 |
|
This June 16, 2008 NASA handout image shows one trench informally called "Dodo-Goldilocks" after two digs by Phoenix's Robotic Arm. Scientists in charge of the Phoenix Mars lander are more convinced there is ice near the Martian North pole as they review new images from the Red Planet.
|
Phoenix lander gets close-up look at Mars dirt
 |
|
The optical microscope on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander shows soil sprinkled from the lander's robot arm scoop onto a silicone substrate in this handout image released on June 13, 2008. This is the first sample collected and delivered for instrumental analysis onboard a planetary lander since NASA's Viking Mars missions of the 1970s. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) |
WASHINGTON, June 13 (Xinhua) -- New observations from NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander provided the most magnified view ever seen of Martian soil, showing particles clumping together even at the smallest visible scale, the mission science team reported on Friday.
In the past two days, two instruments on the lander deck -- a microscope and a bake-and-sniff analyzer -- have begun inspecting soil samples delivered by the scoop on Phoenix's Robotic Arm. Full story
 |
|
View from the Surface Stereo Imager on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander shows the first impression dubbed Yeti and shaped like a wide footprint -- made on the Martian soil by the robotic arm scoop on Sol 6, the sixth Martian day of the mission, (May 31, 2008). Touching the ground is the first step toward scooping up soil and ice and delivering the samples to the lander's onboard experiments. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) |
 |
|
A white layer visible where the Phoenix Lander robotic arm scooped away the martian soil. NASA said images received on Thursday confirmed that its Phoenix Mars lander has sprinkled a spoonful of Martian soil onto the sample wheel of the spacecraft¡¯s robotic microscope station. (Xinhua/AFP Photo) |
WASHINGTON, June 12 (Xinhua) -- NASA said images received on Thursday confirmed that its Phoenix Mars lander has sprinkled a spoonful of Martian soil onto the sample wheel of the spacecraft's robotic microscope station.
"It looks like a light dusting and that's just what we wanted," said Michael Hecht of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who is the lead scientist for the Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer (MECA) instrument on Phoenix.
