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Heated to 32 degrees Fahrenheit, a sample of soil being analyzed by NASAs Phoenix Mars lander let out a puff of vapor, providing final confirmation that the lander is sitting over a large chunk of ice.
Weve now finally touched it and tasted it, William V. Boynton, a professor at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona and the lead scientist for the instrument that detected the water, said at a news conference on Thursday. And Id like to say, from my standpoint, it tastes very fine.
The main goal of the lander is to analyze ice in the northern arctic plains. Since it arrived on the planet on May 25, scientists have visually seen what they were almost certain was ice: a flat, shiny patch beneath the lander and tiny white chunks in a trench dug by the landers robotic arm.
But the analysis performed in one of the instruments, heating the sample in a tiny oven and then observing what vaporized, was the first direct measurement.
At the news conference, Michael Meyer, chief scientist for the National Aeronautics and Space Administrations Mars Exploration Program, said the mission had been extended to Sept. 30, five weeks beyond the original three-month primary mission. Dr. Meyer said the mission had already met the milestones for what the agency would consider minimum mission success and was close to full mission success.
The mission is going very well, Dr. Meyer said, and its been proving very successful, and Mars has certainly proved itself to be interesting.
A 360-degree panoramic image of the landscape has been completed, and a weather station has been providing meteorological information like temperature, pressure and wind speeds.
The lander has had some difficulty shaking the clumpier-than-expected soil out of its scoop into the instruments for analysis.
One sample of soil was analyzed by the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer, or Tega, in June. That sample, taken at the surface, did not contain water ice. (The sample did release water vapor, but at much higher temperatures, which indicated water trapped within minerals.)
The second sample was scraped from a trench dug two inches into the soil. The lander was finally successful in pouring the trench scrapings into a Tega oven on Wednesday.
Signs of vast quantities of underground ice in the polar regions were first spotted from orbit by the Mars Odyssey spacecraft in 2002. With the up-close analysis by the Phoenix Mars lander, scientists hope to determine, from tell-tale signs in the minerals, whether the ice had ever melted and whether the region was ever habitable for life.
So far, the soil has turned out to be somewhat alkaline and contains mineral nutrients like sodium, magnesium and potassium. No organic molecules have been detected.
Peter H. Smith, the missions principal investigator, said the analysis had just begun.
I ask for a little patience here as we get to the part of the mission where we do the scientific analysis of the soil and contact with ice, Dr. Smith said. This does take some time, and we still have not collected all our data.
As part of the extended mission, scientists plan to dig two more trenches and take a more detailed panoramic picture of the surrounding plains.
One of the new trenches will be named Cupboard because, Dr. Smith said, maybe the cupboard is full, and this is a place for new discoveries.
The main goal of the lander is to analyze ice in the northern arctic plains. Since it arrived on the planet on May 25, scientists have visually seen what they were almost certain was ice: a flat, shiny patch beneath the lander and tiny white chunks in a trench dug by the landers robotic arm.
But the analysis performed in one of the instruments, heating the sample in a tiny oven and then observing what vaporized, was the first direct measurement.
At the news conference, Michael Meyer, chief scientist for the National Aeronautics and Space Administrations Mars Exploration Program, said the mission had been extended to Sept. 30, five weeks beyond the original three-month primary mission. Dr. Meyer said the mission had already met the milestones for what the agency would consider minimum mission success and was close to full mission success.
The mission is going very well, Dr. Meyer said, and its been proving very successful, and Mars has certainly proved itself to be interesting.
A 360-degree panoramic image of the landscape has been completed, and a weather station has been providing meteorological information like temperature, pressure and wind speeds.
The lander has had some difficulty shaking the clumpier-than-expected soil out of its scoop into the instruments for analysis.
One sample of soil was analyzed by the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer, or Tega, in June. That sample, taken at the surface, did not contain water ice. (The sample did release water vapor, but at much higher temperatures, which indicated water trapped within minerals.)
The second sample was scraped from a trench dug two inches into the soil. The lander was finally successful in pouring the trench scrapings into a Tega oven on Wednesday.
Signs of vast quantities of underground ice in the polar regions were first spotted from orbit by the Mars Odyssey spacecraft in 2002. With the up-close analysis by the Phoenix Mars lander, scientists hope to determine, from tell-tale signs in the minerals, whether the ice had ever melted and whether the region was ever habitable for life.
So far, the soil has turned out to be somewhat alkaline and contains mineral nutrients like sodium, magnesium and potassium. No organic molecules have been detected.
Peter H. Smith, the missions principal investigator, said the analysis had just begun.
I ask for a little patience here as we get to the part of the mission where we do the scientific analysis of the soil and contact with ice, Dr. Smith said. This does take some time, and we still have not collected all our data.
As part of the extended mission, scientists plan to dig two more trenches and take a more detailed panoramic picture of the surrounding plains.
One of the new trenches will be named Cupboard because, Dr. Smith said, maybe the cupboard is full, and this is a place for new discoveries.
