NASA Spacecraft Confirms Martian Water, Mission Extended

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Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
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Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
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Sara Hammond 520-626-1974
University of Arizona, Tucson
shammond@lpl.arizona.edu

RELEASE: 2008-153 July 31, 2008

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

-end-

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