Mars ice evidence may arrive this week

If the delivery is successful, scientists could have chemical evidence of Martian water ice this week, with proof of carbon, hydrogen and other elements coming later.

"It would be a revelation, change entirely the way we think about Mars," said Peter Smith, principal investigator.

An icy sample rasped, scraped, collected and delivered to the Lander's Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer overnight Friday stuck in the craft's robotic arm scoop and failed to fall into an open TEGA oven door, images received Saturday showed.

Not enough of the sample reached the tiny oven - about the thickness of a pencil lead and 1 inch long - for analysis to take place, Sara Hammond, the University of Arizona-led mission's public affairs manager, said Sunday.

Images received Sunday morning showed the scoop empty. The stuck material had fallen on the Lander's deck, over which the scoop was left inverted following the failed TEGA delivery attempt.

Scientists ordered the Lander to rasp, scrape, collect a nd deliver another sample to TEGA Sunday, Hammond said.

If enough material reaches the TEGA oven, it will close and begin analysis, which will take a few days, she said.

Sunday's delivery attempt reduced the time the rasp is used to drill into the hard-as-concrete frozen Martian dirt.

Researchers were not sure why the icy material stuck in the scoop, Hammond said. One possibility is that the motorized rasp melted the ice, causing it to stick.

The scoop will sprinkle the material onto a screen with 1 millimeter openings protecting the TEGA oven, said William Boynton, lead TEGA scientist.

TEGA bakes and sniffs the material - heating it up to 1 ,800 degrees Fahrenheit - and analyzes the gases given off for water, hydrogen, carbon and other components that could show if the area is or was habitable.

Because water ice sublimates, or evaporates, on Mars, the sample must be rasped, scooped, collected and delivered within 30 minutes, Smith said.

The procedure has been practiced many times, on Mars and in a Tucson Payload Interoperability Testbed featuring a full scale engineering model of the Lander and a realistic Martian landscape, Smith said.

"And we're going to do it earlier in the morning, when it is still freezing cold, and that will help us keep the ice from getting sticky," Smith said.

Latest Images

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  › After Rasping by Phoenix in 'Snow White' Trench, Sol 60

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  › After Attempted Sample Delivery on Sol 60, False Color

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  › Soil Still in Scoop After Sample-Delivery Attempt

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  › Doors Fully Open on Phoenix's Next Oven

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  › Scoop Ready to Obtain New Sample

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  › 'Snow White' Trench After Scraping