Phoenix Spacecraft Confirms Water on Mars

I should of posted this the day it happened but I forgot and I just rememeber that I should do this. +) Phoenix Spacecraft Confirms Water on Mars
By Art Chimes Washington DC 01 August 2008

Scientists
working on NASA's Phoenix Mars lander have confirmed that there is
water ice on the Red Planet. But they still have not found any evidence
of life on Mars. VOA's Art Chimes reports

Phoenix's telescoping arm scoops up soil samples

The Phoenix Mars Missionwas launched a year ago to look for water and the complex organic molecules that could be signs that life once existed on Mars.

Water
had already been identified from a distance, by the Mars-orbiting
Odyssey spacecraft, and Phoenix had photographed what was presumed to
be melting ice at the landing site.

Phoenix landed on Mars two
months ago. It is equipped with a telescoping arm to enable it to scoop
up soil samples so they can be analyzed by the spacecraft's onboard
instruments.

Although Phoenix is apparently sitting on top of a
layer of ice just a few centimeters below the surface, the clumpy
quality of the Martian soil made it difficult to retrieve a sample.

Finally,
though, on Wednesday, Phoenix scientist William Boyton said they were
able to analyze a soil sample and confirmed that it contained frozen
water.

"We've now finally touched it and tasted it. That's one
thing that hasn't been done before and I'd like to say from my
standpoint, it tastes very fine, I'm very glad to be in this position"

Water, of course, is essential to life as we know it, but project scientist Peter Smith said they've found more than just water.

"We're
also finding nutrients - sodium, potassium, magnesium, fluorides -
things that we find in our own bodies and are definitely nutrients that
are important for life. However, we have yet to discover organic
materials."

Smith said it will be for future Mars missions to determine whether life has ever existed on Mars.

In the meantime, NASA has extended the Phoenix mission for another month, through the end of September.

Ooooo

Aleins

Wow, i thought there would be more news about this

There is but this is the short Version of this lol

Not in Englad

that is very werid
but this is one of the most happiest things that NASA can find