06-20-2008, 10:39 PM
NEWS RELEASE: 2008-113
June 19, 2008
TUCSON, Ariz. -- Dice-size crumbs of bright material have vanished from
inside a trench where they were photographed by NASA's Phoenix Mars
Lander four days ago, convincing scientists that the material was frozen
water that vaporized after digging exposed it.
"It must be ice," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the
University of Arizona, Tucson. "These little clumps completely
disappearing over the course of a few days, that is perfect evidence
that it's ice. There had been some question whether the bright material
was salt. Salt can't do that."
The chunks were left at the bottom of a trench informally called
"Dodo-Goldilocks" when Phoenix's Robotic Arm enlarged that trench on
June 15, during the 20th Martian day, or sol, since landing. Several
were gone when Phoenix looked at the trench early today, on Sol 24.
Also early today, digging in a different trench, the Robotic Arm
connected with a hard surface that has scientists excited about the
prospect of next uncovering an icy layer.
The Phoenix science team spent Thursday analyzing new images and data
successfully returned from the lander earlier in the day.
Studying the initial findings from the new "Snow White 2" trench,
located to the right of "Snow White 1," Ray Arvidson of Washington
University in St. Louis, co-investigator for the robotic arm, said, "We
have dug a trench and uncovered a hard layer at the same depth as the
ice layer in our other trench."
On Sol 24, Phoenix extended the first trench in the middle of a polygon
at the "Wonderland" site. While digging, the Robotic Arm came upon a
firm layer, and after three attempts to dig further, the arm went into a
holding position. Such an action is expected when the Robotic Arm comes
upon a hard surface.
Meanwhile, the spacecraft team at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in
Denver is preparing a software patch to send to Phoenix in a few days so
scientific data can again be saved onboard overnight when needed.
Because of a large amount a duplicative file-maintenance data generated
by the spacecraft Tuesday, the team is taking the precaution of not
storing science data in Phoenix's flash memory, and instead downlinking
it at the end of every day, until the conditions that produced those
duplicative data files are corrected.
"We now understand what happened, and we can fix it with a software
patch," said Phoenix Project Manager Barry Goldstein of NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena. "Our three-month schedule has 30 days
of margin for contingencies like this, and we have used only one
contingency day out of 24 sols. The mission is well ahead of schedule.
We are making excellent progress toward full mission success."
The Phoenix mission is led by Smith of the University of Arizona 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. The latest Phoenix
images and information are at http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix and
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu <http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/>.
June 19, 2008
TUCSON, Ariz. -- Dice-size crumbs of bright material have vanished from
inside a trench where they were photographed by NASA's Phoenix Mars
Lander four days ago, convincing scientists that the material was frozen
water that vaporized after digging exposed it.
"It must be ice," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the
University of Arizona, Tucson. "These little clumps completely
disappearing over the course of a few days, that is perfect evidence
that it's ice. There had been some question whether the bright material
was salt. Salt can't do that."
The chunks were left at the bottom of a trench informally called
"Dodo-Goldilocks" when Phoenix's Robotic Arm enlarged that trench on
June 15, during the 20th Martian day, or sol, since landing. Several
were gone when Phoenix looked at the trench early today, on Sol 24.
Also early today, digging in a different trench, the Robotic Arm
connected with a hard surface that has scientists excited about the
prospect of next uncovering an icy layer.
The Phoenix science team spent Thursday analyzing new images and data
successfully returned from the lander earlier in the day.
Studying the initial findings from the new "Snow White 2" trench,
located to the right of "Snow White 1," Ray Arvidson of Washington
University in St. Louis, co-investigator for the robotic arm, said, "We
have dug a trench and uncovered a hard layer at the same depth as the
ice layer in our other trench."
On Sol 24, Phoenix extended the first trench in the middle of a polygon
at the "Wonderland" site. While digging, the Robotic Arm came upon a
firm layer, and after three attempts to dig further, the arm went into a
holding position. Such an action is expected when the Robotic Arm comes
upon a hard surface.
Meanwhile, the spacecraft team at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in
Denver is preparing a software patch to send to Phoenix in a few days so
scientific data can again be saved onboard overnight when needed.
Because of a large amount a duplicative file-maintenance data generated
by the spacecraft Tuesday, the team is taking the precaution of not
storing science data in Phoenix's flash memory, and instead downlinking
it at the end of every day, until the conditions that produced those
duplicative data files are corrected.
"We now understand what happened, and we can fix it with a software
patch," said Phoenix Project Manager Barry Goldstein of NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena. "Our three-month schedule has 30 days
of margin for contingencies like this, and we have used only one
contingency day out of 24 sols. The mission is well ahead of schedule.
We are making excellent progress toward full mission success."
The Phoenix mission is led by Smith of the University of Arizona 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. The latest Phoenix
images and information are at http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix and
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu <http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/>.