Phoenix Mars lander 'tastes' first sample of water ice

• 22:38 31 July 2008
• NewScientist.com news service
• New Scientist Space and Reuters

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Nasa's Lander samples Mars water

Nasa has completed a full panorama of the landing site

Nasa's Phoenix Lander spacecraft has for the first time identified water in a sample of soil collected from the planet's surface.

Scientists will now be able to begin studying the sample to see whether the planet was ever, or is, habitable.

The craft previously had problems transferring samples from its robotic arm to the onboard lab for analysis.

The success and the good condition of the craft mean the mission will be extended until the end of September.

Since it landed on June 25, the Phoenix Lander has been studying the surface of Mars to investigate whether it has ever been capable of supporting life.

It has been studying soil with a chemistry lab, an oven called TEGA [Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer instrument], a microscope, a probe and cameras.

Scientists told a press conference at the University of Arizona in Tucson that the planet had so far "proved itself to be interesting".

William Boynton, lead scientist on the mission, said evidence of water ice had been seen before from the Mars Odyssey orbiter, but that this is the first time Martian water has been "touched and tasted".

Full panorama

Phoenix had collected some ice samples last week but was unable to transfer them from the mechanical scoop to the onboard oven for heating and testing.

A dry soil sample was taken instead but the scientists found some ice had been collected too and tests were being conducted on it.

The scientists said they had yet to find organic materials in the sample and stressed that it would take 3 to 4 weeks for the data to be analysed.

The 90-day extension to the mission means Nasa will be able to dig two new trenches between mountains where ice lasts for longer periods of time giving it different characteristics.

"Phoenix is healthy and the projections for solar power look good," said chief scientist Michael Meyer.

"We want to take full advantage of having this resource in one of the most interesting locations on Mars".

Nasa also announced the completion of a full panoramic image of the arctic landing site in approximate true colour.

The panorama is made up of more than 400 individual images taken over several weeks and stitched together to form a mosaic.

Phoenix carries seven science instruments

Water 'widespread' on early Mars

In Mars' Nili Fossae, clays are concentrated on slopes and along canyon walls

Water was once widespread on Mars, data from a Nasa spacecraft shows, raising the prospect that the Red Planet could have supported life.

Researchers found evidence of vast lakes, flowing rivers and deltas on early Mars, all of which were potential habitats for microbes.
They also discovered that wet conditions probably persisted for a long time on the Red Planet.
Details appear in the journals Nature and Nature Geoscience.

It wasn't this hot, boiling cauldron. It was a benign, water-rich environment for a long period of time Jack Mustard, Brown University

One study shows that vast regions of Mars' ancient highlands, which cover about half the planet, contain clay minerals - which can form only in the presence of water.

Volcanic lavas buried the clay-rich regions during subsequent, drier periods of the planet's history, but impact craters later exposed them at thousands of locations across Mars.
The data comes from the CRISM (Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars) instrument on the US space agency's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.
CRISM works by "reading" over 500 colours in reflected sunlight to detect particular minerals on the Martian surface - including those that formed in the presence of water.
"The big surprise from these new results is how pervasive and long-lasting Mars' water was, and how diverse the wet environments were," said Crism's chief scientist Scott Murchie, from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland.
Cosmic bombardment
The clay minerals, known as phyllosilicates, preserve a record of the interaction of water with rocks dating back to the Noachian period of Martian history, which lasted from about 4.6 billion years ago to 3.8 billion years ago.
This was a time in which the Earth, the Moon and Mars were being pummelled by comets and asteroids.

Rivers once flowed into Mars' Jezero Crater, carrying clay minerals

Rocks of this age have largely been destroyed on Earth by plate tectonics. They are preserved on the Moon, but were never exposed to liquid water. So rocks containing phyllosilicates on Mars preserve a unique record of watery environments in the early Solar System, some of which could have been stable long enough for life to get started.
Importantly, CRISM detected hydrated silicates - so called because they contain water in their crystalline structure - within sediments that had been clearly deposited by water.
The clay minerals were found in fans and deltas within the Holden, Eberswalde and Jezero craters on Mars.
"In most locations the rocks are lightly altered by liquid water, but in a few locations they have been so altered that a great deal of water must have flushed though the rocks and soil," said Jack Mustard, professor of planetary geology at Brown University in Rhode Island.
"This is really exciting because we're finding dozens of sites where future missions can land to understand if Mars was ever habitable and if so, to look for signs of past life."
Deep and cool
The European and US space agencies have targeted several phyllosilicate-rich regions as potential landing sites for their next rover missions to Mars.

MSL LANDING SITE SHORTLIST Nili Fossae Trough - 25km-wide linear trough with exposed clays and volcanic deposits Holden Crater - 150km-wide crater once filled by a lake which experienced a massive flood Mawrth Vallis - Valley with many exposed, clays deposited over a long time Eberswalde Crater - 65km-wide depression once filled with water and featuring an ancient delta Northern Meridiani - Region at equator rich in minerals that typically form in presence of water Miyamoto Crater - Impact depression in Meridiani region with exposed clay minerals

The team also found phyllosilicate deposits in thousands of places in and around craters, including the pointed peaks located at the centres of some impact depressions. This example suggests that water was present 4-5km below the ancient Martian surface, the researchers said.
Crater-causing collisions are thought to have excavated underground minerals that were then exposed on the crater peaks.
"Water must have been creating minerals at depth to get the signatures we see," Professor Mustard explained.
The clay minerals must have been formed at relatively low temperatures.
"What does this mean for habitability? It's very strong," explained Professor Mustard.
"It wasn't this hot, boiling cauldron. It was a benign, water-rich environment for a long period of time."
In a separate study published in the journal Nature Geoscience, a team led by Bethany Ehlmann, from Brown University, analysed sedimentary deposits in two deltas within Mars' Jezero crater - which once hosted a body of water measuring some 40km (25 miles) across.
The deltas suggest a river transported clay minerals into the basin from a watershed.
"Not only was water active in this region to weather the rocks, but there was enough of it to run through the beds, transport the clays and run into the lake and form the delta," said Ms Ehlmann.
She added that the deltas appeared to be excellent candidates for finding stored organic matter, because the clays brought in from the watershed and deposited in the lake would have trapped any organisms, leaving a "cemetery of microbes".
Nasa will send a robotic rover, Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), to the planet in September 2009 to look for signs of past or present life.
The European Space Agency (Esa) also plans to send a rover to investigate Mars' habitability. This mission, called ExoMars, is scheduled to launch in 2013.