Sat, Jul 04, 2009
ez access
Subscriber services | Subscribe now
Custom clipper icon
VIDEO
"This area contains exactly what we were looking for. All in all, it's a great area for us to dig."
Mark Lemmon
A co-investigator on the lander's main camera
Fairy tales on Mars?
During a press briefing Wednesday, one of the lead investigators on Phoenix's main camera began talking about seeing Humpty Dumpty and Sleepy Hollow on the surface surrounding the lander.
Though no fairy tales were taken aboard Phoenix on its 10-month, 422-million-mile journey to Mars, Mark Lemmon was letting the public in on the lighthearted approach scientists have taken when describing geological features surrounding the lander. A depression in the soil has been named Sleepy Hollow, and a fractured area is being called Humpty Dumpty, said Lemmon, a co-investigator on the lander's main camera who is from Texas A&M University.
There's no formal guide to naming features, but scientists and engineers working on the mission need a way to refer to certain areas around the lander, Lemmon said. The idea for the names came from Peter Smith, the University of Arizona's principal investigator, and it is a relatively common practice for geologists and other scientists, Lemmon said. The names are fun, and as long as they conform to the general shapes or characteristics in the soil, they'll continue to be used, Lemmon said.

Tucson Region

Mars lander set to deploy arm; 360° pix to aid dig-area choice

By Aaron Mackey
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 05.29.2008
The UA-led Phoenix Mars lander's robotic arm is expected to be unpacked today as mission leaders continue to get a better idea of the environment surrounding the spacecraft and search for sites to dig.
Phoenix Mars Mission planners temporarily lost communication with the lander on Tuesday, delaying a planned movement of Phoenix's robotic arm, so the first steps to deploying the robotic arm occurred Wednesday.
The arm is a crucial part of the spacecraft, as it will dig down into the arctic soil to try to determine whether there was ever liquid water or habitable conditions on the red planet.
The roughly 8-foot-long arm is double-jointed at the elbow and has a camera that will take pictures of soil it scoops. It also has a small rasp that will be used to cut into subsurface ice.
If everything goes as expected, the arm should be completely deployed by the end of today, said Robert Bonitz, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's robotic arm manager.
Since Sunday evening, the University of Arizona has led the Phoenix Mars Mission, becoming the first public university to lead a NASA mission. The goal of Phoenix is to determine whether Mars ever had a climate suitable for life.
Rather than the lander sitting idly on Mars' surface when a communication glitch in an orbiting satellite prevented a new set of commands from reaching it, Phoenix captured another series of images.
Several pictures were taken in high resolution, which will enable scientists to better determine where the spacecraft's robotic arm will dig in the coming weeks.
The pictures were taken as part of a pre-programmed backup plan that occurred after mission planners in Tucson were unable to upload a new set of instructions to the lander from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
The images show a series of polygons created by the expansion of ice beneath the surface and also provide new views of Phoenix's surroundings.
When combined with other images taken today, mission planners should have a 360-degree view around the lander by the end of the week, said Mark Lemmon, a co-investigator on the lander's main camera.
"These images are very exciting to the science team," said Lemmon, who is from Texas A&M University. "We see the polygons we're looking for and we're very excited to fill in the context."
Because the camera has two lenses that function similarly to human eyes, scientists can get a sense of the depth and contours in the soil, Lemmon said.
Using computer analysis, they already have partially developed a 3-D model of the terrain in the robotic arm's future workspace.
"This area contains exactly what we were looking for," Lemmon said. "All in all, it's a great area for us to dig."
Mission planners still have a lot of analysis left to do on the site, but they already have designated areas that they want to keep clean from contamination that could come from soil dug up by the robotic arm.
"We're starting to designate our natural preserve," Lemmon said. "We are going to protect this part of Mars, and we won't do anything further to modify the terrain until we know better."
Though Tuesday's communications glitch from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter appears to have been a one-time problem, mission planners are using another satellite for primary communications with the lander, said Barry Goldstein, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Phoenix project manager.
"This is a contingency that we had always planned for," he said. "We're in fine shape."
● Contact reporter Aaron Mackey at 807-8012 or at amackey@azstarnet.com.
Get Arizona Daily Star home delivery and SAVE BIG!
Go Back