 Robotic Arm (RA)built by the Jet Propulsion LaboratoryThe RA is critical to the operations of the Phoenix lander and is designed to dig trenches, scoop up soil and water ice samples, and deliver these samples to the TEGA and MECA instruments for detailed chemical and geological analysis. Designed similar to a back hoe, the RA can operate with four degrees of freedom: (1) up and down, (2) side to side, (3) back and forth, and (4) rotate around.The RA will be 2.35 meters (just under 8 ft) long with an elbow joint in the middle, allowing the arm to trench about 0.5m (1.6ft) below the martian surface, deep enough to where scientists believe the water-ice soil interface lies. At the end of the RA is a moveable scoop, which includes ripper tines (sharp prongs) and serrated blades. Once icy soil is encountered, the ripper tines will be used to first tear the exposed materials, followed by applying the serrated blades to scrape the fractured soil. The scoop will then be run through the furrows to capture the fragmented samples, ensuring enough sample mass for scientific study on the lander platform. A similar RA developed for the Mars Polar Lander was tested at Death Valley in 2000 and successfully dug a 10 inch trench in just under 4 hours. The extremely hard soil conditions at Death Valley are similar to those expected at Phoenix's martian arctic landing site. The RA is being built by a team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory led by Dr. Robert Bonitz. JPL was responsible for designing RA's for the Mars Polar Lander, Mars Surveryor 2001 Lander and Mars Exploration Rover missions. The spacecraft has several subsystems that are being updated, if necessary, with parts and software that will increase reliability. These subsystems include (1) command and data handling, controlling the spacecraft's computer processing, (2) electrical power, consisting of solar panels, batteries, and associated converting circuits, (3) telecommunications, ensuring flow of data to and from Earth, (4) guidance, navigation, and control, assuring the spacecraft arrives safely at Mars, (5) propulsion, controlling trajectory correction maneuvers during cruise and thrusters during landing, (6) structure, providing the spacecraft framework and integrity, (7) mechanisms, enabling the movement of several spacecraft components, and (8) thermal-control, using heat transfer to ensure proper temperature ranges on all parts of the spacecraft.  RA manager Robert Bonitz testing the Mars Exploration Rovers robotic arm at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Image Credit: NASA/JPL.
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The Phoenix Mission is led by Principal Investigator Peter H. Smith of The University of Arizona, supported by a science team of CO-Is,
with project management at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and development partnership with Lockheed Martin Space Systems.
International contributions are provided by the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus Denmark; the Max Planck Institute, Germany; and the the Finnish Meteorological Institute.
Additional information on Phoenix is online at here and here.
JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Additional information on NASA's Mars program is online at here.
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In remembrance of Diane Michelangeli