[meteorite-list] Phoenix Confirms Martian Water, Mission Extended

[Ron Baalke]

July 31, 2008

Dwayne Brown       
Headquarters, Washington 
202-358-1726 
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov 

Guy Webster 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 
818-354-6278 
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov 

Sara Hammond 
University of Arizona, Tucson 
520-626-1974 
shammond at lpl.arizona.edu 


RELEASE: 08-195

NASA SPACECRAFT CONFIRMS MARTIAN WATER, MISSION EXTENDED

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Laboratory tests aboard NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander 
have identified water in a soil sample. The lander's robotic arm 
delivered the sample Wednesday to an instrument that identifies 
vapors produced by the heating of samples. 

"We have water," said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, 
lead scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA. 
"We've seen evidence for this water ice before in observations by the 
Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix 
last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched 
and tasted." 

With enticing results so far and the spacecraft in good shape, NASA 
also announced operational funding for the mission will extend 
through Sept. 30. The original prime mission of three months ends in 
late August. The mission extension adds five weeks to the 90 days of 
the prime mission. 

"Phoenix is healthy and the projections for solar power look good, so 
we want to take full advantage of having this resource in one of the 
most interesting locations on Mars," said Michael Meyer, chief 
scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in 
Washington. 

The soil sample came from a trench approximately 2 inches deep. When 
the robotic arm first reached that depth, it hit a hard layer of 
frozen soil. Two attempts to deliver samples of icy soil on days when 
fresh material was exposed were foiled when the samples became stuck 
inside the scoop. Most of the material in Wednesday's sample had been 
exposed to the air for two days, letting some of the water in the 
sample vaporize away and making the soil easier to handle. 

"Mars is giving us some surprises," said Phoenix principal 
investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona. "We're excited 
because surprises are where discoveries come from. One surprise is 
how the soil is behaving. The ice-rich layers stick to the scoop when 
poised in the sun above the deck, different from what we expected 
from all the Mars simulation testing we've done. That has presented 
challenges for delivering samples, but we're finding ways to work 
with it and we're gathering lots of information to help us understand 
this soil." 

Since landing on May 25, Phoenix has been studying soil with a 
chemistry lab, TEGA, a microscope, a conductivity probe and cameras. 
Besides confirming the 2002 finding from orbit of water ice near the 
surface and deciphering the newly observed stickiness, the science 
team is trying to determine whether the water ice ever thaws enough 
to be available for biology and if carbon-containing chemicals and 
other raw materials for life are present. 

The mission is examining the sky as well as the ground. A Canadian 
instrument is using a laser beam to study dust and clouds overhead. 

"It's a 30-watt light bulb giving us a laser show on Mars," said 
Victoria Hipkin of the Canadian Space Agency. 

A full-circle, color panorama of Phoenix's surroundings also has been 
completed by the spacecraft. 

"The details and patterns we see in the ground show an ice-dominated 
terrain as far as the eye can see," said Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M 
University, lead scientist for Phoenix's Surface Stereo Imager 
camera. "They help us plan measurements we're making within reach of 
the robotic arm and interpret those measurements on a wider scale." 

The Phoenix mission is led by Smith at the University of Arizona with 
project management at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, 
Calif., and development partnership at Lockheed Martin in Denver. 
International contributions come from the Canadian Space Agency; the 
University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen 
and Aarhus in Denmark; the Max Planck Institute in Germany; and the 
Finnish Meteorological Institute. 

For more about Phoenix, visit: 
http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix 

	
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