May 30, 2008

Has Phoenix Seen Ice?

NASA'S Phoenix Lander Robotic Arm Camera Sees Possible Ice

"Scientists have discovered what may be ice that was exposed when soil was blown away as NASA's Phoenix spacecraft landed on Mars last Sunday, May 25. The possible ice appears in an image the robotic arm camera took underneath the lander, near a footpad. "We could very well be seeing rock, or we could be seeing exposed ice in the retrorocket blast zone," said Ray Arvidson of Washington University, St. Louis, Mo., co-investigator for the robotic arm. "We'll test the two ideas by getting more data, including color data, from the robotic arm camera. We think that if the hard features are ice, they will become brighter because atmospheric water vapor will collect as new frost on the ice."


Posted by kcowing at May 30, 2008 5:02 PM
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Just a heads up: the Twitter link is now in NASA's Phoenix main site (and well advertised I may add, just below the "read more" in the latest news section)

Posted by: eeergo at May 30, 2008 6:00 PM

What about this image?

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/234067main_under-full.jpg

Are those frozen droplets on the landing leg on the left side of the image?

Posted by: Brian Bernhard at May 31, 2008 3:34 PM

@ Brian

When you mentioned that your linked picture may show frozen droplets on the landing leg my first response was that they could have collected during decent into the atmosphere. But this link pretty much slams that argument: http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/M/Marsatmos.html

Now looking at the photo you linked, the biggest droplets seemed to be collected on side of the landing strut opposite the boosters except for the highest one. The top drop is still pretty much in line with the others though. This is good. Lastly there don't seem to be any drops on the top third of the strut, or at least they get smaller as one gets closer to the engine. Also good. We can't see what's going on further up the strut due to shadows. The only other thing I can think of is that are no droplets on the strut in the foreground, but that strut also looks to be about three times further away from the water source than the one with droplets. There is also a mound of dirt that could potentially obstruct incoming water for the foreground strut. Judging by the background of the image, the mound of dirt wasn't there before the craft landed, but I can't figure how it got there.

So, looks like ice to me. Can't wait to see the results of further analysis.

Posted by: Sam Bentson at June 1, 2008 9:52 PM
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