NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has begun using a special rasp
tool to shave off bits of the hard icy material on the Martian ground.
The rasp is a motorized tool attached to the back of the
lander's robotic arm scoop, which scientists hope will be able to grind enough
ice off the ground to eventually use as a sample in Phoenix's Thermal and
Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA) oven instrument.
The hard ice beneath the surface in the north polar regions
of Mars, where Phoenix
landed May 25, has so far been difficult
for the probe to dig into, but mission scientists say the rasp may be the
tool that helps get the job done.
"While Phoenix was in development, we added the rasp to
the robotic arm design specifically to grind into very hard surface ice,"
said Barry Goldstein, Phoenix project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "This is the exactly the situation we find
we are facing on Mars, so we believe we have the right tool for the job.
Honeybee Robotics in New York City did a heroic job of designing and delivering
the rasp on a very short schedule."
The motorized rasp bit extends from the back of the scoop
tool on the end of Phoenix's 2.35-meter-long (7.7-foot-long) robotic arm. The
tool works by shaving sideways into the ground, kicking up dirt and ice onto a
collection surface in the scoop.
In recent days, Phoenix has used its robotic arm to clear
the top layer of dirt from a large swath of ice in a trench it dug called Snow
White. Phoenix was scheduled to spend Tuesday rasping into the hard material in
two spots at the bottom of the trench. Mission scientists hope in the coming
days it will have collected enough ice to transfer to TEGA for a baking
experiment to learn more about the ice's composition.
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