Phoenix's Robotic Arm To Unstow, Collect Samples

After finishing taking pictures of the entire panorama visible by the lander, the Phoenix lander will use its robot arm to start digging in Martian soil. The robotic arm is crucial to the Mars mission, according to a statement by NASA, as it will collect samples from the soil of northern polar Mars for analysis by laboratory instruments aboard the Phoenix lander.

On Tuesday, commands to unstow the arm were sent by scientists leading the mission from the University of Arizona in Tuscon, and the commands were received by NASA's Reconnaissance Orbiter, but the orbiter's radio system was temporarily shut off. In the absence of new commands, the Phoenix lander carried out a series of commands sent Monday, delivering images and other information back to Earth Tuesday evening.

In a statement, robotic arm manager Bob Bonitz of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., explained how the arm is to be unstowed today. "It's a series of seven moves, beginning with rotating the wrist to release the forearm from its launch restraint. Another series of moves releases the elbow from its launch restraints and moves the elbow from underneath the biobarrier."