NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has confirmed the existence of water ice on Mars. Mission scientists celebrated the news after a sample of the ice was finally delivered to one of the lander's instruments. Phoenix's mission also has officially been extended for one month beyond its original mission, NASA announced July 31 at a briefing at the University of Arizona at Tucson, where mission control is currently based. "I'm very happy to announce that we've gotten an ice sample," said the University of Arizona's William Boynton, co-investigator for Phoenix's Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA), which heats up samples and analyzes the vapors they give off to determine their composition.
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