Mars Lander Problem Update

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

This Week on Mars

Success sometimes comes in small packages. Scientists are learning to operate the Phoenix scoop with precision and gathering specific samples of the Martian soil.

This week the team made 50 scrapes with the Phoenix Lander scoop in the Snow White Trench. They gathered these in to small piles equaling only teaspoons of material.

Each pile of soil comes from a particular sample area within the Snow Trench. Some of the piles are believed to have a high enough ice content to show water in the tests.

The scoop will now move a sample of the Martian soil from one of the small piles in to the TEGA for analysis.

The team appears to be getting the more mechanical aspects of the Phoenix Lander Mission under control. Next we see how the testing equipment does. And then, we'll have more answers.

For more information on the this story, check out the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab website for their press release on the Snow White scrapings.

Smiles. ET

Welcome to Galaxy Voyager

It is nice to have you drop by. Let me explain where the Galaxy Voyager blog is going.

We will scour the Internet for the latest news, best blogs, and the greatest websites on the subject of Space Exploration. We will update regularly so you will be assured you will find  the latest information on a variety of subjects.

The Blog List at the bottom of this page represents the best resources I can currently find on the Internet related to Space Exploration. You have the classic NASA and Hubble websites, and others with a great deal of information on space exploration and space travel.

I also have mentioned several blogs that cover Space. You will find basic coverage of the Phoenix Mars Lander Mission on Uduzit.

The current hot story is yesterdays'  NASA news release concerning mounting evidence of water on Mars. Uduzit covers that story, though Ethan over at Starts With A Bang has quite a different take on the subject.

We will be watching the Mars Mission closely, so to start you out I have included the original news clip for the successful landing of the Phoenix Mars Lander 23 days ago. We will use plenty videos, images, and animations to tell our news here.