Water Ice Confirmed!, White stuff sublimates away Options

[ElkGroveDan]

Dan, I think you've mistaken a part of sunlit soil in Phil's image as white stuff.

Agreed.

[ugordan]

Here's a flicker between sol 21 and 24 showing change (or, rather, lack of):


Ignore the color of the brightest part of the white stuff, it's overexposed. The small white chunk in sol 21 image appears to disappear in sol 24 (inset).

[Guest_Oersted_*]

Man, I really think this discovery, or rather confirmation, demands a new thread, something entitled "it IS ice"... Done - J

We now know for sure that Mars is full of rocket fuel and water to drink. Fantastic news.

[nprev]

We now know for sure that Mars is full of rocket fuel and water to drink.

I think we've been pretty confident of that for several years now based on orbiter data, but it is indeed nice to see it at a "human" scale of reference...and at an easily accessible depth.

Now there's the problem of getting ice-laden samples into the ovens before it sublimates. CNN reported yesterday that a fresh dig had only about 30 min for delivery before ice crystals small enough to filter through the screens would sublimate off; is this accurate?