Abstract
MARTIAN SOIL SAMPLES dug from trenches beside NASA’s Phoenix lander spacecraft appear to contain perchlorate ions, a finding that has both surprised and delighted mission scientists. On Earth, perchlorate (ClO 4 – ) is used in rocket fuel and has recently made headlines as a contaminant in both food and drinking water. Its presence on Mars, however, is seen as largely benign: It’s stable in water, can act as a desiccant, and is not particularly inhospitable to organisms. “This is an important piece in the puzzle to determine whether habitable conditions existed,” said Peter Smith, principal investigator for the Phoenix mission, at a press conference on Aug. 4. The researchers cautioned that the results are still preliminary and that they’re announcing them ahead of peer review and publishing processes because of “extreme interest” in the mission and rampant “speculation on the Web” about Phoenix’s discoveries, Smith said. Phoenix contains four wet chemistry beakers, which are laden with ...
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