Pasadena CA (JPL) Jun 19, 2008 - Opportunity finally escaped the Martian sand and backed up onto solid rock inside Victoria Crater. Driving backward on Martian day, or sol, 1557 (June 10, 2008), the rover successfully moved the last of its six wheels up over a rocky ledge.
Tucson AZ (SPX) Jun 19, 2008 - NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander began digging in an area called Wonderland early Tuesday, taking its first scoop of soil from a polygonal surface feature within the national park region that mission scientists have been preserving for science.
Tucson AZ (SPX) Jun 18, 2008 - One of the ovens on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander continued baking its first sample of Martian soil over the weekend, while the Robotic Arm dug deeper into the soil to learn more about white material first revealed on June 3.
Tucson AZ (SPX) Jun 16, 2008 - New observations from NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander provide the most magnified view ever seen of Martian soil, showing particles clumping together even at the smallest visible scale.
Washington (AFP) June 13, 2008 - About three weeks after it landed on Mars, the Phoenix lander has collected particles that offer a snapshot of millions of years of life on the Red Planet, the team behind the probe said Friday.
Tucson AZ (SPX) Jun 13, 2008 - NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander sprinkled a spoonful of Martian soil Wednesday onto the sample wheel of the spacecraft's robotic microscope station, images received early Thursday confirmed.
Chapel Hill NC (SPX) Jun 12, 2008 - Scientists looking for evidence of life on Mars have turned to technology invented by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers to help with their mission.
Tucson AZ (SPX) Jun 12, 2008 - NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has filled its first oven with artian soil. We have an oven full, Phoenix co-investigator Bill Boynton of the University of Arizona, Tucson, said. It took 10 seconds to fill the oven. The ground moved.
Sacramento CA (SPX) Jun 11, 2008 - Aerojet has shipped the rocket engines destined for use on NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). When MSL is launched in the fall of 2009 aboard the Atlas V, Aerojet will provide propulsion for every phase of the mission.
Washington (AFP) June 11, 2008 - Scientists were all smiles Wednesday after samples of Martian arctic soil finally dropped into the Phoenix lander's oven instrument, putting the search for signs of past life on Mars back on track.
Tucson AZ (SPX) Jun 11, 2008 - The team operating NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander plans to instruct the spacecraft in the next few days to use its Robotic Arm to sprinkle a spoonful of Martian soil onto a wheel that will rotate the sample into place for viewing by the spacecraft's Optical Microscope.
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Jun 10, 2008 - In a quest to understand the source of methane detected in the atmosphere of Mars, NASA scientists are looking at methane bubbling from the ground at an outdoor salt factory on Mexico's Baja Peninsula. By measuring carbon isotopes in the Mexican methane, these scientists hope to help unravel the mystery of the martian methane.
Tucson AZ (SPX) Jun 10, 2008 - Engineers operating the Robotic Arm on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander are testing a revised method for delivering soil samples to laboratory instruments on Phoenix's deck now that researchers appreciate how clumpy the soil is at the landing site.
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jun 10, 2008 - On Sunday, Sol 14 of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander mission, mechanical shakers inside the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer will attempt to loosen clumped soils on the device's screens to allow material to fall into the oven for analysis later in the week.
Washington (AFP) June 10, 2008 - Clumpy soil on Mars has further hampered the Phoenix lander's attempts to obtain samples for analysis by the spacecraft's test instruments, mission experts said.
Washington (AFP) June 8, 2008 - A soil sample from the Martian arctic dug up by the Phoenix probe appears to be too firmly clumped to deliver any particles into the spacecraft's main test instrument, mission experts said.
