Phoenix lander tastes its first ice

sea-maid submitted, created time 5 months 4 days (www.nature.com)

After a month of difficulty, the Mars Phoenix spacecraft is back in the baked goods business — and even got to put a little icing on top.

On Thursday, mission scientists announced they had managed to scrape some Martian soil up and sprinkle it inside one of the spacecraft’s eight ovens — where they discovered that a tiny bit of ice had tagged along with the soil. It’s the first ice actually sampled by the mission after weeks of fruitless attempts to get more pure ice in the ovens.

A panorama of the Phoenix landing site reveals its dusty environs (NASA/JPL-Caltech/U. Arizona/Texas A&M)

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Mars soil capable of sustaining plant life

sea-maid submitted, created time 6 months 1 week (www.latimes.com)

Surprisingly alkaline, the soil on Mars it could support green beans and asparagus, say Phoenix mission scientists, who are "flabbergasted" by the findings.

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Mars Phoenix lander transmits photos!

Darkfrog submitted, created time 7 months 1 week (www.nytimes.com)

Last night I watched the live feed of the NASA control center as the Phoenix lander touched down on Mars' polar region. Its mission is to examine water on Mars with an eye toward whether there is or ever was life on Mars. It transmitted its first photos in the wee hours of this morning.

So far it looks like cracked rock and pebbles, but the scientists are sure that they will find ice!

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