Phoenix Rasps Frozen Layer, Collects Sample

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/phoenix/release.php?ArticleID=1788

Phoenix Rasps Frozen Layer, Collects Sample
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
July 16, 2008

TUCSON, Ariz. -- A powered rasp on the back of the robotic arm scoop
of
NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander successfully drilled into the frozen soil
and
loosened material that was collected in the lander's scoop.

Images and data sent from Phoenix early Wednesday indicated the shaved
material in the scoop had changed slightly over time during the hours
after it was collected.

The motorized rasp -- located on the back of the lander's robotic arm
scoop -- made two distinct holes in a trench informally named "Snow
White." The material loosened by the rasp was collected in the scoop
and
documented by the Robotic Arm Camera. The activity was a test of the
rasping method of gathering an icy sample, in preparation for using
that
method in coming days to collect a sample for analysis in an oven of
Phoenix's Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer.

"This was a trial that went really well," said Richard Morris, a
Phoenix
science team member from NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston. "While
the putative ice sublimed out of the shavings over several hours, this
shows us there will be a good chance ice will remain in a sample for
delivery" to Phoenix's laboratory ovens.

Phoenix on Wednesday will be commanded to continue scraping and
enlarging the "Snow White" trench and to conduct another series of
rasp
tests. The lander's cameras will again be used to monitor the sample
in
the scoop after its collection.

The Phoenix mission is led by Peter Smith of the University of Arizona
with project management at JPL and development partnership at Lockheed
Martin, Denver. International contributions come from the Canadian
Space
Agency; the University of Neuchatel; 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@xxxxxxxxxxxx

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
dwayne.c.brown@xxxxxxxx

Sara Hammond 520-626-1974
University of Arizona, Tucson
shammond@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

2008-134

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