How to sense pH and soil humidity from sample?

[iuyhcdfs]

soil-botics requirements

soil get, then what. for competition:

will get samples from "sites", to see if sites are geologically significant, chance for biological life

teams get tasks, to do at site, teams then picks sites for potential with 0.5km

• wide angle panorama showing full context of site and immediate surrounding area. panorama indicates cardinal directions, has indication of scale
• close up, well focused, high res picture with indication of scale (can be done post capture) at sampling site
• gps coordinates of each site including elevation and accuracy range. thorough documentation is especially crucial for the sample that is returned

then collect, return desired sub-surface samples from 5cm or deeper samples at least 5g, may consist of single rock, loose soil, anything in between. return full depth including topsoil but teams must be able to distinguish soil depth for any sample. portion of sample below 5cm determins sample mass (so you can have just a large scoop as long as its smooth)

ONBOARD EQUIPMENT at a MINIMUM should test for pH and soil humidity additional gear up to our discretion, to meet any other objectives

onboard chemicals need approval if theyre hazardous. all chemicals must stay contained on rover.

[iuyhcdfs]

thoughts

well, we can just get commercial soil sensors for humidity and pH, any complications in using soil stabby things?

once digging soil isnt compact anymore... will sensor still work

i dunno if we need to deal with medium size rocks etc.. how easily do commercial sensors break, when stabbing soil

how quickly will humidity/ph change as soil goes deeper...

[iuyhcdfs]

range of ph, humidity on "mars" is within range of commercial sensors?

mixing a bunch of rain-like water with soil for ph sensor to work, with zerrrrrrrrro spillage...

[iuyhcdfs]

mmm the trick was using the word "probe" while googling

poke hole in soil and test it. clean probe after usage. i suppose if you dont feel like testing the sample you collect, and want to just probe the ground itself, we could dry the probe after cleaning so we havent spilled liquid :/

probes are $100ish havent searched hard enough yet