Mars lander fills yet another oven

WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- The U.S. space agency says its Mars Phoenix Lander has delivered a "bonus round" to the mission's goal of analyzing soil in at least three of its ovens.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said the lander's robotic arm delivered soil into oven six of its thermal and evolved-gas analyzer, or TEGA, last week NASA said the delivery was a "bonus" for Phoenix, since the mission goal of filling and analyzing soil in at least three of the ovens had been satisfied. Six of eight ovens have now been used.

The TEGA ovens heat the soil to as high as 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit. Then the lab's mass spectrometer, analyzes gases from heating the soil. Mission scientists will continue to research and analyze the soil samples during the coming months, long after Phoenix stops operating on the surface due to the loss of solar power in the martian winter.

"My entire team is working very hard to make use of the power we have before it disappears," said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, the lead scientist for TEGA. "Every time we fill an oven, we potentially learn more about Mars' geochemistry."