The first test of Martian ice

    After a whole month of unsuccessful attempts, the Mars Lander still managed to place a sample of a white substance, similar to ice, in a module for analyzing materials. Scientists' guesses were fully confirmed - it actually turned out to be ice .

    At the beginning of this week, engineers again found an excellent large ice on Martian soil and again tried to move it. As before, they did not succeed. The ice just froze to the manipulator. On Wednesday, engineers sent instructions to Mars Lander to assemble other samples, and they themselves brainstormed what to do next. However, they were lucky: among the new samples, another same white slice was already in the analysis tank. He was not immediately noticed until he began to melt during the evaporation test (this test is accompanied by heating). The process was abruptly stopped and the ice-cream was subjected to comprehensive analysis to make sure: this is really the most ordinary water. And such pieces are scattered across the surface of Mars.

    After this grandiose event, scientists at the Mars Lander control center staged a celebration with lots of champagne and immediately sent an urgent message to NASA, which they reported to the country's leadership. As a result, the US government decided to extend the Phoenix mission for another five weeks, until the end of September. Most likely, then it will again be extended for another two months. In the end, scientists need to solve an important problem: Mars, which was previously covered by the oceans, is it suitable for life now?

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