Phoenix on Mars

sol 14 RAC RBG of just a scoopful of dirt makes the Martians gooo down -- Martians go down... in a most delightful waYYYY:

Here is the focus zoom created from the sum of all 4 exposures ( D+R+G+B ). A square root filter ws applied. There was no interesting information in the RGB-D versions.

In reply 15 Jessica said Hope you don't lose it like last time???????...

If the you referenced was me -- too late.

Oooops. Forgot the link to the focus zoom sequence...

yep. losing it. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I'm a... fraid. Good afternoon, gentlemen...

I thought I should explain how I use the zoom sequences to sort out the real from the unreal:

If a feature changes focus and size during a zoom sequence -- then it is real.

If it does not change position or size, then it is most likely a CCD or lens artifact.

If it appears -- and then disappears -- then it is most likely a JPG artifact.

These simple rules can be used to observe very subtle features even in the presence of image artifacts.

3D zooms provide even better observational tool.

A few degrees of rotation of the scoop would do wonders for the RAC observations.

haha! Any update on the screw like object or the shiny stuff that looks like ice (which was found under the lander)?

nevermind on the spring!

[link]

It appears, that almost all particles in the dirt are over 1mm .

No wonder, nothing is getting into the oven.

es

the screens...are here

yt
dx

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/science_tega.php

oven news

yt
dx

...from the phoenix site.

Nasa's Phoenix Mars Lander Testing Sprinkle Technique

June 9, 2008 -- Engineers operating the Robotic Arm on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander are testing a revised method for delivering soil samples to laboratory instruments on Phoenix's deck now that researchers appreciate how clumpy the soil is at the landing site.

"We're a little surprised at how much this material is clumping together when we dig into it," said Doug Ming a Phoenix science team member from NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston.

The soil's physical properties are proving to be a challenge for getting a sample intended for one instrument to pass through a screen over a delivery opening. The instrument is the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Anaylzer, or TEGA, designed to bake and sniff samples to identify some key ingredients. The analyzer vibrated the screen for 20 minutes on Sunday but detected only a few particles getting through the screen, not enough to fill the tiny oven below.

"We are going to try vibrating it one more time, and if that doesn't work, it is likely we will use our new, revised delivery method on another thermal analyzer cell," said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the instrument.

The arm delivered the first sample to TEGA on Friday by turning the scoop over to release its contents. The revised delivery method, which Phoenix is testing for the first time today, will hold the scoop at an angle above the delivery target and sprinkle out a small amount of the sample by vibrating the scoop. The vibration comes from running a motorized rasp on the bottom of the scoop.

Phoenix used the arm Sunday to collect a soil sample for the spacecraft's Optical Microscope. Today's plans include a practice of the sprinkle technique, using a small amount of soil from the sample collected Sunday. If that goes well, the Phoenix team assembled at the University of Arizona plans to sprinkle material from the same scoopful onto the microscope later this week.

yt
dx

Poke a hole in the screen with the shovel. This is getting ridiculous. Are there women running this show? Every guy knows when all else fails, you break the offending item, just a little bit.

Sure you do

Just bang well the thing by robotic hand

The problem must be the angle that 1mm filter is at.

There is a critical angle, for any soil, at which the clogging particles will not be removed by adding more soil/pressure.

I suspect, the angle is simply zero.

es

..."Skittish Tombs, real skittish..."

This is a photo of an engineering model of the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA) instrument on board NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander. This view shows a TEGA oven-loading mechanism beneath the input screen. The screen on the 1-and-1/2-inch-wide funnel has been removed in this model to show the whirligig that is suspended from the screw on the shaft. The black hole underneath is the porthole that leads to the oven.

A tiny electric current compresses and releases a spring on the shaft. As the shaft spins, the screw bumps the screen, breaking up clumps of material into fine particles so they pass through the one millimeter-square screen openings. The energy applied to the tapping screen is about 0.02 inch per pound, or the force needed to move a one-pound mass two-hundredths of an inch.

The screw also lifts the three-bladed whirligig so that it jostles fine particles and keeps the oven port open to aid the loading process.

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.

Image Credit: University of Arizona

Look at 81 above and study that soil in the shovel. Actually LOOK at it now that Horton put color to it. Its exactly the same consistency as the Rovers encountered years ago. Very clean cut edging when parted, as in 'wheel or shovel'. This soil is very much like wet cement consistency but not the same material function. I suspect the ice below the surface keeps the soil in this constant state, with an ever ready supply of just the right amount of moisture passing through it to enhance the rich soil salts to produce a brine mix to give it that consistency. Dust it ain't. We never saw dust trails or plumes from the Rovers' behinds', especially from Oppy traversing the dunes.

The Phoenix designers got something wrong, at least the oven stuff. They did not study the soil pics from the Rovers very well. If the remaining 7 ovens have the same screen at the bay doors, there ain't going to be any so-called soil tests. If anyone of the UofA professors in charge of the ovens had the sense that some conditions are worth changing if difficulty set in to test the soil so lets leave at least 3 ovens without a screen. And to place the screen at the opening of the bay doors is certainly making a mess of it all. OK-OK there was a wonderful little video that indicated the way it all should work. But that's a contrived video, it did not work out that way in reality. Video's are good for fooling people.

The shovel has sensors on it, why not get a ground temp in the hole it dug and at least send some data back for hungry Earthman appetites. FEED ME! FEED ME! FEED ME!

yt
dx

there is no moisture on mars

The statement "there is no moisture on mars
" is factually untrue.

For example, there is in fact known moisture in the 4 wet chemistry cells in MECA!

More to the point, given the known presence of Martian sunburface ice at km depths and the known increase in temperature with depth, then at some depth and pressure the water must be in a liquid phase -- moist -- and will "flow" up through permeable rock and soil to the atmosphere.

There is in fact a water cycle on Mars that involves the exchange of water between the subsurface, surface and atmosphere.

Here is an interesting paper on the Martian subsurface.

Here are some recent clouds over Victoria crater most likely created from the water rising from the subsurface.

The clumping of the soil has taken the team by surprise and that suggests to me it is wetter here than they thought in fact it looks like clay in the scoop. A lot of the rover pics especially Spirits dragging wheel made me think of cold wet sand caused by the morning dew in the desert. We definately have a big problem getting samples through these 2.5cm filters typical we finally land in the north pole and can't get the samples into the TEGA. The scoop is going to have to press down on the filter applying constant pressure and then move backwards and forwards and sideways to squeeze and compress the soil through the gaps think cheese grater guys.

What I find most amusing is that only the dryest of the dry dust that blankets all of Mars may make it through the mesh -- and the "interesting stuff" is out in the cold.

I fear once again Big Science will conclude nothing interesting here folks, move along, move along.

I "see" all sorts of long range organization in the soil clots in the RAC images that will not pass through the mm sized screen.

( Why the %&$* wasn't an OM positioned on the arm! )

Why wasn't the "magic carpet" soil observation seen on the very first sol of Spirit taken into consideration for Phoenix?

If I remember correctly, the science speculation was that the effect was electrostatic or maybe mineralogical ( or maybe just "magic: ) -- but what was ever done to follow up on these speculations?

Where there science papers detailing experiments replicating the observation?

If the observed clotting effect was at both rover sites, then why wasn't it resonable to believe that soil would behave the same way at the Phoenix site?

Why was the soil "ground truth" observation discounted?

I went a'googling for a cartoon that expressed my sentiments on this issue:

A patient standing in front of a locked screen door, unable to enter a doctor's office labelled TEGA. ( There is another screened office next door labelled MECA )

( Ah well, I can see it in my mind.)

Where are the sol 9 raw OMs?

Let me correct myself. Moisture generally refers to the presence of water, often in trace amounts. There is practically no moisture in the atmosphere of mars, the atmosphere is considered "dry".

The clouds are not moisture, they are ice clouds.

The atmospheric pressure is too low on surface of the planet, thus there is a direct transition of ice -> gas without a liquid intermediate.

While there is considerable water in the Martian soil, I would not call the
soil "wet". Rather, the water is most likely in two forms--chemically bound
water (water of hydration, chemically bound to the minerals) and physically
bound water. The physically bound water, also known as "adsorbed" water,
consists of water molecules attached to the soil grains by van der Waals
forces. Typically, the bonds are stronger than in liquid water, and there
is no more than a single layer of water molecules covering the grains. If
the atmosphere were near saturation, the number of layers of water on the
grains would increase. If it got to be more than a few molecules thick,
then it would behave like liquid water and we would consider it to be liquid
water.

A single arm bandit, and the arm is a spade!

No changeable tools, nothing.

A snake is only dependable soil moving device, and it is not there.

I have seen description, that the exit apperture is 2,5 mm

This might explain exitless clogging situation

es

max:97

atmospheric pressure 8 mbar
Water tripple point

Obviously, there is enough pressure to have liquid water

es

basically, if u look hard enough you can find anything you want. ANYTHING.

The levels of "moisture" in the martian atmosphere are so small that they can be considered negligible. There are not enough layers of water molecules covering the grains of the dirt, and they do not behave as liquid water or have significant impact on the soil.