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23 June 2008
Phoenix updates: TEGA interview, new images
First off, Astrobiology Magazine has posted a great interview with the TEGA (Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer – the ovens) principal investigator Bill Boynton. The interview provides a really great overview of how TEGA works, and what the team is hoping to see. The interview pretty much answered all the lingering questions that I had, as well as some that people have posted in the comments recently. In particular, here’s …
21 June 2008
The Great Canadian Adventure – Part 2: Gypsumville and Salt Springs
After our trip to the mine tailings, we headed to the remains of an ancient 40 km impact crater. The crater is totally invisible, but the rocks tell the story plain as day. Our first stop was just outside the town of Gypsumville. We drove through swampy, bumpy back roads into the middle of nowhere and stopped next to an unassuming patch of rock and gravel. At first it didn’t …
20 June 2008
It's official – Phoenix has found ice!
Some great news from Phoenix this morning: Phoenix has seen chunks of ice vaporize! (Press release via SpaceRef) The chunks of white material were sitting at the bottom of a trench the lander dug 4 days ago, and after looking at the trench again this morning, the chunks appear to vanished! Here’s an animation showing the changes – look for the vanishing chunks in the shadow on the left side …
5 June 2008
Phoenix's Neighborhood (Part I): The Basin
If you’re like us, you’ve been refreshing the Phoenix news page constantly, looking for the next update from Mars. If you need a little catching up on what’s going on in the mission, here are some recent posts with updates. But with all the Phoenix coverage, there hasn’t been much talk about the context for the Phoenix landing site. What’s so cool about the north pole of Mars? The north …
3 June 2008
Phoenix can dig it, can you?
Check it out: Phoenix has successfully broken ground on Mars, and the arm camera has proof in vivid color! Notice that there is some white stuff, even in this first scoop. Is it salt? Is it ice? Is it Something Else? Nobody knows… stay tuned.
2 June 2008
Holy Cow and Snow Queen
It looks like there is mounting evidence that two flat, light-toned deposits beneath the Phoenix lander, known as “Holy Cow” and “Snow Queen” are pieces of ice exposed when the rockets blew away a thin coating of soil. As always, Emily has all the gory details. I don’t have much to add other than to reiterate how amazingly awesome it would be for there to be ice that close to …
31 May 2008
Phoenix: Good News / Bad News
Bad news first: it looks like the Thermal Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA) instrument may have a short circuit in the mass spectrometer. I really hope they get this cleared up, because as I discussed before, the mass spectrometer is crucial in determining whether there are organic molecules or possibly life in any soil samples. Now the good news: Images from the robotic arm camera are showing a smooth, light-toned substance …
27 May 2008
Polygons on Mars?!
There has been a lot of excitement about the first glimpses of the martian arctic returned by the Phoenix lander, and particularly lots of “oohs” and “ahhs” over pictures, like the one above of so-called “polygons” on the surface. So, what’s the big deal with these polygons and how do they form? The short answer is that polygons form when soil with water in it freezes and thaws. The basic …
25 May 2008
Phoenix Lands on Mars Today!
I would be a very Bad Martian if I did not mention that the Phoenix lander is arriving at Mars today! In a few hours! I will be hosting a public event at Cornell tonight where we will be watching coverage on NASA TV and an interview with Steve Squyres on CNN. I’m not involved in the Phoenix mission, but it’s pretty exciting nonetheless. Remember, we as humans have only …
22 May 2008
The Search for Life on Mars: Part 2
In a previous post, I talked about how the idea of life on Mars captivated the mind of the world before the space age, and left off with the arrival of Mariner 4. Now, with the Phoenix landing coming up on Sunday, I thought it would be fitting to continue the story of the search for life on Mars by looking at what past spacecraft have found. When Mariner 4 …
