Phoenix Digs First Mars Soil Sample To Analyze

An anonymous reader writes "Nearly two weeks after its historic landing, the US Mars probe Phoenix has scooped up its first sample of Martian soil and begun analyzing it for water and organic compounds. The test dig made Sunday by the Phoenix Mars Lander's 8-foot-long robotic arm uncovered bits of bright specks in the soil believed to be ice or salt. Mission controllers will send instructions to the lander to dump the sample into one of the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA) ovens. The TEGA ovens, which are about an inch long and the diameter of a pencil lead, will heat up the soil samples and use a mass spectrometer to detect the gases that come off the samples, which will shed light on some of the materials in the soil, specifically those formed by the process of liquid water."

Comments

Oh no it's CmdrTaco!

[ChrisCampbell47]

CmdrTaco -

I have been reading Slashdot for all of your 10 years, so I think I've got standing to say this. Your other "editors" do a better job at posting stories, so please let them do it. Your posts are frequently either poorly chosen (as in this case), or have regettable editorializing at the end. Just let the other guys do post selection, or figure out some new way to stay involved with story selection without actually doing the posting.

Your audience thanks you for your continued efforts :)