Independent Review Support for Phoenix Mars Mission Robotic Arm Brush Motor Failure

The Phoenix Project requested the NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) perform an independent peer review of the Robotic Arm (RA) Direct Current (DC) motor brush anomalies that originated during the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Project and recurred during the Phoenix Project. The request was to evaluate the Phoenix Project investigation efforts and provide an independent risk assessment. This includes a recommendation for additional work and assessment of the flight worthiness of the RA DC motors. Based on the investigation and findings contained within this report, the IRT concurs with the risk assessment Failure Cause / Corrective Action (FC/CA) by the project, "Failure Effect Rating "3"; Major Degradation or Total Loss of Function, Failure Cause/Corrective Action Rating Currently "4"; Unknown Cause, Uncertainty in Corrective Action.

Antibacterial Activity of Aqueous and Alcoholic Extracts of Garlic and Aloe Vera Against Clinical Isolates of Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and E.coli

Background and Aims: Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli are the most important bacteria responsible for hospital infections with multiple antibiotic resistance. Problems in the treatment of infections caused by resistant isolates have been the factor for the investigation of alternative drugs, including medicinal plants. Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, antimicrobial activity of aqueous and alcoholic extract of Garlic and Aloe vera on 63 strains of P. aeruginosa, S. aureus and E. coli isolated from clinical specimens were investigated. Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) and Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) was carried out by tube dilution method. Results and Conclusion: In the MIC test, E. coli isolates showed the most sensitivity to the aqueous (with mean MIC, MBC 236.8 and 473.6 mg/ml, respectively) and alcoholic extract of the Garlic (with mean MIC, MBC 329.6 and 659.2 mg/ml, respectively) (P<0.05). Clinical isolates of S. aureus showed the highest susceptibility to garlic alcoholic extract, followed by aqueous extract of garlic and alcoholic extract of aloe vera (with mean MIC, 156.8, 188.8 and 198.4 mg/ml, respectively). The results showed that the isolates of P. aeruginosa were resistant to both garlic and aloe vera extracts. Considering the significant antibacterial effects of alcoholic and aqueous extracts of garlic and alcoholic extract of aloe vera on pathogenic bacteria, that contribute to the development of various types of infectious and nosocomial infections, these extracts can be considered as natural and alternative drugs

To Land on Europa

The Science Definition Team (SDT) for NASA's Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO) Mission recommends including a lander as an integral part of the science payload of the JIMO Mission. The Europa Surface Science Package (ESSP) could comprise up to 25% of science payload resources. We have identified several key scientific and technical issues for such a lander, including 1) the potential effects of propellant contamination of the landng site, 2) the likely macroscopic surface roughness of potential landing sites, and 3) the desire to sample materials from depths of approximately 1 m beneath the surface. Discussion and consensus building on these issues within the science community is a prerequisite for establishing design requirements

Redwater: Extraction of water from mars’ ice deposits

Honeybee Robotics has designed, built, and tested a TRL4/5 system known as RedWater, intended to drill into the surface of Mars and melt/extract water from locations identified by the Shallow Subsurface Radar, SHARAD. RedWater combines proven terrestrial technologies to extract water from the subsurface Martian ice. Rodriguez Wells, or RodWells, are a type of water well employed in Antarctica to maintain large pools of liquid water within an ice sheet and pumping water to the surface while heating and recirculating a portion to facilitate continuous well growth. RedWater also repurposes coiled tube drilling technology, which uses a thin-walled metal or composite tube to drive a bottom hole assembly into a borehole; the coiled tube itself is wound onto a drum and deployed by an injector system which transmits the required drilling forces through the tube as it is driven down. The combination of these two technologies with Honeybee’s existing rotary percussive drilling and pneumatic transport technologies make for an efficient means of producing large quantities of liquid water on Mars. Honeybee is currently working on evolving this technology to TRL6 and will be conducting end-to-end TVAC testing in 2022

RedWater: Water Mining System for Mars

Water ice in the form of debris covered glaciers or ice sheets that could be up to hundreds of meters thick has been discovered and mapped in the mid latitude of Mars. This presents a unique opportunity for in situ resource utilization (ISRU) of water, where the location could be favorable for a future human base. Under NASA funding, Honeybee Robotics developed and demonstrated water extraction from subsurface ice with a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5 RedWater system in a Mars-simulated environment that utilizes 2 proven terrestrial technologies: coiled tubing (CT) and the Rodriguez well (a.k.a. RodWell). CT is a continuous length of tube (metal or composite) that is unspooled from the surface and can be used to advance a bottom hole assembly through the overburden layer and into the underlying ice. The RodWell is a method of melting a well in subsurface ice and pumping the liquid water to the surface, which has been demonstrated and used to support polar operations in both Greenland and Antarctica. The aim of this article is to report the results of end-to-end testing of the TRL-5 RedWater system in -60°C ice and at Mars ambient pressure (and compare the results obtained in an Earth ambient environment). The performance of the system was evaluated in terms of drilling with pneumatic cuttings clearing, melting a well, and extracting the water from the well to a tank at the surface. After performance evaluation, the validated figures of merit may serve as input to higher level efforts, such as the design and development of integrated, water-rich habitat system architectures that rely on ISRU-derived water

Science goals and mission architecture of the Europa Lander mission concept

© The Author(s), 2022. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Hand, K., Phillips, C., Murray, A., Garvin, J., Maize, E., Gibbs, R., Reeves, G., San Martin, A., Tan-Wang, G., Krajewski, J., Hurst, K., Crum, R., Kennedy, B., McElrath, T., Gallon, J., Sabahi, D., Thurman, S., Goldstein, B., Estabrook, P., Lee, S. W., Dooley, J. A., Brinckerhoff, W. B., Edgett, K. S., German, C. R., Hoehler, T. M., Hörst, S. M., Lunine, J. I., Paranicas, C., Nealson, K., Smith, D. E., Templeton, A. S., Russell, M. J., Schmidt, B., Christner, B., Ehlmann, B., Hayes, A., Rhoden, A., Willis, P., Yingst, R. A., Craft, K., Cameron, M. E., Nordheim, T., Pitesky, J., Scully, J., Hofgartner, J., Sell, S. W., Barltrop, K. J., Izraelevitz, J., Brandon, E. J., Seong, J., Jones, J.-P., Pasalic, J., Billings, K. J., Ruiz, J. P., Bugga, R. V., Graham, D., Arenas, L. A., Takeyama, D., Drummond, M., Aghazarian, H., Andersen, A. 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F., Kobeissi, B., Kobie, B. D., Kochocki, J., Kokorowski, M., Kosberg, J. A., Kriechbaum, K., Kulkarni, T. P., Lam, R. L., Landau, D. F., Lattimore, M. A., Laubach, S. L., Lawler, C. R., Lim, G., Lin, J. Y., Litwin, T. E., Lo, M. W., Logan, C. A., Maghasoudi, E., Mandrake, L., Marchetti, Y., Marteau, E., Maxwell, K. A., Namee, J. B. Mc, Mcintyre, O., Meacham, M., Melko, J. P., Mueller, J., Muliere, D. A., Mysore, A., Nash, J., Ono, H., Parker, J. M., Perkins, R. C., Petropoulos, A. E., Gaut, A., Gomez, M. Y. Piette, Casillas, R. P., Preudhomme, M., Pyrzak, G., Rapinchuk, J., Ratliff, J. M., Ray, T. L., Roberts, E. T., Roffo, K., Roth, D. C., Russino, J. A., Schmidt, T. M., Schoppers, M. J., Senent, J. S., Serricchio, F., Sheldon, D. J., Shiraishi, L. R., Shirvanian, J., Siegel, K. J., Singh, G., Sirota, A. R., Skulsky, E. D., Stehly, J. S., Strange, N. J., Stevens, S. U., Sunada, E. T., Tepsuporn, S. P., Tosi, L. P. C., Trawny, N., Uchenik, I., Verma, V., Volpe, R. A., Wagner, C. T., Wang, D., Willson, R. G., Wolff, J. L., Wong, A. T., Zimmer, A. K., Sukhatme, K. G., Bago, K. A., Chen, Y., Deardorff, A. M., Kuch, R. S., Lim, C., Syvertson, M. L., Arakaki, G. A., Avila, A., DeBruin, K. J., Frick, A., Harris, J. R., Heverly, M. C., Kawata, J. M., Kim, S.-K., Kipp, D. M., Murphy, J., Smith, M. W., Spaulding, M. D., Thakker, R., Warner, N. Z., Yahnker, C. R., Young, M. E., Magner, T., Adams, D., Bedini, P., Mehr, L., Sheldon, C., Vernon, S., Bailey, V., Briere, M., Butler, M., Davis, A., Ensor, S., Gannon, M., Haapala-Chalk, A., Hartka, T., Holdridge, M., Hong, A., Hunt, J., Iskow, J., Kahler, F., Murray, K., Napolillo, D., Norkus, M., Pfisterer, R., Porter, J., Roth, D., Schwartz, P., Wolfarth, L., Cardiff, E. H., Davis, A., Grob, E. W., Adam, J. R., Betts, E., Norwood, J., Heller, M. M., Voskuilen, T., Sakievich, P., Gray, L., Hansen, D. J., Irick, K. W., Hewson, J. C., Lamb, J., Stacy, S. C., Brotherton, C. M., Tappan, A. S., Benally, D., Thigpen, H., Ortiz, E., Sandoval, D., Ison, A. M., Warren, M., Stromberg, P. G., Thelen, P. M., Blasy, B., Nandy, P., Haddad, A. W., Trujillo, L. B., Wiseley, T. H., Bell, S. A., Teske, N. P., Post, C., Torres-Castro, L., Grosso, C. Wasiolek, M. Science goals and mission architecture of the Europa Lander mission concept. The Planetary Science Journal, 3(1), (2022): 22, https://doi.org/10.3847/psj/ac4493.Europa is a premier target for advancing both planetary science and astrobiology, as well as for opening a new window into the burgeoning field of comparative oceanography. The potentially habitable subsurface ocean of Europa may harbor life, and the globally young and comparatively thin ice shell of Europa may contain biosignatures that are readily accessible to a surface lander. Europa's icy shell also offers the opportunity to study tectonics and geologic cycles across a range of mechanisms and compositions. Here we detail the goals and mission architecture of the Europa Lander mission concept, as developed from 2015 through 2020. The science was developed by the 2016 Europa Lander Science Definition Team (SDT), and the mission architecture was developed by the preproject engineering team, in close collaboration with the SDT. In 2017 and 2018, the mission concept passed its mission concept review and delta-mission concept review, respectively. Since that time, the preproject has been advancing the technologies, and developing the hardware and software, needed to retire risks associated with technology, science, cost, and schedule.K.P.H., C.B.P., E.M., and all authors affiliated with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory carried out this research at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (grant No. 80NM0018D0004). J.I.L. was the David Baltimore Distinguished Visiting Scientist during the preparation of the SDT report. JPL/Caltech2021