From the desk of Robert Rappaport on Thursday, June 12th 2008 at 11:02

PHOENIX MARS LANDER IS WORKING.

It seems like the too-clumpy soil managed to finally fit into an oven for testing. That's one of the key missions of the University of Arizona. A little vibration helped break apart the soil, so the first experiments can begin.

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander's Surface Stereo Imager took this image on Sol 14 (June 8, 2008), the 14th Martian day after landing. It shows two trenches dug by Phoenix's Robotic Arm.

The Phoenix Mars Lander, led by the University of Arizona, is now in its third week of work exploring the surface of the red planet and this week confirmed success with one of the experiments.

Scientists operating the spacecraft learned Wednesday that their latest effort to shake lumps of Martian soil into a tiny testing oven worked. Mission scientist William Boynton of the University of Arizona says the dirt finally started flowing and actually filled an oven.

Scientists twice have failed to get soil scooped up from the Martian arctic region into one of eight miniature ovens on the lander that will test for evidence of the chemical building blocks of life. In a last-ditch effort, scientists vibrated the dirt-covered mesh screen a final time in hopes that bits would shake through and fill the oven.

Data sent back by Phoenix early Wednesday showed its baking instrument brimming with enough soil to conduct the first experiment of the mission.

(Information courtesy of the Associated Press, University of Arizona and KUAZ News)

P.S. Did you know we have our own Mars page?

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