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Scientists Practice More With Mars Lander
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Published: June 4, 2008
LOS ANGELES - NASA's Phoenix lander got extra playtime in the Martian dirt on Tuesday, doing another practice dig as scientists tried to perfect the technique ahead of the actual excavation.
"The team felt they weren't really comfortable yet with the digging and dumping process," said chief scientist Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. "They haven't really mastered it."
The extra practice means the earliest that Phoenix would flex its 8-foot robotic arm to claw below the arctic plains for scientific study would be today.
Smith compared Phoenix's antics to a child on the beach with a sand pail and shovel.
"But we're doing it blind from 170 million miles away," he said.
The Associated Press
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