NASA's Phoenix Lander's robotic arm has looked under the vehicle on Mars, and NASA says it looks like there might be a hard icy substrate beneath. The ice-like substance was exposed by the thrusters during landing.
The Phoenix Lander is working fine now after initial hiccups of circuit problems after landing on Mars. The first pictures of the Phoenix Lander showed an
icy patterned ground and the latest pictures show what looks like a hard icy substrate beneath it.
During the lander's descent, the thin layer of soil covering the ground was dispersed, exposing a hard substrate that may be ice according to the mission's scientists.
The image was received Friday night from the spacecraft’s Robotic Arm Camera and showed patches of smooth and level surfaces beneath the thrusters.
Horst Uwe Keller of Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany and the lead scientist for the Robotic Arm Camera said in a
press release: "This suggests we have an ice table under a thin layer of loose soil."
Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson, principal investigator for Phoenix said in the same press release:
"We were expecting to find ice within two to six inches of the surface…The thrusters have excavated two to six inches and, sure enough, we see something that looks like ice. It's not impossible that it's something else, but our leading interpretation is ice."
Scientists say they might get the Phoenix lander to dig right where it is to search for ice.
You can also follow the Phoenix Lander’s latest moves through
Twitter, where NASA mission control gives daily updates of the Phoenix Lander on Mars.
NASA Scientists Capture Photo That Could be Evidence of Ice on Mars
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