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...Phoenix Launch...The Search for Life on Mars begins in 24 days !!!



 
 
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  #1  
Old July 9th 07, 11:24 PM posted to sci.geo.geology,sci.space.history,sci.astro,sci.space.policy
Jonathan
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Default ...Phoenix Launch...The Search for Life on Mars begins in 24 days !!!


The rovers and other observers have been a search
primarily for signs of water on Mars for obvious
reasons. But the rovers lacked the equipment
for tests of life. Phoenix takes the next step.


Phoenix Mar Mission Home
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/


"The Phoenix lander is going to an area of Mars where water
is believed to exist in the form of ice just below the surface.
This water ice is probably spread fairly uniformly throughout
the northern plains so the lander should be able to uncover
ice wherever it lands."
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/faq.php


"On the deck, miniature ovens and a mass spectrometer, built
by the University of Arizona and University of Texas-Dallas, will
provide chemical analysis of trace matter. A chemistry
lab-in-a-box, assembled by JPL, will characterize the soil
and ice chemistry. Imaging systems, designed by the University
of Arizona, University of Neuchatel (Switzerland) (providing an
atomic force microscope), Max Planck Institute (Germany) and
Malin Space Science Systems, will provide an unprecedented
view of Mars-spanning 12 powers of 10 in scale.
The Canadian Space Agency will deliver a meteorological station,
marking the first significant involvement of Canada in a mission
to Mars."
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/mission.php


Science Objectives

Objective 2: Search for Evidence of Habitable Zone and Assess
the Biological Potential of the Ice-Soil Boundary

"Recent discoveries have shown that life can exist in the most
extreme conditions. Indeed, it is possible that bacterial spores
can lie dormant in bitterly cold, dry, and airless conditions for
millions of years and become activated once conditions become
favorable. Such dormant microbial colonies may exist in the
Martian arctic, where due to the periodic wobbling of the
planet, liquid water may exist for brief periods about
every 100,000 years making the soil environment habitable."

"Phoenix will assess the habitability of the Martian northern
environment by using sophisticated chemical experiments to
assess the soil's composition of life giving elements such as
carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and hydrogen. Identified by
chemical analysis, Phoenix will also look at reduction-oxidation
(redox) molecular pairs that may determine whether the potential
chemical energy of the soil can sustain life, as well as other
soil properties critical to determine habitability such as pH
and saltiness."

"Despite having the proper ingredients to sustain life, the Martian
soil may also contain hazards that prevent biological growth, such
as powerful oxidants that break apart organic molecules. Powerful
oxidants that can break apart organic molecules are expected
in dry environments bathed in UV light, such as the surface of Mars.
But a few inches below the surface, the soil could protect organisms
from the harmful solar radiation. Phoenix will dig deep enough into
the soil to analyze the soil environment potentially protected from
UV looking for organic signatures and potential habitability."
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/science03.php


And two great videos at this site.

Scroll down and watch the rough cut entry, descent
and landing video. The landing looks rather risky eh?

And just below that video is a wonderful collection of
various water features on Mars, comparing valley networks
deltas, channels, oxbows etc between earth and mars.
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/videos.php


s


  #2  
Old July 10th 07, 12:58 AM posted to sci.geo.geology,sci.space.history,sci.astro,sci.space.policy
Henry Spencer
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Default ...Phoenix Launch...The Search for Life on Mars begins in 24 days !!!

In article ,
Jonathan wrote:
Scroll down and watch the rough cut entry, descent
and landing video. The landing looks rather risky eh?


And if the video isn't enough to make you nervous, consider that the
lander chassis is essentially a duplicate of that of the late lamented
Mars Polar Lander.

(There was a second lander under construction, with a different payload
but the same chassis design, meant for launch in 2001. It was grounded
after MPL was lost, and then canceled altogether. The chassis was one of
the assets made available to the competitors in the first Mars Scout
competition, which Phoenix won.)

There's a reason why the lander is called Phoenix, and it's not because
the Principal Investigator is from U of Arizona... :-)
--
spsystems.net is temporarily off the air; | Henry Spencer
mail to henry at zoo.utoronto.ca instead. |
  #3  
Old July 10th 07, 03:16 AM posted to sci.geo.geology,sci.space.history,sci.astro,sci.space.policy
Hop David
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Default ...Phoenix Launch...The Search for Life on Mars begins in 24days !!!

Henry Spencer wrote:


There's a reason why the lander is called Phoenix, and it's not because
the Principal Investigator is from U of Arizona... :-)


UofA has a pathological hatred for the Phoenix area, especially Tempe.
They are bitter for the many times Sparky has kicked Wilbur's butt.

Hop
  #5  
Old July 10th 07, 02:18 PM posted to sci.geo.geology,sci.space.history,sci.astro,sci.space.policy
surfduke
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Default ...Phoenix Launch...The Search for Life on Mars begins in 24 days !!!

It would make Me feel better if We had images of the crash site. It
has been search for but never imaged. Pictures might help in the
investigation of the cause of the failure. The fault tree
investigation showed it to be the early engine shut down. I would hope
that that does not happen again. This will be the first attempt at
life science since the failed Beagle mission. That too was a shame to
have lost.

Carl

  #6  
Old July 10th 07, 06:00 PM posted to sci.geo.geology,sci.space.history,sci.astro,sci.space.policy
John[_3_]
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Default ...Phoenix Launch...The Search for Life on Mars begins in 24 days !!!

On Jul 10, 9:18 am, surfduke wrote:
It would make Me feel better if We had images of the crash site. It
has been search for but never imaged. Pictures might help in the
investigation of the cause of the failure. The fault tree
investigation showed it to be the early engine shut down. I would hope
that that does not happen again. This will be the first attempt at
life science since the failed Beagle mission. That too was a shame to
have lost.

Carl


AW&ST had a good article within the past couple of weeks about
Phoenix. Regarding the old chassis, one of the project people
discussed how the Better Quicker Cheaper mantra led to the skipping of
testing. That testing has been on Phoenix, and not surprisingly, they
found stuff that could have resulted in the vehicle having a bad day,
that they subsequently fixed. The article also discussed that they
have retargeted the vehicle once already due to imagery that said the
landing area first selected was too rough.

Find the article . . . there is an awesome picture of water being run
under high pressure being run through the landing rocket system to
find leaks. I was surprised that water was used . . . and amazed at
the efflux from the 12 engine nozzles.

Take care . . .

John

  #7  
Old July 10th 07, 06:18 PM posted to sci.geo.geology,sci.space.history,sci.astro,sci.space.policy
rick++
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Default ...Phoenix Launch...The Search for Life on Mars begins in 24 days !!!

Nice article here too

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/10/sc...10shuttle.html

  #8  
Old July 10th 07, 06:20 PM posted to sci.geo.geology,sci.space.history,sci.astro,sci.space.policy
Pat Flannery
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Default ...Phoenix Launch...The Search for Life on Mars begins in 24days !!!



Derek Lyons wrote:
Why would that make you nervous? The failure of MPL wasn't a design
error so far as we know.

Yes it was; the sensors on the vehicle interpreted the vibration of
landing gear extension as touchdown, and shut down the landing rockets
while it was still quite a ways in the air.
That at least needs to be fixed.

Pat
  #9  
Old July 11th 07, 12:34 AM posted to sci.geo.geology,sci.space.history,sci.astro,sci.space.policy
Henry Spencer
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Default ...Phoenix Launch...The Search for Life on Mars begins in 24 days !!!

In article ,
Derek Lyons wrote:
And if the video isn't enough to make you nervous, consider that the
lander chassis is essentially a duplicate of that of the late lamented
Mars Polar Lander.


Why would that make you nervous? The failure of MPL wasn't a design
error so far as we know.


So far as we know. We *think* we know why MPL failed, but we lack
confirmation -- the touchdown-sensor problem certainly would have killed
it, but it's also possible that something else went wrong. This chassis
so far is 0 for 1 on landing attempts.
--
spsystems.net is temporarily off the air; | Henry Spencer
mail to henry at zoo.utoronto.ca instead. |
  #10  
Old July 11th 07, 12:46 AM posted to sci.geo.geology,sci.space.history,sci.astro,sci.space.policy
Henry Spencer
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Posts: 2,170
Default ...Phoenix Launch...The Search for Life on Mars begins in 24 days !!!

In article .com,
John wrote:
...Regarding the old chassis, one of the project people
discussed how the Better Quicker Cheaper mantra led to the skipping of
testing.


Note, however, that according to people who were the

"All customary and prudent steps were executed in the development
process... After examination of the contributing factors, there is no
evidence that [faster/better/cheaper] concepts caused the MPL failure."

A test that would have detected the touchdown-sensor problem *was done*.
It had to be interrupted in the middle due to another problem, and they
decided to pick up from where it left off, rather than starting over from
the beginning. The picking up from where it left off, alas, didn't quite
reinitialize things to the exact previous state, and so the problem was
missed.

(Ref: Euler et al, "The failures of the Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars
Polar Lander: a perspective from the people involved", Advances in the
Astronautical Sciences 107 (Guidance & Control Conference 2001).)

Similar testing mistakes have killed slower/worse/costlier megaprojects;
Galileo, one of the slowest and costliest planetary-probe projects ever,
made several such mistakes, although by good luck none was fatal. There
is no rational reason to blame the MPL loss on faster/better/cheaper
(unlike the loss of MCO, which pretty definitely *was* due to the
compressed schedule and shortage of manpower).
--
spsystems.net is temporarily off the air; | Henry Spencer
mail to henry at zoo.utoronto.ca instead. |
 




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