The UA-led Phoenix Mars lander may have its first testable sample of ice-filled soil.
The lander's robotic arm methodically scraped away at a shallow trench over the weekend, collecting several tablespoons of samples that will be analyzed by Phoenix's onboard experiments in the coming days, according to a news release issued Tuesday.
By analyzing the soil, which scientists believe contains small chunks of ice, mission officials hope to confirm the presence of water just beneath the red planet's arctic surface.
Scientists already believe they've found evidence of ice in the soil and hope to verify its presence through various experiments.
Confirming that there's water on Mars is one of Phoenix's main goals. Launched in August, the spacecraft traveled more than 420 million miles before touching down during Memorial Day weekend.
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The day-to-day science research for Phoenix is being conducted at the University of Arizona, which became the first public university to lead a NASA mission to Mars.
Dug in an area scientists have nicknamed "Snow White," the trench where the latest samples came from is roughly 13 inches long and 9 inches wide and with a depth of less than 2 inches.
The samples of soil were created after the lander's robotic arm used a blade on the end of its dirt scoop, scraping the icy surface 50 times, the release said.
After taking a picture of the arm's latest dig to make sure everything was working, mission planners programmed the arm to deliver a sample to the lander's Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer, or TEGA.
Built by the UA and the University of Texas-Dallas, TEGA contains a series of tiny ovens designed to bake soil samples to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit.
By identifying the temperatures at which certain materials burn up in a sample, scientists can identify specific molecules, including water.
