This image was acquired by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander's Surface Stereo Imager on the 31st Martian day of the mission, or Sol 31 (June 26), after the May 25 landing. This image shows the trenches informally called "Snow White 1" (left), "Snow White 2" (right), and within the Snow White 2 trench, the smaller scraping area called "Snow White 3." The Snow White 3 scraped area is about 5 centimeters (2 inches) deep. The dug and scraped areas are within the diggiing site called "Wonderland." The Snow White trenches and scraping prove that scientists can take surface soil samples, subsurface soil samples, and icy samples all from one unit. Scientists want to test samples to determine whether some ice in the soil may have been liquid in the past during warmer climate cycles. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University)
NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander scraped to icy soil in the "Wonderland" area on Thursday, confirming that surface soil, subsurface soil and icy soil can be sampled at a single trench.
Phoenix scientists are now assured they have a complete soil-layer profile in Wonderland's "Snow White" extended trench.
By rasping to icy soil, Phoenix's robotic arm proved it could flatten the layer where soil meets ice, exposing the icy flat surface below the soil. Scientists can now proceed with plans to scoop and scrape samples into Phoenix's various analytical instruments. Scientists will test samples to determine if some ice in the soil may have been liquid in the past during warmer climate cycles.
It's another encouraging step to meeting Phoenix mission goals, which are to study the history of Martian water in all its phases and determine if the Martian arctic soil could support life.
The Phoenix mission is led by Peter Smith of The University of Arizona with project management at the Jet Propulsion Laboaratory and development partnership at Lockheed Martin, located in Denver.
International contributions come from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; Max Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. For more about Phoenix, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix and http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu.
Sara Hammond
University of Arizona
520-626-1974
Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
818-354-6278
Dwayne Brown
NASA Headquarters
202-358-1726