CNN
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- NASA's Phoenix Mars lander was not
the only one doing the shaking.
An image from the Phoenix lander shows two trenches it has dug in the
Martian soil.
Scientists operating the spacecraft broke into song and dance
Wednesday after learning that their latest effort to shake lumps of
Martian soil into a tiny testing oven worked.
Mission scientist William Boynton, who leads the oven experiment,
recalled how he danced to the disco tune "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake
Your Booty" after announcing the good news to his team.
"The dirt finally did start to flow, and we actually got a full oven,"
said Boynton, of the University of Arizona in Tucson. "So that problem
is now behind us."
Scientists failed six times to get soil scooped up from the Martian
arctic into one of eight miniature ovens on the lander that will test
for evidence of the chemical building blocks of life. In a last-ditch
effort this week, scientists vibrated the dirt-covered mesh screen a
final time in hopes that bits would shake through and fill the oven.
Data sent back by Phoenix early Wednesday showed its baking instrument
brimming with a pinch of soil, enough to conduct the first experiment
of the mission. The next step is to seal the oven and gradually heat
the soil to 1,800 degrees to measure the amount of water and study the
minerals in the sample. Results from the first analysis were expected
next week.
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Yay !
Money NOT wasted after all.
But they STILL shoulda put WHEELS on the damned thing.
Of course if they DO find some kind of fungus or whatever
in the stuff, they won't TELL us ..... might freak-out the
bible-nuts .........*
Anyway, seems the polar soil is like ... well ... make a
little mound of tal*** powder, spritz a bit of water onto
it and mix. Then set your freezer as cold as it will go
and put the mess in for a few hours. Kinda like frozen
clay .... hard, self-adhesive.
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