[meteorite-list] NASA Phoenix Lander Bakes Sample, Arm Digs Deeper

[Pete Shugar]

My question is:
If there are only 8 ovens on the Lander, what happens when they are 
all full? Is there a provision to dump the ovens and reuse them?
Pete

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ron Baalke" <baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 12:54 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] NASA Phoenix Lander Bakes Sample, Arm Digs Deeper



> 

> http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-111b

> 

> NASA Phoenix Lander Bakes Sample, Arm Digs Deeper

> Jet Propulsion Laboratory

> 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 at jpl.nasa.gov

> 

> Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726

> NASA Headquarters, Washington

> dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov

> 

> Sara Hammond 520-626-1974

> University of Arizona, Tucson

> shammond at lpl.arizona.edu

> 

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