As NASA’s Phoenix Mars mission enters its 72nd day, the team of scientists monitoring its progress are revealing more about possible answers to the big question regarding life on the Red Planet.

On Tuesday, the team discussed the research in progress concerning an ongoing investigation of perchlorate salts detected in soil analyzed by the wet chemistry laboratory aboard the Phoenix Lander.

“Finding perchlorates is neither good nor bad for life, but it does make us reassess how we think about life on Mars,” said Michael Hecht of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Hecht is the lead scientist for the Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer, the instrument that includes the wet chemistry laboratory.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University
Image acquired by NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander shows the trench informally called “Snow White.”

Two samples were delivered to the Wet Chemistry Laboratory, which is part of Phoenix’s Microscopy, Electrochemistry, and Conductivity Analyzer. The first sample was taken from the surface area just left of the trench and informally named “Rosy Red.” The second sample, informally named “Sorceress,” was taken from the center of the “Snow White” trench.

“The Phoenix project has decided to take an unusual step” in talking about the research when its scientists are only about half-way through the data collection phase and have not yet had time to complete data analysis or perform needed laboratory work, said Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson. Scientists are still at the stage where they are examining multiple hypotheses, given evidence that the soil contains perchlorate.

“We decided to show the public science in action because of the extreme interest in the Phoenix mission, which is searching for a habitable environment on the northern plains of Mars,” Smith added. “Right now, we don’t know whether finding perchlorate is good news or bad news for possible life on Mars.”

Perchlorate is an ion, or charged particle. It is also an oxidant, that is, it can release oxygen, but it is not a powerful one. Perchlorates are found naturally on Earth at such places as Chile’s hyper-arid Atacama Desert.