Phoenix Mars lander 'tastes' first sample of water ice.

Phoenix Mars lander 'tastes' first sample of water ice.
Updated 19:43 01 August 2008
NewScientist.com news service
Devin Powell
"After weeks of struggling to scrape icy material from just below the
surface of Mars, NASA's Phoenix lander has collected and analysed its
first sample of water ice.
"We've finally touched it and tasted it. It tastes very fine," said
team member William Boynton of the University of Arizona in Tucson.
"On Wednesday, Phoenix's robotic arm scooped out a sample of dirt from
a 5-centimetre deep trench called "Snow White", which it began digging
in June. The soil was transferred to one of the lander's eight TEGA
(Thermal Evolved-Gas Analyzer) ovens and slowly warmed to 2 °Celsius
(36 °Fahrenheit).
"When the temperature reached 0 °C (32 °F), the instrument had to add
extra heat to continue warming the sample – the signature of frozen
ice melting. TEGA's mass spectrometer also directly detected minute
traces of water."
http://space.newscientist.com/articl...water-ice.html

Interestingly, Boynton also said that salts in the soil may have
allowed ice to melt that would have the stickiness seen in the Phoenix
samples.
From the article:

"On 15 July, the team used a sort of drill called a rasp attached to
the scoop to cut cores out of Snow White and collect the shavings in a
compartment on the back side of the scoop. But when the scoop was
turned upside down, the sample stuck to the walls inside. Martian salt
may have melted the ice and made the soil sticky, says Boynton."


Note that the ice just turning into a gas, sublimating, would not
make the soil sticky. Keep in mind also that salts also depress the
pressure requirements for liquid water as it does the temperature
requirements.

Bob Clark

Robert Clark wrote:

Phoenix Mars lander 'tastes' first sample of water ice.
[snip]

Compost heap of NASA crap.

1) We've discovered dirt!
2) The dirt won't go into the pail.
3) Massive engineering and science confab, then "shake the pail."
4) Pail cracks.
5) It would be wet dirt if it were 100 degrees higher in temp!
7) NASA gets massive OSHA fine for not erecting warning signage and
barriers by open trench during excavation. EPA demands Environmental
Impact Report for damaging a fragile and endangered environment.
Phoenix then scratches its own butt with shovel until it freezes
solid.
8) NASA declares mission "a rousing success."
9) Three remaining Martians attack Earth, retaliating for
destruction of their only water reservoir.

--
Uncle Al
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/
(Toxic URL! Unsafe for children and most mammals)
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/lajos.htm#a2

On Aug 3, 11:34 am, Uncle Al wrote:
Robert Clark wrote:

Phoenix Mars lander 'tastes' first sample of water ice.

[snip]

Compost heap of NASA crap.

1) We've discovered dirt!
2) The dirt won't go into the pail.
3) Massive engineering and science confab, then "shake the pail."
4) Pail cracks.
5) It would be wet dirt if it were 100 degrees higher in temp!
7) NASA gets massive OSHA fine for not erecting warning signage and
barriers by open trench during excavation. EPA demands Environmental
Impact Report for damaging a fragile and endangered environment.
Phoenix then scratches its own butt with shovel until it freezes
solid.
8) NASA declares mission "a rousing success."
9) Three remaining Martians attack Earth, retaliating for
destruction of their only water reservoir.

--
Uncle Alhttp://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/
(Toxic URL! Unsafe for children and most mammals)http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/lajos.htm#a2

And yet there’s still not so much as one part per billion worth of any
objective mass spectrometer accounting for all of that supposed
water. You’d think by the way it’s getting mainstream touted, that
it’s worth 1e8 ppb of nearly pure h2o, though I can’t but wonder what
it really is.

What's the big ass holdup this time? (too much water? mass
spectrometer broken? no frozen bedrock to test? Ovens not getting
hot enough? Ovens shorting out? Phoenix farting too many bricks?)

Perhaps the “Compost heap of NASA crap” is finally perking, fermenting
and flowing up hill like it should. Perhaps their next mission should
be launched by Falcon 9 or F9 Heavy, thus once having fallen back into
the ocean they’ll have discovered water (salty water none the less),
and if their orbit destination manages to get submerged enough, they
might even discover an entirely new species of complex life surviving
where it’s entirely inhospitable to us mere humans.

http://www.spacex.com/falcon9.php (fully submersible orbit capable)

http://www.spacex.com/falcon9_heavy.php (bigger submersible payload
capable)

As per usual, powered by our hard earned public loot and NASA’s
perpetual spew of flatulence. To think, all we willage idiots have to
do is keep forking out our hard earned loot, and suck it up.

~ Brad Guth Brad_Guth Brad.Guth BradGuth

On Aug 3, 2:34*pm, Uncle Al wrote:
Robert Clark wrote:

Phoenix Mars lander 'tastes' first sample of water ice.

Compost heap of NASA crap.
* *1) We've discovered dirt!

* *8) NASA declares mission "a rousing success."
* *9) Three remaining Martians attack Earth, retaliating for
destruction of their only water reservoir.

As the mothership larger than the planet Earth silently glides through
the night sky....

NASA and the owned media are celebrating the so-called discovery of
"water" on mars. Nerdy NASA employees are seen cheering and raising
their scrawny arms in dorky salutes of their so-called "victory" which
means that the possible discovery of LIFE on other planets might even
be thinkable now! Maybe some day soon a bacterium or some fossilized
Johnson off of a single celled organism will forge the science of
mankind's "civilization" forward to new heights!

Meanwhile the giantic mothership opens a huge hatch and lands the
hundreds of thousands of scout ships that were surveying the primitive
planet that night....

NASA! Feh.

On Aug 3, 5:21 am, Robert Clark wrote:
Phoenix Mars lander 'tastes' first sample of water ice.
Updated 19:43 01 August 2008
NewScientist.com news service
Devin Powell
"After weeks of struggling to scrape icy material from just below the
surface of Mars, NASA's Phoenix lander has collected and analysed its
first sample of water ice.
"We've finally touched it and tasted it. It tastes very fine," said
team member William Boynton of the University of Arizona in Tucson.
"On Wednesday, Phoenix's robotic arm scooped out a sample of dirt from
a 5-centimetre deep trench called "Snow White", which it began digging
in June. The soil was transferred to one of the lander's eight TEGA
(Thermal Evolved-Gas Analyzer) ovens and slowly warmed to 2 °Celsius
(36 °Fahrenheit).
"When the temperature reached 0 °C (32 °F), the instrument had to add
extra heat to continue warming the sample – the signature of frozen
ice melting. TEGA's mass spectrometer also directly detected minute
traces of water."http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn14442-phoenix-mars-lander-tas...

Interestingly, Boynton also said that salts in the soil may have
allowed ice to melt that would have the stickiness seen in the Phoenix
samples.
From the article:

"On 15 July, the team used a sort of drill called a rasp attached to
the scoop to cut cores out of Snow White and collect the shavings in a
compartment on the back side of the scoop. But when the scoop was
turned upside down, the sample stuck to the walls inside. Martian salt
may have melted the ice and made the soil sticky, says Boynton."

Note that the ice just turning into a gas, sublimating, would not
make the soil sticky. Keep in mind also that salts also depress the
pressure requirements for liquid water as it does the temperature
requirements.

Bob Clark

By far the least costly mission of sending humans to Mars, there are
any number of robust men and I'd bet a few hot chicks on death row, or
of those unfortunate souls in some kind of irreversible terminal
illness situation, that would likely pay top dollar (including the
ultimate price) for a one-way ticket to Mars. This alone would cut
the budget by as much as 75%.

So, I would agree and otherwise argue that such willing folks should
not be denied their chance at being of the first to step, pee and poop
on Mars. I'd bet we'd sell 100 of those one-way tickets to ride
within the first year, and over a thousand tickets sold if we allowed
all nationalities and devout religious types to apply.

We might even raise an extra ten billion dollars this way, especially
from those of us willing to pay extra for getting rid of GW Bush, Dick
Cheney and Henry Kissinger.

Supposedly Mars is still holding onto its water, and thereby we most
likely have other than terrestrial life to behold. And yet there’s
still not so much as one reported part per billion worth of any
objective mass spectrometer accounting for all of that supposed
water. You’d think by the way it’s getting mainstream touted that
it’s worth 1e8 ppb of nearly pure h2o, though I can’t but wonder what
it really is.

Is the systematic excluding of evidence their one and only option at
their disposal?

What's the big ass need-to-know holdup this time? (zero/zilch water?
too much water? mass spectrometer broken? no frozen bedrock to test
because there’s too much dry-ice in the way? Ovens not getting hot
enough? Ovens shorting out? Phoenix farting too many bricks?)

Perhaps the forever growing “compost heap of NASA crap” is finally
perking, fermenting and flowing up hill like it should. Perhaps their
next Mars mission should be launched by Falcon 9 or F9 Heavy, thus
once having fallen back into the ocean they’ll have discovered water
(salty water none the less), and if their orbit destination manages to
get submerged deep enough, they might even discover an entirely new
species of complex life surviving where it’s entirely inhospitable to
us mere humans that supposedly came from the ocean to begin with.

http://www.spacex.com/falcon9.php (fully submersible orbit capable)

http://www.spacex.com/falcon9_heavy.php (bigger submersible payload
capable)

As per usual, rocket powered by our hard earned public loot and NASA’s
perpetual spew of infomercial hype and flatulence. To think, all we
village idiots have to do is keep forking out our hard earned loot,
and then suck it up each time a spendy mission goes for the deep blue
kind of station-keeping orbit.

~ Brad Guth Brad_Guth Brad.Guth BradGuth

Uncle Al wrote:
Robert Clark wrote:
Phoenix Mars lander 'tastes' first sample of water ice.
[snip]

Compost heap of NASA crap.

1) We've discovered dirt!
2) The dirt won't go into the pail.
3) Massive engineering and science confab, then "shake the pail."
4) Pail cracks.
5) It would be wet dirt if it were 100 degrees higher in temp!
7) NASA gets massive OSHA fine for not erecting warning signage and
barriers by open trench during excavation. EPA demands Environmental
Impact Report for damaging a fragile and endangered environment.
Phoenix then scratches its own butt with shovel until it freezes
solid.
8) NASA declares mission "a rousing success."
9) Three remaining Martians attack Earth, retaliating for
destruction of their only water reservoir.


grin Nah. Muttering Martians make another trip to Earth
to collect the liquid to refill their fountain.

/BAH