News of Mars Water Discovery Is Just What ODU Aerospace Engineer Wanted to Hear

The announcement by NASA on Thursday, July 31, that its Phoenix lander had identified water in a Mars soil sample was just what Old Dominion University aerospace engineer Robert Ash has been waiting to hear.

Phoenix's robotic arm, after some false starts, was able to deliver a soil sample to a tiny oven, and, when heated, the sample produced water vapor.

This was confirmation that a large band of water ice sits just under the surface of the plain where the lander set down.