An Xtra leg for Xtra power for Xtra imaging !, Tilting Phoenix for Xtra weeks of activity before winter... Options

[jmknapp]

How about this idea to get a picture of the frost: at the close of the extended mission, put the lander in a sleep mode with a full charge, to wake up X days hence (whatever the hardware will bear) to take some shots?

What's the expected "negative energy" date anyway?

[hendric]

How many amp-hours are the lander batteries anyways?

[helvick]

There are two rated at 25 Amp Hours each - that's 1440 Watt Hours total if they are the 28.8V units that I think they are.

[MahFL]

I think we are going to see plenty of frost anyway. As soon as the sun starts to set around the end of August its going to get very very cold at night.

[lyford]

If they do end up tilting or dragging themselves along in the extended mission, perhaps they could rename the Robotic Arm to the

Limited Inline Mobility Platform?

[ngunn]

Can the arm push as hard as it can pull? If so wouldn't you want to push, which would tend to tilt the thing southward as well as maybe moving it, rather than pull and risk tilting it northward? Moving south might also allow the digger to reach Holy Cow.

[Guest_Oersted_*]

Using the

Dysfunctional Rove Arm Grabbing procedure.

(Guilty as charged)

[ngunn]

Phoenix Unplanned Sideways Hike

[climber]

Let's Discover Ice Guys, first

[Guest_Oersted_*]

Nooooooooo

[vikingmars]

I think we are going to see plenty of frost anyway. As soon as the sun starts to set around the end of August its going to get very very cold at night.

Agree, because we are located more north than VL2. BUT, to be sure to see some frost around the lander, we need really an Xtra energy to monitor those changes until the very last moment when the most interesting images may arrive. It might occur at the very edge of the lander shutdown and it would be a pity not to see it...
This is why an Xtra power to Phoenix would be most welcomed.
Besides, with the RA acting as an Xtra leg, the RAC would be facing the surface, close to it, and thus would be able to monitor the frost deposition as soon as it starts and at much higher resolution than the images of VL2 (herebelow an imaging tryptyc showing the build-up of frost around VL2 : from left to right at sols 023 (summer) / 245 (late autumn) / 317-329 (winter with its maximum frost coverage).

For the precise Ls numbers for frost build-up at the VL2 landing site, please refer to the paper of Audouin Dollfus (JGR, April 25, 1996)

[climber]

Hi PhoenixMars!
I take you idea very seriously Olivier; and I think it's a great one.
Using Viking 2 data, do you think we can predict when frost will start?
BTW I didn't know Audouin Dolfus was part of Viking Team.

[vikingmars]

Hello Climber ! Nice words from you !
No, Audouin Dollfus was not a member of the Viking team BUT was highly respected at JPL, because he was one of the very few able to do comparisons from Earth with powerful telescopes to see if the probes data could be corroborated between the landers and the Earth observatories and thus, predict the Martian weather including dust storms. This publication inside JGR is concluding decades of observations with lessons to be derived when you observe Mars with a telescope...

[vikingmars]

Using Viking 2 data, do you think we can predict when frost will start?

Ok. We are north of VL2 which started its frost build-up between Ls 242 (1st winter) and Ls 233 (2nd winter). Phoenix should start earlier, maybe between Ls 200-220. And don't forget that low temperatures are important also and must stay below -90°C during the day. That's make at the earlier maybe a 1st visible frost at sol 250 of the mission... ("visible" because an ultrathin veneer of frost may be there before but as a transient phenomenon and the SSI could not be able to see it before its sublimation back to the atmosphere)

[brianc]

Apologies if