix Multimedia
CSA Phoenix Mars Mission
Planetary Society: Phoenix Mission
Planetary Society: Phoenix Non-SSI Raw Images
Planetary Society: Phoenix Sol-By-Sol Summary
Planetary Society: Weblog
Emily Lakdawalla Ustream video chat (Wednesdays)
Texas A&M University Phoenix SSI Raw Images Directory
Unmanned Spaceflight Forum: Phoenix 2007/8
Google Mars landing site
NASA TV (or NASA TV Yahoo! source or high-resolution)
NASA TV Media Channel

01101001 · #**332** (**permalink**) 23-July-2008, 11:35 PM

Time flies.

Sol 58 Raw Images

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Planetary Society Weblog: How are we coming on Phoenix mission success?

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So we're approaching the two-thirds mark on the mission, and some of you readers out there are getting a little antsy about what Phoenix has accomplished to date. The issues with TEGA have certainly slowed down the plans to examine soil samples. But TEGA's not the only instrument on the mission, and things are really going very well. Let's look at the Phoenix mission success criteria and see how the mission is doing.

01101001 · #**333** (**permalink**) 24-July-2008, 09:13 PM

Daily press release: NASA Phoenix News: Trench on Mars Ready for Next Sampling by NASA Lander (July 24)

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Images received Thursday morning confirmed that the lander's robotic arm had scraped the top of the hard layer clean during activities of Phoenix's 58th Martian day, or sol, corresponding to overnight Wednesday to Thursday.

The Phoenix team developed commands for sending to the spacecraft Thursday to complete two remaining preparations necessary before collecting a sample and delivering it to the lander's Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA). One part of the plan for Sol 59 (overnight Thursday to Friday) would assure that the scoop is empty of any soil collected earlier. Another would complete a final cleaning of any volatile materials from the oven that will receive the sample.

Sol 58 Raw Images continued to arrive.

They found the rabbit midden. No. Those little pellets, er, microscopic rocks, are imaged by the MECA optical microscope. I don't know why they're all huddled together like that. (Color image at UMSF. They're blue -- if the colors are accurate.)

There are lots of MECA images, lots with different substrates, etched silicon that will make different particles behave differently. Lots. Otherwise, there are plenty of trench-watch and telltale pictures.

01101001 · #**334** (**permalink**) 24-July-2008, 11:33 PM

And... Planetary Society Weblog: Phoenix sol 58 update: rasping and scraping in Wonderland

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What I was most concerned about was trying to understand the chronology and rationale of all the work they've been doing at their trench site at Wonderland, and where they think they are headed with TEGA. So here's the recent timeline in a nutshell, some of which overlaps with what I talked about from my previous conversation with Ray Arvidson.
[...]
I think they'll do last preparations of the trench on 59, and, if everything looks good, acquire and deliver the sample in the very early morning hours of sol 60.

Ah, Emily answered the question I had about the TECP probe that seemed to wind up scooping soil and running into the rock, Alice, and halting.

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Leslie explained to me that after doing some measurements with the TECP, the robotic arm had been commanded to move to a different position. [...] and in this case some difference between the two resulted in the arm on Mars attempting to move the scoop through a space that included the ground and the rock they named Alice.

Lots more there for Phoenix freaks.

(And, yo, I'm tired of the sunshine-yellow (What, George?) avatar for a while. Back to tasteful white. You're welcome.)

01101001 · #**335** (**permalink**) 25-July-2008, 01:38 PM

Sol 59 Raw Images have started arriving.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 01101001

Those little pellets, er, microscopic rocks, are imaged by the MECA optical microscope. I don't know why they're all huddled together like that.

The substrate was magnetic. table of substrate types (PDF)

01101001 · #**336** (**permalink**) 25-July-2008, 11:33 PM

Today's press release: NASA Phoenix Mission News: Phoenix Scoop Ready for Sampling (July 25)

Quote:

Scientists and engineers on the mission Friday prepared plans to send Phoenix later in the day that would command the robotic arm to rasp the hard soil in the trench informally named "Snow White," collect the shavings and deliver them to an oven for analysis.

Images received on Earth Friday morning confirmed that the scoop had been cleared of anything collected during previous days' testing. The scoop went through a sequence of moves to dump any remaining material. At the same time, the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA) was successfully prepared for the sample by purging it of any volatile materials.

C'mon, baby...

01101001 · #**337** (**permalink**) 26-July-2008, 03:55 AM

Yeah! Texas A&M University Phoenix SSI Raw Images Directory describes the sol's actvities:

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Document acquisition and delivery of "Glass Slipper" to TEGA

The observation names at Sol 60 fit. There are post-rasping, TEGA screen, delivery, and post-delivery images planned.

They should start arriving very roughly about 9-10 hours from now, if previous patterns continue.

See you then.

01101001 · #**338** (**permalink**) 26-July-2008, 12:55 PM

Not yet. Wait for it... Wait for it...

Meanwhile, up your anticipation with: Planetary Society Weblog: Earth to Phoenix: You are "go" to grab an ice sample for TEGA

Quote:

The commands have now been sent to Phoenix for it to spend the early hours of sol 60 rasping into Snow White, getting that ice sample into the scoop, and dumping it on to TEGA, all in a short enough amount of time to prevent any ice from sublimating before the TEGA oven doors close. This will be only the second time that TEGA has been operated. I am sure the team is on tenterhooks, waiting for confirmation that everything operated according to plan. The plan, near as I can figure it from the web update and the (unfortunately not time-ordered) list of images commanded for the camera, is as follows [...]

Phoenix elapsed time on Mars is now: Sol 60 + 14 hours.

Very roughly, 1-2 hours until images start arriving.

01101001 · #**339** (**permalink**) 26-July-2008, 03:25 PM

Sol 60 Raw Images began arriving, about 80 minutes ago.

This looks like post-delivery, 0749 local time. There's a little soil on the adjacent TEGA door.

The spillover looks pretty light. I hope there was enough in the scoop.

This looks like the Snow White trench, post-rasping, 0925. It looks like they did an array of rasp penetrations, maybe 15-20.

This looks like pre-delivery, scoop over TEGA, 0736. Adjacent door is clean. Scoop contents are in deep shadow and I can't easily tell how much is there.

I tweaked brightness and peered into the back of the scoop and I see some soil, maybe, very roughly, 5 ccs, like the whole width of the funnel area, in the very back, has soil maybe 1/2-1 cm deep:

lg_16032_brighter.jpg (Click to enlarge.)

It's a lot more than they have imaged in previous rasping tests, perhaps due to doing 16 rasps instead of 2 for the tests.

That's the good stuff from about 30 images, so far.

I expect the daily press release (if they do them on the weekend), will tell us if the oven was filled and working. Or maybe Emily Lakdawalla can find out. I gots to know...

Oh, yeah, I forgot the no-shorts chant. No shorts! No shorts! No shorts! As I recall, the delivery screen vibration was the source of short potential, so that's done. I hope we're short-free!

01101001 · #**340** (**permalink**) 26-July-2008, 05:30 PM

More Sol 60 Raw Images have arrived.

Later: OK. Here's the scoop post-delivery, 0755 local time, still with a nice load of icy soil:

This may be evidence that the oven was filled. Perhaps once the oven-full signal was detected, the pre-arranged sprinkling process was stopped -- and soil would remain in the scoop. (Edit: Learned later scoop was totally inverted over target at end of process, so this was soil stuck in scoop, causing failure.)

This looks like during the rasping, 0719, and later at 0729.

And, the trench, before rasping, 0641, and post-rasping (perhaps also pre-scooping) at 0722, and post-scooping, 0955.

01101001 · #**341** (**permalink**) 26-July-2008, 09:35 PM

Planetary Society Weblog: Phoenix Sol 60 rasping and dumping successful -- but we don't yet know if it got inside TEGA

Quote:

So the rasping worked; the scooping worked; the dumping worked. The all-important question is: did any of the sample pass through the screen into TEGA? My cautious interpretation of these images is that it did. There was a good amount of sample in the scoop, and the fact that you don't see any at all on top of the screen means it really must have gone through--or else there'd be some piled on top of the screen. But we won't know for sure until we get official word from the mission.

I think she missed my observation: it worked because a post-delivery image of the scoop shows some soil still in the scoop. I just don't think they would have stopped sprinkling unless they had gotten an oven-full signal. If the oven-full signal wasn't seen, then they would have kept sprinkling until the scoop was empty.

But, I'm still speculating. We'll know soon enough...

01101001 · #**342** (**permalink**) 26-July-2008, 10:56 PM

Fail.

NASA Phoenix Mission News: Lander Collects Icy Soil But Needs to Work on Delivery

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NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander's robotic arm collected a more than adequate amount of icy soil for baking in one of the lander's ovens but will need to adjust how it delivers samples.

Engineers determined the rasping and scraping activity collected a total of 3 cubic centimeters of icy soil, more than enough to fill the tiny oven cell of the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA. However, images returned from the lander Saturday morning show that much of the soil remained lodged in the robotic arm's scoop after the attempt to deliver the sample to the TEGA.

"Very little of the icy sample made it into the oven," said Barry Goldstein, Phoenix project manager from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We believe that the material that was intended for the targeted cell is the material that adhered to the back of the scoop."

Once the sample had been collected, the robotic arm tilted its scoop and ran the rasp motor several times in an attempt to sprinkle the sample into the oven whose doors were wide open. The final step was inverting the scoop directly over the doors. A screened opening over the oven measures about 10 centimeters (4 inches) long by 3 centimeters (1.5 inches) wide. The oven itself is roughly the size of an ink cartridge in a ballpoint pen.

The delivery sequence also included vibrating the screen several times, which would have aided delivery. TEGA detected that not enough sample was recorded as being in its oven, so the oven doors did not close.

The TEGA activities did not cause any short circuits with the equipment.

"The good news here is TEGA is functioning nominally, and we will adjust our sample drop-off strategy to run this again," Goldstein said.

No short. That's good.

Just try again. Work out how to shake sticky soil out of the scoop.

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Edit: Also, Planetary Society Weblog: Phoenix sol 60: not enough sample to TEGA

01101001 · #**343** (**permalink**) 27-July-2008, 04:01 AM

Sol 61 Raw Images have started arriving. Just one at this point, a solar image.

01101001 · #**344** (**permalink**) 27-July-2008, 06:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 01101001

Sol 61 Raw Images

Well, at least yesterday's raspings weren't permanently stuck to the back of the scoop (1344 local time).

Maybe after some sublimation, the stuck soil mass did fall out -- like how the mass eventually did pass though the screen on the very first oven.

Edit: Looks like at 1338 local they turned the scoop vertical and let the soil fall on the MECA surface. But, I can't say the MECA surface changed any before and after. Maybe the dump happened some other time before the empty scoop was imaged.

Edit: Even at 1318 local the scoop was pretty clean.

01101001 · #**345** (**permalink**) 27-July-2008, 11:27 PM

JPL Phoenix Mission News: Phoenix Revises Method to Deliver Icy Sample (July 27)

Quote:

"We are going to modify the process we ran on Sol 60 to acquire another icy sample and attempt to deliver it to TEGA," the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, said Barry Goldstein, Phoenix project manager from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We will repeat what we did successfully with small modifications to adjust for what we learned."
[...]
The revised plan includes reducing the length of time the rasp operates as it makes the holes in the trench to reduce any potential heating of the sample, and for increasing the number of times the scoop is vibrated during the sample delivery action.

Images received Sunday morning showed the soil collected on Sol 60 had fallen out of the scoop, which had been left inverted over the lander's deck.

I wonder if they have another icy target in the trench. The one area was pretty well worked over by the 16 raspings on sol 60. I reckon we'll at least get a couple of days of scraping now to prepare the next one. I hope they don't need to do a new trench.

01101001 · #**346** (**permalink**) 28-July-2008, 03:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 01101001

I wonder if they have another icy target in the trench. The one area was pretty well worked over by the 16 raspings on sol 60. I reckon we'll at least get a couple of days of scraping now to prepare the next one. I hope they don't need to do a new trench.

Oh, I missed this in the press release first paragraph:

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NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander's robotic arm will use a revised collection-and-delivery sequence overnight Sunday with the goal of depositing an icy soil sample in the lander's oven.

That sounds like they're doing the retry now; maybe they're even baking right now. Perhaps Sol 62 images will tell what happened. They'll probably start arriving very roughly 11 hours from now. Oh boy...

I wonder what Mars will conjure up next to mess up Phoenix plans.

Edit: Texas A&M University Phoenix SSI Raw Images Directory describes Sol 62:

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