|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
...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
|
|||
|
|||
...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
|
|||
|
|||
...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 |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
...Phoenix Launch...The Search for Life on Mars begins in 24 days !!!
|
#5
|
|||
|
|||
...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
|
|||
|
|||
...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
|
|||
|
|||
...Phoenix Launch...The Search for Life on Mars begins in 24 days !!!
|
#8
|
|||
|
|||
...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
|
|||
|
|||
...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
|
|||
|
|||
...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. | |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
NASA's Phoenix Mars Mission Gets Thumbs up for 2007 Launch | Sam Wormley | Amateur Astronomy | 0 | June 3rd 05 04:50 AM |
Extreme life in yellowstone may help search for life on Mars | Ray Vingnutte | Misc | 0 | April 21st 05 06:27 PM |