Fuller answers to the habitability question are expected from Phoenix's other major laboratory, the thermal and evolved-gas analyzer, which contains eight tiny ovens to "bake and sniff" the soil, as well as the ice lying inches beneath the lander.
Scientists said they had received the results of heating the first soil sample up to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit. Small amounts of carbon dioxide and water were released, according to William Boynton, the lead scientist for the analyzer.
Neither finding was surprising. The Martian atmosphere is mostly made up of carbon dioxide. NASA's twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, that have been rolling around the planet's equatorial regions since 2004 found evidence of ancient pools or seas of standing water.
Sometime in the next few weeks of the three-month mission, the scientific team will attempt to bore into the hard-as-cement ice layer. After breaking off shards of ice, the robotic arm will try to inject them into the spacecraft's ovens.
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john.johnson@latimes.com
