hummer
06-13-2008, 05:27 PM
:oops: :oops:
Washington, June 12: The Phoenix Probe is ready to analyse Arctic soil from Mars after scientists were finally able to shake samples into one of the spacecraft's oven-like instruments, NASA said.
The Probe's robotic arm had dumped dirt into one of the Phoenix's eight Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA) last Friday, but only a few particles from the clumpy soil made it through a screen cover on the oven.
After running a vibrating mechanism, sometimes several times a day, the soil finally filled the instrument, which scientists hope will help uncover signs of the existence of water and life-supporting organic minerals on the red planet.
"We actually got a full oven," Bill Boynton, one the science team members, said in a teleconference with reporters yesterday.
"The problem is now behind us. And sometime in the next day or two, we will close the oven and actually start the analysis. So we are very, very pleased," he said. The analysis process will take about five days.
By baking the sample, scientists will vaporize water that constitutes the ice, he said.
In subsequent days, the temperatures will rise to see minerals that decompose at different temperatures.
"When they do so they will give up water and CO2 that they might have reacted in the past and we can identify what minerals they are," Boynton said. "We are looking at evidence of past interactions with water."
Phoenix landed on the stark terrain of Mars' North Pole region on May 25.
Washington, June 12: The Phoenix Probe is ready to analyse Arctic soil from Mars after scientists were finally able to shake samples into one of the spacecraft's oven-like instruments, NASA said.
The Probe's robotic arm had dumped dirt into one of the Phoenix's eight Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA) last Friday, but only a few particles from the clumpy soil made it through a screen cover on the oven.
After running a vibrating mechanism, sometimes several times a day, the soil finally filled the instrument, which scientists hope will help uncover signs of the existence of water and life-supporting organic minerals on the red planet.
"We actually got a full oven," Bill Boynton, one the science team members, said in a teleconference with reporters yesterday.
"The problem is now behind us. And sometime in the next day or two, we will close the oven and actually start the analysis. So we are very, very pleased," he said. The analysis process will take about five days.
By baking the sample, scientists will vaporize water that constitutes the ice, he said.
In subsequent days, the temperatures will rise to see minerals that decompose at different temperatures.
"When they do so they will give up water and CO2 that they might have reacted in the past and we can identify what minerals they are," Boynton said. "We are looking at evidence of past interactions with water."
Phoenix landed on the stark terrain of Mars' North Pole region on May 25.