Abstract

NASA: Researchers describe research design and equipment for electrochemical analysis of Martian soil. The Wet Chemistry Laboratory (WCL) was designed for the Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander by the Mars Environmental Compatibility Assessment (MECA) team. The WCL consists of four beakers, each containing an integral array of electrochemical sensors. In addition to describing WCL design, the article discusses WCL sensor selection and design, analytical goals of the MECA experiments, expected composition of the Martian regolith, survival and performance testing, and reference electrode selection. The description of the research design describes experiment initiation, warm-up, leaching solution, calibration, sampling, analysis, reagent addition, and data analysis.