TEGA - Round 2 |
TEGA - Round 2 |
Jul 19 2008, 12:04 PM
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#201
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14433 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
I challenge you not to look at this and make a ping/spring/boing happy sort of a noise.
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/images/gallery/lg_14223.jpg |
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Sep 21 2008, 01:25 AM
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#202
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Member Group: Members Posts: 144 Joined: 17-July 07 From: Canberra Australia Member No.: 2865 |
I feel that solving the underlying cause of the sample 'stickiness' is just as important than getting a permafrost sample to the oven. The adhesive quality doesn't seem to be a function of ice as the sample from stone soup showed greater adhesion than the permafrost scrapings. With the lack of H2O from the probe results this seems to rule out H2O as a (major) contributing factor for the clumping.
Regardless, this is not an underperformance of the system. The screen is there to stop the introduction of large particles to the oven entrance where they could jam, so the clumping samples could not have got to the oven in any case. There is still the possibility that the sample will break down as the first one did and penetrate the screen in a few days time - so all is not yet lost. I'm not sure why trying to make a soil analogue is important. Unlike the rovers where they were trying to experiment with extraction techniques for the bogged vehicle Phoenix is on a very short timescale before the arm usage must be restricted or terminated. A mixture of non representative substances may make a reasonable analogue for the initial 'stickiness', but it would almost certainly not have the same breakdown characteristics over time - particularly when I don't believe we have a clue what is causing the adhesion in the first place. The answer is probably there in the TEGA and MECA results. |
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