Phoenix Mars Lander Delivers Soil Sample To Microscope

Tag : optical microscope

Mission scientists said enough of the fine-grained soil sampleremains in the scoop of the lander's Robotic Arm for delivery toeither the Wet Chemistry Lab or Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer.Both the Wet Chemistry Lab and the Optical Microscope are part ofthe Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer, orMECA, instrument.
"We want to deliver similar soil samples to all threeinstruments," said Ray Arvidson, the mission's lead scientistfor digging activities, from Washington University in St. Louis.
The lander's Robotic Arm has been commanded to remain in an"up" position to hold the collected soil in the scoopuntil it can be delivered to the other instruments.
The Phoenix mission is led by Peter Smith of the University ofArizona with project management at JPL and development partnershipat Lockheed Martin, located in Denver. International contributionscome from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel,Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark;Max Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish MeteorologicalInstitute.
For more about Phoenix, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix and http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu .