14 DAY TRIAL // Communications with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, relaying data from the Phoenix Mars Lander to Earth, were restored after a slight glitch that delayed the mission of the lander for one day. Thus, on Wednesday mission controllers gave Phoenix the 'go ahead' to unfold the 2.4 meter long robotic arm it will use to explore the northern regions of the Red Planet during its three month mission.
Phoenix arrived to Mars on Sunday and appears to be in good shape after the somehow hazardous descent and landing. Two hours after touchdown, the spacecraft was already transmitting pictures from the planet surface and started preparations regarding its on board instruments. On Tuesday however, NASA suddenly lost communication with the radio instrument on board the MRO which shut down for unknown reasons just before the mission controllers started relaying instructions for the lander to follow in the respective day.
Project manager for Phoenix, Barry Goldstein revealed that the robotic arm was stored on the science deck during launch and landing, so it would be protected from damaging vibrations. Once the command is given to unfold, the arm should rotate its wrist to release the protective latches and then remove the protective sleeve by moving in a staircase manner, added Bob Bonitz, robotic arm manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Since it was unknown when communication with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter would be restored, mission controllers decided to play it safe and in order to avoid any further delays used the Mars Odyssey orbiter to relay the instructions to Phoenix on Wednesday. Pictures of the partially unfolded arm should be made available by NASA today.
The 2.4 meter arm has four joints, two of which are at the shoulder, allowing it to move from side to side as well as up and down, while the other two are located at the elbow and at the wrist.
According to Mark Lemmon from Texas A&M University, who manages the camera on board Phoenix, the polygonal shapes on the surface are still under investigation and some areas around the lander may even be designated a no-digging 'natural preserve'. A panorama of the area where Phoenix landed is already in the works and yesterday it was already about one-third completed.
Measurements show that the temperatures vary between -30 to -80 degrees Celsius, which is rather mild as compared to temperatures in other regions of the planet.