An Avalanche on TEGA

Filed under pretty pictures, animation, spacecraft, amateur image processing, Mars, Phoenix

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One of the main tasks for sol 14 was to shake the TEGA instrument to help some material pass through the outer mesh using a built-in mechanical shaker designed for this task. In this animation you can see movement of some material dumped onto the instrument that was caused by this activity.

NASA / JPL / UA / MPI animation by Gordan Ugarkovic

 To orient you, this image taken using the robotic arm camera is looking approximately vertically down onto TEGA. The doors of TEGA are angled at around 45 degrees to the horizontal with the part visible at the bottom of this image the highest point, sloping down toward the top-left. The motion seen here is from the soil slumping down the slope. This motion proves that the shaker is working. Unfortunately however, very little soil passed through the mesh underneath.

Copyright holder: Gordan Ugarkovic