Mars Lander Test Hastened After Oven Short Circuit

[n2doc]

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 11, 2008
Filed at 4:14 p.m. ET


LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Will the Mars lander's next baking test of soil and ice be its last?

Scientists worry that it could be, thanks to an electrical glitch that threatens the $420 million quest to find the chemical ingredients for life near the Martian north pole.

The Phoenix Mars lander suffered a short circuit several weeks ago to one of its eight tiny test ovens. Scientists fear another outage could render the crucial equipment useless.

So they've speeded up their mission, skipping plans for a slow, deliberate set of heating experiments and moving ahead for the dramatic conclusion.

more:

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/science/AP-Phoenix-Mars.html

[Ian David]

1. No Disassemble Phoenix!! n/t

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. You see that ad about seeing who's near you online in this

thread??

[Pab Sungenis]

3. That's what they get when they cut the r&d budget.

They forget to put in the 40 watt bulb.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. C'mon, we all know what really happened....

[pscot]

5. I know how it is. The digital circuit on my wall oven failed

and now it's beep, beep, beep, all goddamned day. $1600 bucks to replace it. I can barely imagine what it will cost to put a new oven in the Mars lander. One thing fer shur, stay away from digital. Manual controls are the only way to go. Oh, and don't get it from Sears.

[trotsky]

6. Go to this site.

http://www.repairclinic.com

Chances are great not only that you'll get the part much cheaper, but that they'll have the instructions you need to replace it yourself, or get a mechanically-inclined friend or relative to do it.

[Tesha]

7. Or buy another copy of the oven off of eBay and scavange the needed parts.

(Just make sure the oven you buy has a working edition
of the part that you need!)

Tesha