The clumpy nature of the soil on Mars' northern plains continues to frustrate the efforts of the Phoenix lander to carry out some of its experiments.A sample delivered to a mini lab oven on Saturday failed to make it through a sorting screen, and attempts to vibrate the filter have had little effect.
Researchers working on the Nasa mission are now practising sprinkle motions with Phoenix's robotic scoop.
This might produce a finer-grained sample, the scientist said.
"We're going to try one more time running the vibrator," explained William Boynton, an investigator on the probe's Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA).
"If that doesn't work, we're going to try sprinkling small amounts of the soil on another one of our analysers. We do have eight separate thermal analysers and we think it will be more effective if we can transfer a small amount of soil so it doesn't clog up the screen."
The purpose of the TEGA test is to bake the soil to gain some insights into its mineral make-up and possible water content.
Part of the bio-barrier mechanism ap
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