The latest update from NASA reports that the Phoenix Mars Lander’s Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA) is experiencing serious circuit problems.
It seemed as if the Phoenix was impatiently pawing in the Martian soil last week. What was delaying the movement of those soil samples in to the TEGA? Now we know.
There have been hints of circuit problems since the Phoenix arrived on the Martian surface 35 Sols ago. The Mars Lander went to the computer back-up operating system immediately upon arrival.
As I followed this story over the past several weeks I have found the basic mother board on the Phoenix was made by IBM, and is running UNIX software.
The Operating System is installed on the mother board in a chip, much like the Bios on your personal computer. I have seen the mother board on the Phoenix Lander described on Tech blogs as “twice today’s Xbox and running at 128 MHz”.
NASA team engineers recently did a software fix completely using the one flash drive available for the Mars Lander. The software fix appeared to take care of known “circuit” problems at the time.
The TEGA circuit problems appear to be related to a faulty circuit. I don't know if this circuit is hard wired, or on a board. A circuit with a fault can short circuit, and a short circuit can burn out your wiring. When you burn out your wiring, nothing works.
Concerns are that the soil samples gathered last week have dried out.
The NASA team understands they may have only one test performed by the TEGA before the circuits go. They want that one soil sample to tell them about the Martian soil substance believed to be ice.
NASA is planning to deliver a fresh soil sample to the TEGA Sunday morning. The NASA team then plans to send the signal for the TEGA to begin testing immediately.
Soon we will all have more answers.
Smile. ET
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