This image shows a view from NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander's Stereo Surface Imager's left eye after delivery of soil to the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA), taken on the 12th Martian day after landing (Sol 12, June 6, 2008). Soil is visible on both sides of the open doors of TEGA's #4 oven. Sensors inside the device indicate no soil passed through the screen and into the oven. Photo Credit: NASAJune 8, 2008 (Sawf News) - A glitch on the Phoenix Mars Lander stalled the first attempt to test soil scooped up by the spacecraft's robotic arm from the Martian surface.
The arm released a sample of soil onto a screened opening of the lander's Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA) during the 12th Martian day, or sol, since landing (June 6, 2008). TEGA did not confirm that any of the sample had passed through the screen.
An image from the Lander's Stereo Surface Imager's left eye, taken after delivery of soil to the TEGA, shows soil on both sides of the open doors of TEGA's #4 oven. Sensors inside the device indicate no soil passed through the screen and into the oven.
William Boynton of the University of Arizona in Tucson, who is overseeing the oven experiments, says the dirt landed properly and instruments show a vibrator on the screen designed to help shake soil into the chamber was working.
However, an electronic eye positioned to detect dirt falling into the chamber didn't report any particles.
"We think everything is working correctly, although we don't really know for sure," Boynton said Saturday in a teleconference news briefing from Tucson. "We're a little bit concerned about this but we have some other things to check out."
It is possible that the soil got compacted while being scooped up and did not pass through the screen, which is designed to allow only small particles into the oven. Or, perhaps the vibrator did not work despite readings from the sensors that it did.
The spacecraft has seven other similar ovens so it is unlikely missions objective would be compromised by any failure of the oven.
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