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Mars Soil Frustrates Phoenix Again

Posted by timothy on from the pulling-out-doesn't-sound-manly dept.

Tablizer writes "The Phoenix Mars lander has been frustrated yet again by Mars's odd soil. The wet nature of the soil they are targeting appears to have made it get stuck in the scoop rather than drop into the oven. Past problems with similarly clumpy soil may have damaged the lander because the vibrator had to be used longer than it was designed for, resulting in a short circuit."

1 of 221 comments (clear)

  1. One sad conclusion by bogaboga · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    ...The wet nature of the soil they are targeting appears to have made it get stuck in the scoop rather than drop into the oven. Past problems with similarly clumpy soil may have damaged the lander because the vibrator had to be used longer than designed, resulting in a short circuit..."

    It appears to me that these NASA folks did not test the lander harder or if they did, the tests they performed were invalid!

    What I mean is - we have tones of wet clumpy soils on planet earth where tests could have been done enabling lander improvements to be made accordingly.

    Sounds to me like another classic example of NASA's incompetence. Sadly things at NASA will get worse before they get better, and not before billions of dollars are "wasted."