Talking to planetary scientists can be like walking into a foreign country and not speaking the language. Here's a guide to some of the terms that scientists on the Phoenix mission use:
EDL: Entry, Descent and Landing.
SOC: Science Operations Center — the University of Arizona base that will be headquarters for monitoring the Phoenix Mars Lander.
LPL: In the context of the Mars mission, LPL refers to the UA's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory.
NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
JPL: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory based in Pasadena, Calif.
TEGA: Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer, built by the UA and the University of Texas-Dallas. Most simply, TEGA can be described as the Easy-Bake Oven instrument of the Phoenix Mars Lander. It's a series of mini-ovens that will cook Martian soil samples and "sniff" them for signs of water and organic material.
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RA: Robotic arm, built by the JPL. The RA is critical to the operations of the Phoenix Mars Lander. The RA is designed to dig trenches, scoop up soil and water-ice samples and deliver the samples to other instruments for chemical and geological analysis.
RAC: Robotic arm camera. Built by the UA and the Max Planck Institute, the camera is attached to the robotic arm, just above the scoop. The instrument provides close-up, full-color images of the Martian surface, prospective soil and water-ice samples, collected samples in the robotic arm's scoop, and the floor and sidewalls of the trench to examine fine-scale texturing and layering.
SSI: Surface Stereoscope Imager. It will serve as the lander's "eyes," providing high-resolution images of the Martian arctic. It will survey the arctic landing site for geological context, provide range maps in support of digging operations, and take atmospheric dust and cloud measurements.
MECA: Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer. Built by JPL, the UA and the University of Neuchatel in Switzerland. The instrument on the Phoenix Mars Lander is actually a combination of several scientific instruments, including a wet chemistry laboratory, optical and atomic force microscopes and a thermal and electrical conductivity probe.
MET: The Meteorological Station, built by the Canadian Space Agency. Throughout the course of the Phoenix lander's surface operations, the meteorological station will record the daily weather of the Martian northern plains using temperature and pressure sensors, as well as a light detection and ranging instrument.
PIT: Payload Interoperability Test bed. A test site in the Science Operations Center at the UA that is a full-scale operational replica of the Phoenix Mars Lander on a simulated Mars terrain. The PIT has been a popular destination for school groups and will be open this summer for public viewing by appointment.
— Compiled by Stephanie Innes
