Probe to dig for past life on Mars

[Farside]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/0...eut/index.html


CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) -- A robotic probe designed to touch and analyze Martian water for the first time is being prepared for launch at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, officials said on Tuesday.

The craft, known as Phoenix, is expected to land in the northern polar region of Mars and dig beneath the soil. Launch is scheduled for August 3 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Bolstered by evidence that Mars once had liquid surface water, scientists are keen to recover an actual sample to see if the materials for life exist.

A fleet of satellites and rovers has been scouring the surface of Mars to try to determine if the planet was habitable at some point in its past.

Scientists also want to understand the environmental and climatic changes that turned what is believed to have been a warm, watery world into the cold, dry desert that exists today.

Phoenix will add a microscopic perspective to the mix.

Upon reaching Mars in May 2008, the spacecraft is to land just as the winter ice begins to recede around the polar cap. Scientists expect the probe will touch down on newly exposed soil, but their true target lies just beneath the surface.

Among Phoenix's tools are devices to scoop and drill, photograph and chemically analyze soil and ice samples.

"We expect hard, icy soil right beneath the ground," planetary scientist and Phoenix researcher Ray Arvidson, with Washington University in St. Louis, said in an interview.

Samples will be dissolved in water to look for salts, which likely would have been deposited during watery conditions in the past.

Phoenix's onboard laboratory also includes small ovens to break down minerals in the samples for chemical analysis.

Ice theories
NASA's first foray for signs of the ingredients for life on Mars was conducted during the twin 1976 Viking missions, but those landers touched down in dry regions. Satellites have since revealed widespread ice near the planet's poles.

Some scientists believe a vast frozen ocean is buried beneath the ice. Another theory says Mars' polar ice solidified from atmospheric water vapor, not a widespread ocean.

Phoenix will be able to make isotopic measurements of the hydrogen and oxygen molecules and perhaps resolve this puzzle.

"It's likely that we'll get interesting results from the soil samples," Arvidson said.

First, Phoenix must reach Mars, a journey that has claimed dozens of previous spacecraft. Phoenix is a resurrection of spare parts and instruments from the unsuccessful Mars Polar Lander and Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander initiatives.

Polar Lander was lost as it attempted to touch down in December 1999. Mars Surveyor was canceled in the wake of Polar Lander's failure and the loss of a sister probe, Mars Climate Orbiter, two months earlier.

NASA traced the failures to inadequate testing and oversights. A metric conversion error led to the orbiter's demise, for example.

Like Polar Lander and Climate Orbiter, Phoenix is a relatively low-cost mission.

Rather than building "faster, better, cheaper" spacecraft, as had been NASA's aim in the 1990s, Phoenix achieves its savings by narrowly focusing its science agenda to determine one goal: if Mars had the ingredients for life.

Copyright 2007 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

[Rick Deckard]

I wonder if it'll actually get there...

[Tom Levine]

Originally Posted by Rick Deckard

I wonder if it'll actually get there...

Since probes are getting fairly cheap to launch now (as compared to man-based space projects), shouldn't NASA take a "twofer" approach...Buy 2, get one free? Send out 3 probes...Statistically, 2 of them will crash, and one will survive.

[Rick Deckard]

Originally Posted by Tom Levine

Since probes are getting fairly cheap to launch now (as compared to man-based space projects), shouldn't NASA take a "twofer" approach...Buy 2, get one free? Send out 3 probes...Statistically, 2 of them will crash, and one will survive.

Doesn't matter how many they send, the 'big black cigar' will shoot them down. Ask the Russians...

[pixelsmith]

shouldnt we just radio someone on mars and have them send samples back to us?

[Gene Steinberg]

Originally Posted by pixelsmith

shouldnt we just radio someone on mars and have them send samples back to us?

Then the lowest bidder can't make money for building the probe

[Aaron LeClair]

Originally Posted by Rick Deckard

Doesn't matter how many they send, the 'big black cigar' will shoot them down. Ask the Russians...

It was black? I didn't know that. There's a lack of info. on the seemingly extraordinary event. Amazing how what happened hasn't been explored more by mainstream media and science.

[Rick Deckard]

Originally Posted by A.LeClair

It was black? I didn't know that. There's a lack of info. on the seemingly extraordinary event. Amazing how what happened hasn't been explored more by mainstream media and science.

Erm, actually I'm not sure what I saw - thinking about it, the last image the probe sent before they lost contact was of a long *cigar-shaped shadow* being cast on the surface of Mars.

It's all a bit vague in my mind - perhaps I'll look it up later.

[Rick Deckard]

Originally Posted by A.LeClair

Amazing how what happened hasn't been explored more by mainstream media and science.

Perhaps, it's NASA doing the shooting down - it want's to keep it's new 'territory' under US control...

[Aaron LeClair]

Here's a 9 min vid with photos of the shadow and perhaps the actual object that hit, or "blew up" the Phobos probe. The whole segment isn't on it though. If you aren't interested in the whole thing, skip to a little more than half way through for it's first mention (I think, I skipped around a bit myself, cause a lot of the vid is crap). Then it's dealt with again towards the end with more photos etc.