It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
Engineers said a short circuit that occurred last month in one of its test ovens designed to shake and bake minuscule soil samples could happen again when the instrument is turned on.
"Since there is no way to assess the probability of another short circuit occurring, we are taking the most conservative approach and treating the next sample ... as possibly our last," the NASA mission's chief scientist, Peter Smith of the University of Arizona in Tucson, said in a statement Wednesday.
Initially, the clumpy dirt could not fit through the oven's opening so scientists vibrated the instrument several days to break it up. Engineers think the short circuit occurred as a result of the repeated shakes.
Originally posted by Delerium
amazing, it can survive a take off, a year in freezing space then an atmospheric reentry, but when it gives itself a giggle it short circuits..
Originally posted by Sleuth
Originally posted by Delerium
amazing, it can survive a take off, a year in freezing space then an atmospheric reentry, but when it gives itself a giggle it short circuits..
Don't bet on this explanation being the truth. Seems like things are always happening to the stuff that lands on Mars. The crappy track record is getting just a bit outrageous.