Posted on 05/27/2008 6:34:04 PM PDT by blam
Mars mission delayed by Phoenix lander's radio and robotic arm glitches
By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles
Last Updated: 1:10AM BST 28/05/2008
Nasa's ambitious mission to discover if Mars was ever habitable suffered a delay when a radio glitch prevented the agency's Phoenix lander from receiving its daily to-do list from Earth.
Nasa said the glitch was due to a 'transient event'
Mission controllers said the radio on one of the orbiters communicating with the probe switched off and failed to send the craft a command list for its second Maritan sol, or day.
Scientists were working to discover what had gone wrong and if the radio could be turned back on, said Fuk Li, manager of the Mars exploration programme at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
The fault will cause a delay of at least a day to Phoenix's timetable, postponing a manoeuvre planned for Tuesday to begin moving its robotic arm and pushing back the start of excavation and analysis of the Martian soil, due to begin next week.
Mr Li said the problem did not threaten the overall goal of the $420 million (£210 million) mission, which is to probe the Martian arctic permafrost for the liquid water and minerals necessary to sustain basic life.
If the glitch with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's radio could not be fixed, instructions could be sent via Nasa's Odyssey spacecraft, he added. Both are able to relay commands to Phoenix as the lander cannot communicate directly with Earth.
"The team is right in the middle of trying to decide what to do," Mr Li said. "The hope clearly is that MRO will turn back on and we'll go back to normal. If not, we'll have to ask Odyssey to do double duty."
He said the problem was due to a "transient event" such as a high speed cosmic ray particle hitting some part of the orbiter's UHF radio, which had been successfully tested more than 100 times and was still communicating with the Earth.
He stressed the fault was not associated with the lander, saying: "Phoenix is healthy, everything is fine."
Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, the mission's principal researcher, said planned manoeuvres to unlatch and begin flexing the lander's 8 ft digging arm would be delayed until today.
Mr Li, meanwhile, allayed earlier concerns about a protective sheath still partially covering the arm, saying updated photographs showed it had retracted further leaving plenty of clearance for the robotic limb.
The latest data and images from the mission included dramatic pictures from orbit. One showed Phoenix parachuting down close to a 6 mile wide crater. Another taken by the Mars Reconnaissance orbiter showed the lander sitting on the polar plains where it will work for the next three months, its solar panels extended to capture the sun's rays.
Dr Smith said he was delighted with the images of the probe's location. It is in a valley with low hills visible nine miles away on terrain dotted lightly with rocks.
"The workspace is ideal for us because it looks very diggable. We're very happy to see just a few rocks scattered in the digging area." He also expressed confidence the lander would be able to excavate some of the geometric patterns he suspects could be caused by ice thawing and re-freezing below the surface. "That has the science team quite excited."
As for the initial weather report, the current conditions on Mars are chilly (from minus 30 to minus 80 degrees C) but sunny and clear. The sun is not due to set until sometime in August.
"We're feeling very positive about this mission and can't wait to start interacting with the soil and doing our excavation," Dr Smith said.
Commands due to be sent to the lander today include taking more pictures and starting to move the robotic arm, which will dig up soil and ice samples for analysis in Phoenix's on-board laboratory. Scientists hope to detect organic compounds that could indicate the ice was once water and may have been capable of sustaining life.
Phoenix executed a flawless touchdown early on Monday (UK time) after its 422 million mile, nine-month journey from Earth culminated in a nail-biting decent using a parachute and rocket thrusters, a method not deployed successfully since 1976.
It’s a small world: I recently got operated on by Mr. Fuk Li’s brother, Dr. Albert Li, MD.
/johnny
Oh man, now I am biting my nails. I imagine they will
come up with a solution though.
I wonder what Mr. Fuk Li said when the glitches started happening?
One of the scout ships must have flown too close to the lander...unlesss it was intentional...the fate of the armada will not be compromised!
It’s not a glitch. It’s a feature.
CQ CQ CQ Six meters...?
Mr. Li has two sisters. One is named Uhg and the other is called Hoem.
Interesting. I though his middle name was Uhg.
He also has a half-sister named Ghast.
/my grandpa’s favorite joke
My grandpa's favorite joke consisted of him pointing a gun at my feet and telling me to "dance nancy boy". Just kidding. Mostly ;)
His team didn't want the news to disturb him, so to keep him away from the console they told his assistant, "Get the ... outta here!"
Whew.
Hopes up for Phoenix. A characteristic of the phoenix is rising from the ashes.
Phoenix must have the union label on it.
How long have you worked in Microsoft marketing?
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