"One surprise is how the soil is behaving. The ice-rich layers stick to the scoop when poised in the sun above the deck, different from what we expected from all the Mars simulation testing we've done. That has presented challenges for delivering samples, but we're finding ways to work with it and we're gathering lots of information to help us understand this soil," he added.
"The details and patterns we see in the ground show an ice-dominated terrain as far as the eye can see," said Mark Lemmon of Texas A and M University, lead scientist for Phoenix's Surface Stereo Imager camera.
Image: In this handout photo provided by NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona, a United States flag and a DVD containing a message for future explorers of Mars, science fiction stories about the planet and the names of 250,000 people, sit on the deck of the Phoenix Mars Lander.
Photograph: Arizona via Getty Images
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