Microscopic View of Soil on a Micromachined Silicone Substrate

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Microscopic View of Soil on a Micromachined Silicone Substrate
(NASA) - This image taken by the Optical Microscope on NASA’sPhoenix Mars Lander on Sol 17 (June 11, 2008) shows soil sprinkledfrom the lander’s Robot Arm scoop onto a substrate that hasbeen micromachined to produce different patterns of pegs and holesto capture the smallest particles in the Martian soil.
The micromachined substrates are designed to tightly hold particlesfor imaging using the Atomic Force Microscope on Phoenix, whichshould be able to zoom in another 40 times beyond the magnificationin this Optical Microscope image. Each stripe has a differentspacing of pegs and holes. The strip third from the left, with apeg spacing of 5 micrometers, has been most successful incollecting the particles. These substrates were fabricated byImperial College London as the United Kingdom hardware contributionto the Phoenix mission.
For scale, each strip is 0.4 millimeter (0.016 inch) wide.
The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, onbehalf of NASA. Project management of the mission is byNASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraftdevelopment is by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.
Image NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Imperial CollegeLondon
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