NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander reached its 30th Martian day and starting today, it is ready for a new set of tests. Peter Smith of The University of Arizona, the mission’s leader, is ready for the new challenges and everyone awaits the results of the new analysis.
The robotic arm is being prepared for the new series of tests which will involve the Lander’s wet chemistry laboratory. The Martian soil will be delivered to the laboratory just as before, by using the robotic arm and the tests target the terrain’s compounds and characteristics, such as salts and acidity.
The wet chemistry laboratory is one of the many instruments of the Lander’s Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer, also known as the MECA. It is composed of an optical and atomic force microscope and also a thermal and electrical conductivity probe. The Analyzer was built by NASA’s research center, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, located in the cities La Canada Flintridge and Pasadena, in the Los Angeles Area.
The MECA will also be used to measure the soil’s electrical and thermal conductivity.
The mission demanded a long term commitment from several universities and companies from many countries. The partnership involved the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Canadian Space Agency, the University of Neuchatel from Switzerland, the Max Planck Institute from Germany, the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus from Denmark, the Finnish Meteorological Institute, Lockheed Martin Space Systems, MacDonald Dettwiler & Associates (MDA) and others.