Those are the relevant updates posted by the team on Twitter. It’s my favorite way to follow the mission. Nearly 30,000 people seem to agree.
Science News also has an update:
The Phoenix team was surprised to detect the water ice in the latest sample delivered to the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer instrument, or TEGA instrument, said William Boynton, a TEGA co-investigator from the University of Arizona, during a press briefing.
Delivering an ice-rich sample to one of TEGA’s eight ovens proved to be a challenge for the scientists for the past month. When the latest two attempts failed, the team instead decided to dig and dump a sample of soil taken from just above the ice layer.
The analysis of this sample, however, showed that “this was icy soil,” Boynton said. The results show that when the oven heated the soil, some of the sample melted at 0o Celsius — the melting point of ice.
Hurricane Gustav – Gulf Water Vapor Loop
Go play the loop. The scale and power of this growing hurricane is amazing, and if you live on the Gulf Coast, quite terrifying. Digg this post Recommend on Facebook...
Mars Phoenix Lander Sends Back First Images
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NASA Mars Phoenix Lander Touchdown Minutes Away – UPDATE – Landing Successful!
One of the coolest and most important space science missions in a long time is in it’s riskiest phase: The mission of the Phoenix is to analyze the soils and...
International Space Station Suffers Serious Computer Failure – Oxygen, Water, and Control Systems Impacted
This is a serious problem but not a life threatening one. There’s an almost 2 month supply of oxygen available and the station crew has the option of returning to...
Iranian Lawmaker Upset Over Presence of CNN’s Christiane Amanpour
This guy is really bent out of shape. Member of Parliament from Tehran, Mehdi Kouchekzadeh, Sunday criticized authorization of CNN correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, for her activities in Iran. The lawmaker...
I would like to congratulate this team. People do not realize how important this discovery is! This will be very important in our travel to other planets and how we view the universe.