Sol 90+, Extended mission Options

[Ipparchus]

Why did they aquire another WCL-3 sample(Golden Goose 3)?wasn`t the Golden Goose 2 enough? the upcoming TEGA sample where is going to be from?Stone Soup or Snow White?

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[centsworth_II]

Why did they aquire another WCL-3 sample(Golden Goose 3)?wasn`t the Golden Goose 2 enough?

I'm not aware of this. As far as I know, one sample was delivered to WCL-3 and that's that. Do you have a reference for "Golden Goose 3"?

[01101001]

I'm not aware of this. As far as I know, one sample was delivered to WCL-3 and that's that. Do you have a reference for "Golden Goose 3"?

Texas A&M Raw Images

Sol 102: Document GG3 sample and transfer to WCL3; remote sensing
[...]
Sol 096: Document GG2 delivery to WCL-3, TEGA door 1; remote sensing; night science

[Tman]

Makes the whole situation up there at the Martian Pole so much more vivid and "real", to see the panels flapping. A bit like the litle tell-tale, but more impressive...

"real" like this

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[centsworth_II]

Sol 102: Document GG3 sample and transfer to WCL3; remote sensing
[...]
Sol 096: Document GG2 delivery to WCL-3, TEGA door 1; remote sensing; night science

Curious. There must be some mistake.

[peter59]

Great days for MECA OM team. Many high quality OM images.
Sol 103
Sol 101
Sol 099

[Stu]

Great days for MECA OM team. Many high quality OM images.Sol 099

Wow... very nice... couldn't resist a couple of probably-bear-no-relation-to-actual-colour-at-all colourisations...

[climber]

Wow. I didn't expect that kind of power with Mars' air density...
It clearly is flapping ...

Trying to take off ?

[elakdawalla]

Did anybody else notice this? I didn't see it until just this morning. Looks like TEGA has suffered some kind of anomaly. It's not clear to me from the story if they're going to be able to get what they want to get out of an ice-rich sample or not now. It's New Scientist, so take it with a grain of salt.

Mars lander to squirrel away soil in advance of winter

--Emily

[mars loon]

I didn't see it until just this morning. Looks like TEGA has suffered some kind of anomaly. It's not clear to me from the story if they're going to be able to get what they want to get out of an ice-rich sample or not now. It's New Scientist, so take it with a grain of salt.[
--Emily

my guess is this anomoly is the gas flow problem reported in Aug 31 press release. hopefully not a new problem. ken
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/08_29_pr.php

"The team is currently working to diagnose an intermittent interference that has become apparent in the path for gases generated by heating a soil sample in the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer to reach the instrument's mass spectrometer. Vapors from all samples baked to high temperatures have reached the mass spectrometer so far, however data has shown that the gas flow has been erratic, which is puzzling the scientists."

[stevesliva]

It sounded familiar to me as well. I'm thinking New Scientist probably noticed that and gave them a call, because they got a little more info.

[TheChemist]

.... data has shown that the gas flow has been erratic, which is puzzling the scientists."

I agree mars_loon, it seems that the $%^#*#^# previously erratic gas flow has now stopped completely. So we have to rely on the gases created in situ from the sample to carry stuff of lower concentration to the mass spectrometer. We probably kiss quantitative results goodbye, more or less (although the "intermittent" gas flow may have affected previous TEGA measurements too).

Mars hits back, but we will endure

[Aussie]

It's New Scientist, so take it with a grain of salt.
--Emily

Well they identify and quote their source and provide more information than the official update so I think this time we can forego the salt.

The update http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/08_29_pr.php states that 'At least one ice water cloud has been observed'. Does this imply that the clouds observed are mainly high CO2 ice?

[01101001]

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/08_29_pr.php

"The team is currently working to diagnose an intermittent interference that has become apparent in the path for gases generated by heating a soil sample in the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer to reach the instrument's mass spectrometer. Vapors from all samples baked to high temperatures have reached the mass spectrometer so far, however data has shown that the gas flow has been erratic, which is puzzling the scientists."

My recollection was that the early short problem -- end of May? -- in TEGA was in the shared carrier gas apparatus.

Edit: UMSF article

As I understand it the part that has shorted out is one of the two carrier gas ionizers.

The ovens vaporize the soil samples; these vapors are carried by a neutral carrier gas to the mass spectrometer. But before the carrier gas is fed over the sample it is charged then accelerated. The ionizer is needed to charge the gas so it can be be accelerated (like in an ion engine). Luckily there are two coils so when one is malfunctioning the other may be used instead. It seems to me that the team has some confidence that this is the case and full functionality can be restored.

Check that. Next article there says:

No. ionization occurs in the mass spec. The carrier gas is neutral - remember the baking in the
ovens must be done under 'pressure'.

Where was that initial short?

Edit: Nevermind. Ionization apparatus. Space.com:

The glitch seems to be a short circuit in a filament in a part of the instrument that ionizes the vapors before they are sent to the detector, said TEGA co-investigator William Boynton of the University of Arizona. There are two filaments in the detector however, and TEGA scientists are now investigating whether they can operate the instrument with just the one filament.

[hortonheardawho]

sol 103 OM45 EDF montage:



EDF - Extended Depth of Field.

This was created from 27 images exposed over a 13 minute period. The image is the sharpest at each point of three focus positions - except where the soil moved.