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THE Phoenix Lander has confirmed there is water on Mars, scientists say.
"We have water," said William Boynton, lead scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer instrument on Phoenix.
"We've seen evidence for this water ice before in observations by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted," he said.
Mr Boynton said that water was positively identified after the lander's robotic arm delivered a soil sample on Wednesday to an instrument that identifies vapours produced by heating.
Phoenix is the latest NASA bid to discover whether water - a crucial ingredient for life - ever flowed on Mars and whether life, even in the form of mere microbes, exists or ever existed there.
The Phoenix touched down in May on an ice sheet and samples of the ice were seen melting away in photographs taken by the lander's instruments in June.
NASA today also extended the mission of the Phoenix Mars Lander by five weeks, saying its work was moving beyond the search for water to exploring whether the red planet was ever capable of sustaining life.
"We are extending the mission through September 30," Michael Meyer, chief scientist for NASA's Mars exploration program, said.
The Phoenix landed on May 25 for what was a scheduled three-month mission, Mr Meyer said.
Mission scientists said the extension would give time for more analysis of Martian samples. They plan to dig two additional trenches - dubbed "cupboard" and "neverland" - using the robotic arm on the Phoenix craft.
"We hope to be able to answer the question of whether this was a habitable zone on Mars. It will be for future missions to find if anyone is home on this environment," Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith said.
Mission scientists said in June that Martian soil was more alkaline than expected and had traces of magnesium, sodium, potassium and other elements.
They described the findings as a "huge step forward."
Mr Meyer said the scientific proof of the existence of water meant that Phoenix could move from looking for water to seeing whether there were habitats for life.
"We are moving towards understanding whether there were or could be places on Mars that are habitable," Mr Meyer said.
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