The Saga of the Dirt (and an Update)

I need the guys working on the dirt experiments on the Mars Phoenix Lander to help me with my floor-cleaning methods. I was doing some tidying up in my overstuffed office the other day. It’s something I do when I’m stuck in the middle of writing something and a case of temporary brain freeze hits. Usually I take a break and go get a coffee or something, but it’s too hot for coffee these days. So, sometimes I’ll do a little rearranging of the stuff in my office.

So, I cleared out some space where I’d had some books and papers piled up, and noticed a little dust and dirt on the floor. I swept it up into the dust pan, but when I went to toss it into the trash, I missed and the dirt hit a box of papers that I was getting ready to recycle.

All this put me in mind of the Mars Phoenix lander. (Yes, I really DO think that way…) The other day the digger arm (technical term) got a good clump of dirt from the surface and swung around to deposit the dirt into one of the lander’s onboard ovens. It didn’t actually miss the oven. It landed more or less in the right place, but apparently it was too clumpy to break into small enough pieces to make it into the oven. So, unlike my dirt-tossing abilities, there’s not much of a problem with the lander arm and its delivery method. It would appear that the dirt on Mars — at least at that location — clumps together rather tightly. And, the lander is now learning to shake those dirtballs apart before it can bake ’em. I should be so talented!

UPDATE: They’ve got dirt in the oven! Check out the Phoenix Lander site for more details.