This is the second half of Neural Gourmet’s exclusive interview with the Phoenix Mars Lander. In the first part of our interview we learned a little bit about Phoenix herself; what it’s like to be on Mars, her team, and the very real prospect that Phoenix will not survive the Martian winter. In this segment, Phoenix and I talk a little more in depth about the science she is doing some 170 million miles from home, and what it means for us back on Earth.

Neural Gourmet: How is the weather on your part of Mars?

Phoenix: The weather is pretty chilly here on Mars. We landed during a bit of a heat wave and we actually hit above zero Celcius, but most of the time I hit around -20 Celcius during the day and -100 Celcius during the night. I also have a full meteorology station that takes the pressure and temperature readings constantly, measures the amount of dust in the atmosphere using a laser, and my main camera takes pictures of the telltale. The telltale is similar to a wind vane and can tell us wind speed and direction.

Neural Gourmet: What is your typical day like?

Phoenix: While I don’t know if I ever have a typical day on Mars, there are some things I do every day. I constantly take pressure and temperature readings. I take images of the sun with special filters to measure the optical depth so the engineers can estimate how much power I’ll have the next sol. I also usually take several images of my telltale. I’m usually doing something with my robotic arm, whether it’s scooping up soil, scraping at ice, or taking pictures with the camera on the end of it. Sometimes I’m baking stuff in my oven or performing wet chemistry experiments. I take lots and lots of images of anything from the ground to the sky.

Neural Gourmet: From what I understand, your two primary jobs are to study the history of water on Mars and how easy it might be for anything to live on Mars. You must be very excited about recently finding water ice right underneath you and so early on in your mission, but what kinds of experiments can you do that will help humans understand about water in Mars’ past?

Phoenix: By taking images, we can monitor the current geology and determine patterns. The soil chemistry will also tell us if anything had to have formed in or around water.

Neural Gourmet: How sure are you that what you discovered was really water?

Phoenix: We looked in the Dodo-Goldilocks trench on sol 20, and when we looked again on sol 24, the little white chunks had disappeared. The scientists were debating on the white stuff being either salts or ice. Salts don’t disappear, so it must be ice. The next most often asked question is how come we know it isn’t dry ice. It can’t be dry ice because right now, it’s too warm for dry ice to exist where I am.

Neural Gourmet: Do we have any idea much water or ice there is on Mars right now?

Phoenix: The Mars Global Surveyor had an instrument that measured hydrogen content, and in the polar regions, there was a lot of hydrogen. We guessed it was ice, and I was able to confirm that the large hydrogen amount is indeed due to ice. I don’t know how much there is percentage wise, but there’s a lot of subsurface ice!

Neural Gourmet: Aside from the prescence of water on Mars, you also got some exciting results from some soil you recently analyzed. Could you tell us a little more about the soil on Mars? Is it the same all over? And could you really grow asparagus on Mars?

Phoenix: The soil I analyzed was basic. Basic is the opposite of acidic, so the soil is more like baking soda than vinegar. This also means there’s a lot of salts in the soil. We don’t know if it’s the same everywhere, and until more missions (and hopefully humans!) come out here, we won’t know. The atmosphere is too thin and it’s way too cold to grow asparagus out here, if it was brought back to Earth, it could probably be used to grow whatever you’d like.

Neural Gourmet: In order to study the soil on Mars you have a lot more tools than just than your “Easy-Bake Oven” (TEGA). For instance, to find out the acidity of the soil you used your Wet Chemistry Lab (WCL). But you also have two kinds of microscopes and probes to measure how well the Martian soil conducts electricity and heat.

What will each of these instruments tell you (and the scientists back on Earth) about Mars? Aside from discovering water ice and that Mars soil cold be used to grow plants, what other neat things have you learned lately? What’s next on the agenda?

Phoenix: With these instruments, I can determine the properties of the soil and atmosphere unlike any way scientists been able to before. I discovered the pH of the soil is around 8 or 9, which means it’s basic. I found a lot of salts in the soil too. I’ll know if the soil can conduct electricity within a couple sols. The next major thing on my agenda is to deliver a sample to TEGA to see what’s in that ice.

Neural Gourmet: One of things everybody knows is that life as we know it is built around carbon — life can’t exist without it. Have you tested for carbon yet, and if not, will you be testing for it?

Phoenix: I tested for hydrocarbons in TEGA, but my first test didn’t show any. However, it did show a reaction that may have burned up all the hydrocarbons during the bake. I’m hoping to catch them in the next TEGA bake in a couple sols.

Neural Gourmet: Since we last talked it was found that you suffered a short circuit when your TEGA oven was first fired up. The engineers think is was because they had to have you shake yourself to get the soil into the opening of the oven and they’re concerned that the next time you use your ovens there could be another short circuit. They’re also worried that this time it might hurt you badly enough where you couldn’t wake back up.

Phoenix: Well, I simply don’t know what will happen. Will I never wake up? Will I only go into safe mode? Will I be just fine? I’m not quite sure, and I won’t really know until I do it. However, even if something bad happens and I don’t wake up, I’ve still provided a lot of important information to the team back home. Sure, it means I wouldn’t have completed 100% of my objectives, but I’ve still led a pretty successful mission!

Neural Gourmet: In the past couple of days you’ve been really busy. I know it was planned for you to use the probe at the end of your robotic arm to measure measure the electrical and thermal characteristics of the soil. What does that tell us about water in the Martian soil?

Phoenix: It tells me about where the water is. The scientists want to know if it is mixed evenly thoughout all the layers in the ground, or maybe concentrated in one layer, etc. It can also tell me if the water is frozen or unfrozen in the soil. Scientists think there may be a very, very thin layer right above the ice where liquid water can exist in the soil and not get zapped by solar radiation. Since I don’t know, the scientists back home are hoping to find out!

Neural Gourmet: You’ve also been using your atomic force microscope, a tiny needle that is attached to an amazingly sensitive pressure sensor, all no bigger than a sliver. By running the tip of the needle over particles of Martian soil you’re able to build up an incredibly accurate 3D picture of soil particles much smaller than the width of a human hair. Aside from just being really cool, what do we learn by knowing how the particles in the Martian soil are shaped?

Phoenix: The shapes of the particles can help the scientists understand possibly how they were formed. The scientists can also look for distinct patterns and itty bitty crystals from different minerals.

Neural Gourmet: What kinds of experiments will you be doing that will help scientists understand what kinds of life, if any, that Mars might support?

Phoenix: By analyzing the chemical aspects of the soil using my wet chemistry lab and oven, we can determine if possibly microbes could use the soil as fuel to live. We don’t have the ability to detect life itself, but we can certainly find out if conditions are right for life.

Neural Gourmet: Do any of the experiments that you’re doing have any potential to help humans live on Mars?

Phoenix: The soil could potentially be used as a fuel source, and by finding the ice, humans could certainly use it for water on long term missions.

Neural Gourmet: The soil could maybe be used for fuel? How so?

Phoenix: If hydrogen was hauled from Earth, it could combine with the carbon dioxide of the atmosphere to make methane for fuel and water for the astronauts. For more details, I reocmmend The Case for Mars by Robert Zubrin. He does a pretty good job of analyzing all aspects of a manned Mars mission.

Neural Gourmet: You’re not able to get up and move around like the Spirit and Opportunity rovers on Mars. Do you ever get lonely? Is there ever a possibility that you’ll get to meet Spirit or Opportunity

Phoenix: I don’t get too lonely out here. The scientists talk to me at least once a day, and my orbiter pals pass over all the time and I can chat with them. I even wake up during the night to say hello. Spirit & Opportunity are way too far away for me to ever meet them, but I chat with them on Facebook.

Neural Gourmet: Finally, can you tell us, personally, why the work that you’re doing on Mars is so important?

Phoenix: It is a historical trend that in countries who are experiencing prosperity that that do things that don’t have a practical application at the moment. For example, the Library of Alexandria in ancient Greece fostered learning, and several scientific theories are considered now basic education and fundamentally important were made back them, with no real application for them at the time. Most will not benefit from knowing Martian soil is basic, etc. However, this information may benefit you humans sooner than you think. NASA’s Project Constellation program is getting ready to send people back to the Moon, and after that, on to Mars. If we know this sort of information in advance, then the astronauts can use Mars to their advantage. If we know there’s water ice, we can melt it and use it to drink, shower, etc. It means we won’t have to bring as much from Earth, so we can instead send more scientific experiments to further our understanding of the cosmos. So to sum it up, the information I beam back everyday won’t affect your everyday lives, but will make a difference in the long run.

Neural Gourmet: I couldn’t agree more! We never know what basic science will be useful, or how and when it’ll be needed. Thank you for being such a good sport and doing this interview, especially when you’re such a busy robot. Also, please convey my personal thanks to NASA, Peter Smith, Keri Bean, Patricia Wroblewski and the entire Phoenix team.