NASA's Phoenix Lander goes sleepless on Mars

BEIJING, July 23 (Xinhuanet) -- NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander went sleepless Monday for the first time as mission controllers extended its schedule to remain awake during the Martian night so the spacecraft could coordinate with observations made by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as it flew overhead.

Phoenix is using its weather station (which measures temperature, wind speed and wind direction), stereo camera and fork-like thermal and conductivity probe to monitor changes in the lower atmosphere and at the surface of Mars as MRO monitors the atmosphere and ground from above.

The 420 million U.S. dollar Phoenix mission, which touched down in the northern reaches of Mars on May 25, is examining the Martian dirt and underlying ice to look for possible signs of habitability in the planet's past. MRO has been orbiting Mars for two years now, studying its surface with cameras, spectrometers and radar.

The lander also stuck its conductivity probe into the Martian dirt Sunday for more than 24 hours of measurements. One goal of this test is to see whether some of the water ice trapped in the regolith becomes vapor and enters the atmosphere as the time of day, and therefore the amount of sunlight hitting the ground, changes.

"We are looking for patterns of movement and phase change," said Michael Hecht, lead scientist for Phoenix's Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer, which includes the fork-like probe. "The probe is working great. We see some changes in soil electrical properties, which may be related to water, but we're still chewing on the data."

Phoenix can also stick its conductivity probe up in the air and monitor changes in the atmospheric humidity.

(Agencies)