The White House has been alerted by NASA about plans to make an
announcement soon on major new Phoenix lander discoveries concerning
the "potential for life" on Mars, scientists tell Aviation Week &
Space Technology.


Sources say the new data do not indicate the discovery of existing
or past life on Mars. Rather the data relate to habitability--the
"potential" for Mars to support life--at the Phoenix arctic landing
site, sources say.


The data are much more complex than results related NASA's July 31
announcement that Phoenix has confirmed the presence of water ice at
the site.


International news media trumpeted the water ice confirmation, which
was not a surprise to any of the Phoenix researchers. "They have
discovered water on Mars for the third or fourth time," one senior Mars
scientists joked about the hubbub around the water ice announcement.


The other data not discussed openly yet are far more "provocative," Phoenix officials say.


In fact, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory science team for the MECA
wet-chemistry instrument that made the findings was kept out of a July
31 news conference at the University of Arizona Phoenix control center.
The goal was to prevent them from being asked any questions that could
reveal information before NASA is ready to make an announcement,
sources say.


The Bush Administration's Presidential Science Advisor's office,
however, has been briefed on the new information that NASA hopes to
release as early as mid August. It is possible an announcement would
not come until September, to allow for additional analysis. That will
depend upon the latest results still being analyzed from the
spacecraft's organic oven and soil chemistry laboratories.


Phoenix scientists have said from the start that neither the TEGA
organic chemistry lab nor the MECA wet chemistry system could detect
current or past life.


MECA's two microscopes do, however, have the resolution to detect
bacteria--which would be life. Sources, however, say the microscopes
have not detected bacteria.


The Phoenix scoop was successful in delivery of a soil/ice mixture
to TEGA this week after the material stuck in the scoop on two tries.
The analysis of that sample is under way. The sample contains about 1%
ice and 99% soil.


As expected, the instrument immediately detected hydrogen and oxygen
atoms indicating water. Its electricity load also increased initially,
a positive sign that water ice was being melted by the system.


The fact TEGA is starting to process some ice samples "had champagne
corks popping" here, says William Boynton TEGA principal investigator
from the University of Arizona. "We have tasted the water and it tastes
great," he said.


Before launch, some website literature by the TEGA team indicated it
possibly could find organic evidence of "past" life. Both Boynton and
Peter Smith, who heads the mission now, say that is not the case,
although TEGA organic data could start major new arguments about life.


It has yet to find organics, but still has several sample ovens
available to make such a discovery. An electrical short that earlier
threatened TEGA operations has resolved itself, Boynton says.


News media cited the water ice finding as a major discovery, but it
was totally expected by the science team. The different MECA data
combined with TEGA is increasingly compelling as another piece in the
puzzle of life.


The key is in the soil and water, and how the two behave together at
that site on Mars, not the expected confirmation of water ice at this
stage in the mission, Mars investigators told Aviation Week.


The MECA instrument, in its first of four wet chemistry runs a month
ago, found soil chemistry that is "Earth-like" and capable of
supporting life, researchers said then.


It is intriguing that MECA could have found anything more positive
than that, but NASA and the University of Arizona are taking steps to
prevent word from leaking out on the nature of the discovery made
during MECA's second soil test, in which water from Earth was
automatically stirred with Martian soil.


 Credit: http://www.aviationweek.com

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