Scientists have discovered that when NASA’s Phoenix spacecraft landed on Mars, it exposed what seems to be ice when the soil was blown away.

Still, scientists are unsure whether this was actually ice or not. They will get full confirmation when the probe excavates and analyzes the layers in the nearby workspace.

The Phoenix is equipped with an instrument that identifies ingredients in the environment. This instrument is known as the Thermal and Evolved Gas analyzer, and it includes a calorimeter which tracks how much heat is needed to melt or vaporize substances in a sample, plus a mass spectrometer to examine vapors driven off by the heat. On May 29th, tests recorded electrical behavior which is consistent with an intermittent short circuit in the spectrometer portion.

Latest data from the Canadian Space Agency has shown that there will be another sunny day at the Phoenix landing site, with a temperature of - 30 degrees Celsius. The lidar instruments was activated for an interval of 15 minutes, which recorded increasing dust in the atmosphere.

This mission is led by Peter Smith from the University of Arizona with project management at JPL and development partnership at Lockheed Martin, Denver. The most important international contribution comes from the Canadian Space Agency.