New NASA 'Fire And Smoke' Web Page Shows Latest Fire Views, Research

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Alan Buis 818-354-0474
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Alan.buis@jpl.nasa.gov

Steve Cole 202-358-0918
NASA Headquarters, Washington
Stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov

INTERNET ADVISORY: 2008-140 July 22, 2008

New NASA 'Fire And Smoke' Web Page Shows Latest Fire Views, Research

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA satellites, aircraft and research know-how, including resources and
expertise from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., comprise a wealth of cutting-
edge tools to help firefighters battle wildfires. These tools also have helped scientists understand the
impact of fires and smoke on Earth's climate and ecosystems. Now, a new NASA Web site brings to
the public and journalists the latest information about this ongoing effort.

The NASA "Fire and Smoke" Web site debuting Tuesday, July 22, includes regular updates of
NASA images of fires and their associated smoke plumes in the United States and around the world.
The site also features articles on the latest research results and multimedia resources from across
NASA.

The site is updated regularly with new images from NASA's suite of Earth-observing satellites and
airborne observatories, including the unmanned Ikhana aircraft that recently pinpointed wildfire
hotspots across California. NASA's investment in these observational resources, and the research
and development to transform them into practical tools for operational agencies, supports ongoing
nationwide efforts to fight wildfires.

The Web site is available at: http://www.nasa.gov/fires .

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Spitzer Reveals 'No Organics' Zone Around Pinwheel Galaxy

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov

IMAGE ADVISORY: 2008-138 July 21, 2008

Spitzer Reveals 'No Organics' Zone Around Pinwheel Galaxy

The Pinwheel galaxy is gussied up in infrared light in a new picture from NASA's Spitzer
Space Telescope.

The fluffy-looking galaxy, officially named Messier 101, is dominated by a mishmash of
spiral arms. In Spitzer's new view, in which infrared light is color coded, the galaxy
sports a swirling blue center and a unique, coral-red outer ring.

A new paper appearing July 20 in the Astrophysical Journal explains why this outer ring
stands out. According to the authors, the red color highlights a zone where organic
molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are present throughout most
of the galaxy, suddenly disappear.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are dusty, carbon-containing molecules found in star
nurseries, and on Earth in barbeque pits, exhaust pipes and anywhere combustion
reactions take place. Scientists believe this space dust has the potential to be converted
into the stuff of life.

"If you were going look for life in Messier 101, you would not want to look at its edges,"
said Karl Gordon of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md. "The
organics can't survive in these regions, most likely because of high amounts of harsh
radiation." To view Spitzer's Pinwheel, visit
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/multimedia/20080721a.html

The Pinwheel galaxy is located about 27 million light-years away in the constellation
Ursa Major. It has one of the highest known gradients of metals (elements heavier than
helium) of all nearby galaxies in our universe. In other words, its concentrations of metals
are highest at its center, and decline rapidly with distance from the center. This is because
stars, which produce metals, are squeezed more tightly into the galaxy's central quarters.

Gordon and his team used Spitzer to learn about the galaxy's gradient of polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons. The astronomers found that, like the metals, the polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons decrease in concentration toward the outer portion of the galaxy.
But, unlike the metals, these organic molecules quickly drop off and are no longer
detected at the very outer rim.

"There's a threshold at the rim of this galaxy, where the organic material is getting
destroyed," said Gordon.

The findings also provide a better understanding of the conditions under which the very
first stars and galaxies arose. In the early universe, there were not a lot of metals or
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons around. The outskirt of the Pinwheel galaxy therefore
serves as a close-up example of what the environment might look like in a distant galaxy.

In this image, infrared light with a wavelength of 3.6 microns is colored blue; 8-micron
light is green; and 24-micron light is red. All three of Spitzer instruments were used in
the study: the infrared array camera, the multiband imaging photometer and the infrared
spectrograph.

Other authors of the paper include Charles Engelbracht, George Rieke, Karl A. Misselt,
J.D. Smith and Robert Kennicutt, Jr. of the University of Arizona, Tucson. Smith is also
associated with the University of Toledo, Ohio, and Kennicutt is also associated with the
University of Cambridge, England.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer Space
Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science
operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of
Technology, also in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. Spitzer's infrared array
camera was built by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The
instrument's principal investigator is Giovanni Fazio of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center
for Astrophysics. Spitzer's infrared spectrograph was built by Cornell University, Ithaca,
N.Y. Its development was led by Jim Houck of Cornell. The multiband imaging
photometer for Spitzer was built by Ball Aerospace Corporation, Boulder, Colo., and the
University of Arizona, Tucson. Its principal investigator is George Rieke of the
University of Arizona.

For more information about Spitzer, visit http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzer and
http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer .

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Mars Odyssey THEMIS Images: July 14-18, 2008

MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES
July 14-18, 2008

o THEMIS ART #89 (Released 14 July 2008)
http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080714a

o THEMIS ART #90 (Released 15 July 2008)
http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080715a

o THEMIS ART #91 (Released 16 July 2008)
http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080716a

o THEMIS ART #92 (Released 17 July 2008)
http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080717a

o THEMIS ART #93 (Released 18 July 2008)
http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080718a

All of the THEMIS images are archived here:

http://themis.asu.edu/latest.html

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission
for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission
Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University,
Tempe, in co.oration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing.
The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State
University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor
for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission
operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a
division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

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MRO HiRISE Images - July 16, 2008

MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER HIRISE IMAGES
July 16, 2008

o Mystery Mounds
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_008778_1685

o Layering and Inverted Streams
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_008774_1755

o Cratered Cones in Utopia Planitia u
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_008767_2055

o Layered Rocks in Orson Welles Crater
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_008391_1790

All of the HiRISE images are archived here:

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/

Information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is online at
http://www.nasa.gov/mro. The mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, for the NASA
Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. Lockheed Martin Space Systems,
of Denver, is the prime contractor and built the spacecraft. HiRISE is operated by t
he University of Arizona. Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., of Boulder, Colo.,
built the HiRISE instrument.

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NASA's Deep Impact Films Earth as an Alien World

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

DC Agle 818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle@jpl.nasa.gov

Nancy Neal-Jones / Bill Steigerwald 301-286 0039 / 5017
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Nancy.N.Jones@nasa.gov / william.a.steigerwald@nasa.gov

Lee Tune 301-405-4679
University of Maryland, College Park
ltune@umd.edu

David L. Chandler 617-253-2704
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
dlc1@MIT.EDU

NEWS RELEASE: 2008-137 July 17, 2008

NASA's Deep Impact Films Earth as an Alien World

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft has created a video of the moon
transiting (passing in front of) Earth as seen from the spacecraft's point of view 50
million kilometers (31 million miles) away. Scientists are using the video to develop
techniques to study alien worlds.

"Making a video of Earth from so far away helps the search for other life-bearing planets
in the Universe by giving insights into how a distant, Earth-like alien world would appear
to us," said University of Maryland astronomer Michael A'Hearn, principal investigator
for the Deep Impact extended mission, called Epoxi.

Deep Impact made history when the mission team directed an impactor from the
spacecraft into comet Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005. NASA recently extended the mission,
redirecting the spacecraft for a flyby of comet Hartley 2 on Nov. 4, 2010.

Epoxi is a combination of the names for the two extended mission components: a search
for alien (extrasolar) planets during the cruise to Hartley 2, called Extrasolar Planet
Observations and Characterization (EPOCh), and the flyby of comet Hartley 2, called the
Deep Impact eXtended Investigation (DIXI).

During a full Earth rotation, images obtained by Deep Impact at a 15-minute cadence
have been combined to make a color video. During the video, the moon enters the frame
(because of its orbital motion) and transits Earth, then leaves the frame. Other spacecraft
have imaged Earth and the moon from space, but Deep Impact is the first to show a
transit of Earth with enough detail to see large craters on the moon and oceans and
continents on Earth.

"To image Earth in a similar fashion, an alien civilization would need technology far
beyond what Earthlings can even dream of building," said Sara Seager, a planetary
theorist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., and a co-
investigator on Epoxi. "Nevertheless, planet-characterizing space telescopes under study
by NASA would be able to observe an Earth twin as a single point of light -- a point
whose total brightness changes with time as different land masses and oceans rotate in
and out of view. The video will help us connect a varying point of planetary light with
underlying oceans, continents, and clouds -- and finding oceans on extrasolar planets
means identifying potentially habitable worlds." said Seager.

"Our video shows some specific features that are important for observations of Earth-like
planets orbiting other stars," said Drake Deming of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
in Greenbelt, Md. Deming is deputy principal investigator for Epoxi, and leads the
EPOCh observations. "A 'sun glint' can be seen in the movie, caused by light reflected
from Earth's oceans, and similar glints to be observed from extrasolar planets could
indicate alien oceans. Also, we used infrared light instead of the normal red light to make
the color composite images, and that makes the land masses much more visible." That
happens because plants reflect more strongly in the near-infrared, Deming explained.
Hence the video illustrates the potential for detecting vegetated land masses on extrasolar
planets by looking for variations in the intensity of their near-infrared light as the planet
rotates.

The University of Maryland is the Principal Investigator institution,
leading the overall Epoxi mission, including the flyby of comet
Hartley 2. NASA Goddard leads the extrasolar planet observations.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages Epoxi for
NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The spacecraft was
built for NASA by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo.

To see the video, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/Epoxi_transit.html

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Three Red Spots Mix it Up on Jupiter

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov

Ray Villard 410-338-4514
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
villard@stsci.edu

Amy Simon-Miller 301-286-6738
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
amy.simon@nasa.gov

IMAGE ADVISORY: 2008-136 July 17, 2008

Three Red Spots Mix it Up on Jupiter

A new sequence of Hubble Space Telescope images offers an unprecedented view of a
planetary game of Pac-Man among three red spots clustered together in Jupiter's
atmosphere. The images were taken by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, developed and
built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

The time series shows the passage of the "Red Spot Jr." in a band of clouds below (south) of the
Great Red Spot. "Red Spot Jr." first appeared on Jupiter in early 2006 when a
previously white storm turned red. This is the second time, since turning red, it has skirted
past its big brother apparently unscathed.

But this is not the fate of "baby red spot," which is in the same latitudinal band as the Great Red
Spot. This new red spot first appeared earlier this year. The baby red spot gets ever closer to the
Great Red Spot in this picture sequence until it is caught up in its anticyclonic spin. In the
final image, the baby spot is deformed and pale in color and has been spun to the right (east) of
the Great Red Spot. Amateur astronomers' observations confirm that this pale spot is the
migrating baby spot.

The prediction is that the baby spot will now get pulled back into the Great Red Spot
"Cuisinart" and disappear for good. This is one possible mechanism that has powered and
sustained the Great Red Spot for at least 150 years.

These three natural-color Jupiter images were made from data acquired on May 15, June
28 and July 8, 2008, by JPL's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. Each one covers 58
degrees of Jovian "latitude" and 70 degrees of "longitude" (centered on 5 degrees South latitude
and 110, 121 and 121 degrees West longitude, respectively).

For images and more information, visit http://hubblesite.org/news/2008/27 .

For more information about JPL's Wide Field and Planetary Cameras, visit
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/missiondetails.cfm?mission=WFPC .

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and
the European Space Agency (ESA) and is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight
Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Md. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) conducts
Hubble science operations. The institute is operated for NASA by the Association of
Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., Washington, D.C.

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Ocean Surface a Boon for Extreme Event Forecasts, Warnings

Feature
July 16, 2008

Ocean Surface a Boon for Extreme Event Forecasts, Warnings

For humans in the path of destructive hurricanes and tsunamis, an accurate warning of the
pending event is critical for damage control and survival. Such warnings, however,
require a solid base of scientific observations, and a new satellite is ready for the job.

The Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason 2 adds to the number of eyes in
the sky measuring sea surface and wave heights across Earth's oceans. The increased
coverage will help researchers improve current models for practical use in predicting
hurricane intensity, while providing valuable data that can be used to improve tsunami
warning models.

"When it comes to predicting hurricane intensity, the curve in the last 40 years has been
somewhat flat, with little advance in how to reduce error in predicted intensity," said
Gustavo Goni, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in
Miami. Maps of sea surface height created from satellites, however, could help change the
curve.

Satellites that measure sea surface height have been running operationally nonstop since
November 1992. But more than one is needed to fly at the same time in order to identify all
the features that could be responsible for intensification of tropical cyclones all over Earth.
The OSTM/Jason 2 mission will help make the additional coverage possible.

NASA, university and NOAA investigators, including Goni, work to transform sea surface
height information obtained from satellites, such as OSTM/Jason 2, into maps of ocean
heat content. Forecasters can use the maps to develop models to predict how hurricanes
will strengthen.

Determining heat content from sea surface height is possible because warm water is less
dense and hence sits higher than cooler water. In some regions, such as inside and outside
the Gulf Stream current, the temperature differences result in more than a one-meter (three-
foot) difference in sea surface height. Goni and colleagues use this established concept to
estimate from sea level variations how much heat is stored in the upper ocean in areas
where hurricanes typically develop and intensify.

While sea surface height may not necessarily be the most significant parameter for
hurricane intensity forecasts, researchers now know that if sea surface height is accounted
for in current forecast models, errors in forecasts for the most intense storms are reduced.
For weak storms, the reduction in error is not very significant. However, for storms in the
strongest category 5 range, the heat content in the upper ocean derived from sea surface
height becomes increasingly important. "This is a good thing, because these are the storms
that produce the most damage," Goni said.

"OSTM/Jason 2 will help us to keep the necessary coverage that we need to identify ocean
features that can be linked to tropical cyclone intensification, because with only one
satellite we may miss some of them," Goni said.

Upper ocean heat content derived from sea surface height is now used in operational and
experimental forecast models in all seven ocean basins where tropical cyclones exist.

In December 2004, two satellites happened to be in the right place at the right time,
capturing the first space-based look at a major tsunami in the open ocean. Within two hours
of a magnitude 9 earthquake in the Indian Ocean southwest of Sumatra, the Jason 1 and
Topex/Poseidon satellites fortuitously passed over the path of the resulting tsunami as it
traveled across the ocean. It measured the leading wave, traveling hundreds of miles per
hour in the open ocean, at about 0.5 meters (1.6 feet) tall.

Wave height measurements like those of the Indian Ocean tsunami do not provide an early
warning because the information is not relayed to ground stations in real time. That's the
job of early warning systems operated by NOAA and other global organizations that
currently employ a network of open-ocean buoys and coastal tide gauges. Sea surface
height measurements of tsunamis can, however, help scientists test and improve ground-
based models used for early warning. One such system developed at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., and undergoing tests at NOAA's Pacific
Tsunami Warning Center, Ewa Beach, Hawaii, could become operational within about
three years.

Most tsunamis are caused by undersea earthquakes. Using the JPL-developed system, when
seismometers first identify and locate a large earthquake, scientists can use GPS
measurements to search around the earthquake's source to see if land has shifted,
potentially spurring a tsunami. Scientists can then immediately compile the earthquake's
size, location, and land movement into a computer program that generates a model tsunami
to determine the risk of a dangerous wave. After the wave passes, scientists can search
through wave height data from satellites and verify what the model predicted.

"Satellite data play the crucial role of verifying tsunami models by testing real tsunami
events," said JPL research scientist Tony Song. "If an earthquake generates a tsunami,
does the satellite data match observations on the ground and model predictions?"

"One of the unique pieces of satellite observations is the large-scale perspective," said JPL
research scientist Philip Callahan. Tsunamis can have waves more than 161 kilometers
(100 miles) long. Such a wave would likely go unnoticed by an observer in a boat on the
ocean's surface. But satellite altimeters like OSTM/Jason 2 can see this very long wave and
measure its height to an accuracy of about 2.5 centimeters (one inch).

Scientists' ability to test tsunami warning models will be aided by OSTM/Jason 2. With the
Topex/Poseidon mission now ended, the currently orbiting Jason 1 has now been joined by
and will eventually be replaced by OSTM/Jason 2. This will help ensure that future
tsunamis will also be observed by satellites as well as by buoys and tide gauges.

"The biggest value in satellite measurements of sea surface height is not in direct warning
capability, but in improving models so when an earthquake is detected, you can make
reliable predictions and reduce damage to property and people," Callahan said.

For more information on OSTM/Jason 2, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ostm .

For more information on JPL's climate change research programs, visit:

http://climate.jpl.nasa.gov .

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NASA Spacecraft Shows Diverse, Wet Environments on Ancient Mars

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Guy Webster 818-354-5011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

NEWS RELEASE: 2008-135 July 16, 2008

NASA Spacecraft Shows Diverse, Wet Environments on Ancient Mars

WASHINGTON -- Two studies based on data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have
revealed that the Red Planet once hosted vast lakes, flowing rivers and a variety of other wet
environments that had the potential to support life.

One study, published in the July 17 issue of Nature, shows that vast regions of the ancient highlands
of Mars, which cover about half the planet, contain clay minerals, which can form only in the
presence of water. Volcanic lavas buried the clay-rich regions during subsequent, drier periods of the
planet's history, but impact craters later exposed them at thousands of locations across Mars. The
data for the study derives from images taken by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer
for Mars, or CRISM, and other instruments on the orbiter.

"The big surprise from these new results is how pervasive and long-lasting Mars' water was, and
how diverse the wet environments were," said Scott Murchie, CRISM principal investigator at the
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.

The clay-like minerals, called phyllosilicates, preserve a record of the interaction of water with rocks
dating back to what is called the Noachian period of Mars' history, approximately 4.6 billion to 3.8
billion years ago. This period corresponds to the earliest years of the solar system, when Earth, the
moon and Mars sustained a cosmic bombardment by comets and asteroids. Rocks of this age have
largely been destroyed on Earth by plate tectonics. They are preserved on the moon, but were never
exposed to liquid water. The phyllosilicate-containing rocks on Mars preserve a unique record of
liquid water environments possibly suitable for life in the early solar system.

"The minerals present in Mars' ancient crust show a variety of wet environments," said John
Mustard, a member of the CRISM team from Brown University, and lead author of the Nature study.
"In most locations the rocks are lightly altered by liquid water, but in a few locations they have been
so altered that a great deal of water must have flushed though the rocks and soil. This is really
exciting because we're finding dozens of sites where future missions can land to understand if Mars
was ever habitable and if so, to look for signs of past life."

Another study, published in the June 2 issue of Nature Geosciences, finds that the wet conditions on
Mars persisted for a long time. Thousands to millions of years after the clays formed, a system of
river channels eroded them out of the highlands and concentrated them in a delta where the river
emptied into a crater lake slightly larger than California's Lake Tahoe, approximately 40 kilometers
(25 miles) in diameter.

"The distribution of clays inside the ancient lakebed shows that standing water must have persisted
for thousands of years," says Bethany Ehlmann, another member of the CRISM team from Brown.
Ehlmann is lead author of the study of an ancient lake within a northern-Mars impact basin called
Jezero Crater. "Clays are wonderful at trapping and preserving organic matter, so if life ever existed
in this region, there's a chance of its chemistry being preserved in the delta."

CRISM's high spatial and spectral resolutions are better than any previous spectrometer sent to Mars
and reveal variations in the types and composition of the phyllosilicate minerals. By combining data
from CRISM and the orbiter's Context Imager and High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment,
the team identified three principal classes of water-related minerals dating to the early Noachian
period. The classes are aluminum-phyllosilicates, hydrated silica or opal, and the more common and
widespread iron/magnesium-phyllosilicates. The variations in the minerals suggest that different
processes, or different types of watery environments, created them.

"Our whole team is turning our findings into a list of sites where future missions could land to look
for organic chemistry and perhaps determine whether life ever existed on Mars," said Murchie.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Applied Physics Laboratory
operates the CRISM instrument in coordination with an international team of researchers from
universities, government and the private sector.

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NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander Rasps Frozen Layer, Collects Sample

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

Sara Hammond 520-626-1974
University of Arizona, Tucson
shammond@lpl.arizona.edu

NEWS RELEASE: 2008-134 July 16, 2008

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander Rasps Frozen Layer, Collects Sample

TUCSON, Ariz. -- A powered rasp on the back of the robotic arm scoop of NASA's Phoenix Mars
Lander successfully drilled into the frozen soil and loosened material that was collected in the
lander's scoop.

Images and data sent from Phoenix early Wednesday indicated the shaved material in the scoop had
changed slightly over time during the hours after it was collected.

The motorized rasp -- located on the back of the lander's robotic arm scoop -- made two distinct
holes in a trench informally named "Snow White." The material loosened by the rasp was collected
in the scoop and documented by the Robotic Arm Camera. The activity was a test of the rasping
method of gathering an icy sample, in preparation for using that method in coming days to collect a
sample for analysis in an oven of Phoenix's Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer.

"This was a trial that went really well," said Richard Morris, a Phoenix science team member from
NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston. "While the putative ice sublimed out of the shavings over
several hours, this shows us there will be a good chance ice will remain in a sample for delivery" to
Phoenix's laboratory ovens.

Phoenix on Wednesday will be commanded to continue scraping and enlarging the "Snow White"
trench and to conduct another series of rasp tests. The lander's cameras will again be used to
monitor the sample in the scoop after its collection.

The Phoenix mission is led by Peter Smith of the University of Arizona with project management at
JPL and development partnership at Lockheed Martin, Denver. International contributions come
from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel; the universities of Copenhagen and
Aarhus, Denmark; Max Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. For
more about Phoenix, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix and http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu.

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NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander to Begin Rasping Frozen Layer

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
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PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

Sara Hammond 520-626-1974
University of Arizona, Tucson
shammond@lpl.arizona.edu

NEWS RELEASE: 2008-133 July 15, 2008

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander to Begin Rasping Frozen Layer

TUCSON, Ariz. -- A powered rasp on the back of the robotic arm scoop of NASA's
Phoenix Mars Lander is being tested for the first time on Mars in gathering sample
shavings of ice.

The lander has used its arm in recent days to clear away loose soil from a subsurface
layer of hard-frozen material and create a large enough area to use the motorized rasp in a
trench informally named "Snow White."

The Phoenix team prepared commands early Tuesday for beginning a series of tests with
the rasp later in the day. Engineers and scientists designed the tests to lead up to, in
coming days, delivering a sample of icy soil into one of the lander's laboratory ovens.

"While Phoenix was in development, we added the rasp to the robotic arm design
specifically to grind into very hard surface ice," said Barry Goldstein, Phoenix project
manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "This is the exactly the
situation we find we are facing on Mars, so we believe we have the right tool for the job.
Honeybee Robotics in New York City did a heroic job of designing and delivering the
rasp on a very short schedule."

The rasp bit extends at a shallow angle out of an opening on the back of the scoop at the
end of the 2.35-meter-long (7.7-foot-long) robotic arm. To use it, the back surface of the
scoop is placed on the ground, and a motor rotates the rasp. The angle of the rasp is
increased from nearly horizontal to slightly steeper while it is rotating, so the tool kicks
shavings sideways onto a collection surface just inside the opening. After the rasp stops, a
series of moves by the scoop then shifts the collected shavings from the back of the
scoop, past baffles, to the front of the scoop. The baffles serve to keep material from
falling out of the rasp opening when the scoop is used as a front loader.

The commands prepared for Phoenix's activities Tuesday called for rasping into the hard
material at the bottom of the Snow White trench at two points about one centimeter (0.4
inch) apart. The lander's Surface Stereo Imager and robotic arm camera will be used to
check the process at several steps and to monitor any resulting sample in the scoop for
several hours after it is collected.

Collecting an icy sample for an oven of Phoenix's Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer
(TEGA) may involve gathering shavings collected at the rasp opening and scooping up
additional shavings produced by the rasp. The Phoenix team has been testing this
combination on simulated Martian ice with a near-replica model of Phoenix in a test
facility at the University of Arizona, Tucson.

The Phoenix mission is led by Peter Smith of the University of Arizona with project
management at JPL and development partnership at Lockheed Martin, Denver.
International contributions come from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of
Neuchatel; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; Max Planck Institute,
Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. For more about Phoenix, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix and http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu.

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