Decagon Thermal Properties Sensor on Mars
On May 25, NASA's Phoenix Scout Lander reached Mars, opened a soils lab, and started looking for water. Phoenix uses a robotic scoop arm to deliver regolith samples to the suite of instruments aboard the Lander--with one exception. The thermal and electrical conductivity probe (TECP) designed by a team of research scientists at Decagon Devices, Inc. is actually mounted on the robotic arm and makes direct contact with the regolith. It measures thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, electrical conductivity, and dielectric permittivity of the regolith, as well as vapor pressure of the air.
Finding Water, Building Climate Models
Phoenix used the TECP to look for evidence of water on Mars and to determine thermal properties of the regolith for use in climate models. The data collected so far await analysis, but the numbers look intriguing and promising not just for Mars study but here on earth.
Earthside Benefits
The results of the Mars project go beyond the data, though. Ideas that made the Mars mission possible benefit all of Decagon's thermal properties instruments. "We don't use conical needles in our commercial thermal properties sensors, but the mathematical models we developed for Mars make those sensors much more accurate and effective," says Dr. Colin Campbell, another member of the team. "The Mars project has expanded both the depth of our understanding and the breadth of our perspective."