NASA scientists felt that they won the big lottery ticket when they saw the results that came from the first of the three wet chemistry analysis that the Mars Lander will carry out. According to them, Mars’s soil has an alkaline pH, which makes it somewhat similar to the one that exists in certain areas on Earth.

Until recently, scientist thought that Mars’s soil would be acid, some of them thinking that its pH would be as low as 1, which would have meant that life as we know it would have had no chance to exist on the planet. However, the wet chemistry analysis measured a pH level of about 8 to 9, which is similar to the one of the water that is found on Earth. It seems that the Martian soil is similar to the one found in the upper dry regions of Antarctica.

According to NASA scientists, this might mean that Martian soil could be used to grow asparagus. But this should not make people think that bringing veggies on the surface of Mars and trying to plant them there would mean that they will grow. The extremely rare atmosphere, equivalent to 1 percent of the one Earth has, as well as the extremely low temperatures and the deadly ultraviolet ray bombardment that the planet crust is experiencing permanently, make life impossible – at least on the surface.

However, it seems that if the crops would be protected against these extreme conditions, the Martian soil could be used in manned Mars missions to grow plants that would be used by astronauts as food.

The analysis process consisted in mixing Martian dirt with water that was brought by the Lander from Earth, heating the mud that was created and then analyzing its pH and determining what substances are found in it. The results showed that magnesium, sodium, chloride and potassium are present, but the list remains open because the analysis is not yet complete. All these substances are found on Earth also, and none of them is toxic. What is more, their presence makes scientists even more certain that there is water on Mars.

The New York Times quoted Samuel P. Kounaves, the leader of the chemical analysis team, saying that “We basically have found what appears to be the requirements, the nutrients, to support life whether past, present or future.”

One the other hand, one of the thermal and evolved-gas analyzers, also known as TEGAs, has determined that water has been chemically bound with the soil sometime in the past. The TEGA has heated some of the planet’s dirt in its micro oven and then discovered water vapors among other gases that were emitted. It is not clear whether water had been present exactly where the Lander runs the tests or the particles that contained it were blown there from another part of the planet.

The Phoenix Lander’s mission is not to discover life on Mars, but to determine if it ever was, or will be possible. Until now, all the results point towards the idea that Mars had the potential to sustain life, but we’ll have to wait a little bit longer to make sure that life there really existed.