Mars lander gets cooking

Nasa lander digs the dirt on Mars

Nasa's Phoenix probe has begun heating a sample of Martian soil, the first to be scooped up from the planet's north pole. Will it shed light on ancient water flows on the planet, or even what makes the soil so damned clumpy?

For the past week, the US space agency's $420m Phoenix probe must have felt like it had touched down at Glastonbury without a pair of wellies. Sat on the floor in the Martian Arctic, it picked away at the mud and struggled to shake it off because it was so unimaginably sticky.

At last though, all appears to be working out. Late last week, some soil from the scooper on Phoenix's robotic arm tumbled into its onboard oven and the probe has set about analysing it. The soil will be heated up to see what gases are driven off, giving scientists vital clues about the history of the region.

It may be a few days before we hear what Phoenix has found, but til then, here's a fun animation Nasa has put together showing what the soil looks like through the probe's microscope.

Makes me wonder: how long will it be before there are astronauts on their way to Mars? Is it too dull to warrant a crewed mission? Seriously - will Congress fund an enormous project that many people will see as little more than a bunch of guys hopping about in a distant desert?