Tag: PHOENIX LANDER

The inevitable has happened. Our friend, the loved and loving Mars Phoenix lander has gone quietly into that long, good night once and for all. Even though we joyfully joined the lander on its adventures as it Tweeted from beyond the stratosphere, and thrilled at its explorations, pitfalls, and pratfalls, try not to feel the familiar sting of humanity at the thought of our little robotic buddy ...

Yep, just like we'd heard, the Phoenix rover has identified water in a soil sample it collected in Mars earlier, and NASA's extended the mission for another 90 days to go look for more. There's no analysis of the ice yet, but it doesn't look like there's any organic materials in the sample, and it'll take another three to four weeks before there's any more data to reveal. Hopefully that means ...

It's only fitting that the glorious news of water ice on Mars was broken over Twitter last night, via the Mars Phoenix lander's own first-person ramblings. Apparently, Mars Phoenix was keeping an eye on some white patches it uncovered the other day, only to discover they'd disappeared today. According to the scientist folk over at NASA, that means those white patches must've been ice, which ...