not melted, but sublimated. transformed straight from solid ice to gas.

Posted at 10:07 pm on Jun 19th, 2008 by oscinis

Is the sunlight really hot enough to sublimate the ice? I guess so. Kinda interesting, I know C02 sublimates (dry ice), never thought about conditions on other planets.

Posted at 10:20 pm on Jun 19th, 2008 by Steven

Sublimation occurs due to the low pressure on Mars. as well. The atmospheric pressure on Mars is lower than the vapor pressure of the water trapped underneath the layers of Martian soil.

Posted at 12:18 am on Jun 20th, 2008 by Joach

the lower atmospheric pressure on mars allows the ice to sublimate.

Posted at 12:19 am on Jun 20th, 2008 by fever

I just love it, they spend milions of dollars on this thing and all they can do is watch two pictures and GUESS?
great science there …

Posted at 12:40 am on Jun 20th, 2008 by rasz

awesome! waited my whole life for this.

Posted at 12:48 am on Jun 20th, 2008 by RT (Panzer Time!)

Water on Mars has also been photographed, like so: http://water-on-mars.istheshit.net/

Posted at 2:04 am on Jun 20th, 2008 by Alex B

How is this a Hack?
What makes any one think this isn’t already reported on EVERY OTHER NEWS SITE ON THE INTERNET?

/confused.

Posted at 2:46 am on Jun 20th, 2008 by Louis II

8 – A non-hack on hackaday?

these are clearly the end days. Stock your ammunition, tinned food and fuel.

Looks like we’ll be hacking solo from now on. :(

Posted at 3:41 am on Jun 20th, 2008 by mercy

Ice on Mars. Cool. Ice on Mars on Hackaday. What’s the big deal? The “masses” doth protest too much, methinks.

Posted at 5:38 am on Jun 20th, 2008 by americonium

You’d think they’d be testing for bacteria in the ice and soil, so they can say there’s life on Mars and get more funding to figure out how we can potentially go to war with it.

Posted at 6:03 am on Jun 20th, 2008 by TJHooker

global warming on mars too? better send a hybrid probe next time

Posted at 8:56 am on Jun 20th, 2008 by Alex

^ hahaha i like wht he said hahaha ^

Posted at 10:21 am on Jun 20th, 2008 by Dillon

@ louis ii:

How is this a hack?!? How can you be so shortsighted as not to see that it’s one of the best frackin’ hacks of all time? You might not have a maker’s soul, but mine is inspired by this!!!

Posted at 10:43 am on Jun 20th, 2008 by jeff

How do we know it’s ice water? I think they are making quite a logical leap. Are there any substances that under the right condition don’t have a solid, liquid and gas state?

Re: the “This isn’t hacking”… Don’t you all think that the pheonix mission is a huge hack? I mean getting a robot rover on another planet, and having it dig to find “ice” and other interesting things?

Posted at 11:25 am on Jun 20th, 2008 by J A Streich

i do not approve of this post.

not a hack. you can read this info on any associated press feed. also covered on my “new scientist” rss feed.

sure the remote vehicle itself is a hack, but there is nothing in the article about the build

Posted at 12:00 pm on Jun 20th, 2008 by miked

>sure the remote vehicle itself is a hack

yes, but it was a hack on NASA funds. SO MUCH MONEY for a junk that can only send pictures …

Posted at 3:05 pm on Jun 20th, 2008 by rasz

>yes, but it was a hack on NASA funds. SO MUCH MONEY >for a junk that can only send pictures …

ok. it is a hack for nasa. the mission cost us$420 million, which is not a lot of money for them.

cost source – http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,358027,00.html

Posted at 5:02 pm on Jun 20th, 2008 by miked

rasz:
>yes, but it was a hack on NASA funds. SO MUCH MONEY >for a junk that can only send pictures

Well you hack together something and put it on Mars.

For all those people that think this doesn’t belong on hackaday, chill out. It’s geeky and cool. How much time did hackaday take from your day to scroll past this since you already know about it. < 1sec

Posted at 12:35 am on Jun 21st, 2008 by Greg

I hope they don´´t say in a few days oh no it was our bad, we hadn´t took the right pictures.
Seriously, having put that thing so far away and put it working is amazing

Posted at 7:35 pm on Jun 21st, 2008 by seb

Maybe the PI got caught with a bad quote, “It must be ice.” Naphthalene (primary ingredient in mothballs) is a white solid, that sublimates at room temperature at atmospheric pressure.

Posted at 6:18 pm on Jun 26th, 2008 by PF

J A Streich: they know it’s not CO2 ice, because it’s far too hot for it to exist long enough to get a picture at that location and at those near-vacuum pressures. Think “ice cube on a frying pan”, without the liquid phase. The alternatives were water ice and salt deposits, and salt deposits don’t sublimate, at least not at those conditions.

Also, it’s not a rover, just a lander. The scientists are going to get to know that patch of ground *real* well by the time the place ices over and ends the mission…

rasz: Make some attempt to learn something about the mission before shooting your mouth off…the pictures are a tiny fraction of the science this mission does. There’s spectrometers, sample ovens, electrochemical cells, an atomic force microscope, a bunch of meteorological equipment…

Posted at 8:57 am on Jul 2nd, 2008 by cjameshuff