Mars probe Phoenix digs up first sample of Martian soil

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — 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, a NASA official said.

The 200-milliliter (12 cubic inches) of Martian earth is topped by a white crust that has set NASA scientists debating whether it is ice or salt deposits from evaporated water.

"It looks like a good sample for us," Phoenix mission chief scientist Peter Smith told reporters in a telephone conference.

"This is really an important occasion for us, to be poised to make a measurement for the first time of the polar soil that will tell us how much water is in the soil, and secondly what the minerals are that make up the soil," said Smith.

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