The NASA scientists involved in the Phoenix Mars mission managed to resolve the soil sample analysis problem, which appeared a few days ago.

The solution offered by NASA’s team is to use the robotic arm for the direct delivery of the soil to the Thermal and Evolve-Gas Analyzer by sprinkling the soil into the ovens in an attempt to create "a finer-grained sample," as William Boynton, an investigator on the probe's TEGA, explained for BBC News. Once the material will be in the desired location, it will be analyzed for traces of organic compounds.

The Phoenix Mars Lander bumped into some trouble a few days ago when the soil samples scooped by the robotic arm failed to pass into the oven and the experiments had to be put on hold. The first attempt to resolve the problem involved the shaking of the TEGA, which actually helped squeeze through some of the particles caught in the way. The oven opening only allows particles which are less than 1mm in diameter to pass through and unfortunately, the gathered amount was far too small to be used for tests.

NASA's scientists said that between 20 and 30 milligrams of soil are necessary for performing the analysis and after the shake attempt, out of the 12 cubic inches of Martian soil scooped by the robotic arm, less than one milligram of matter passed through the screen and into the oven.

The plans for the next few days include the analysis on several other soil samples in one of the Lander’s ovens from the TEGA and also a soil observation with the help of an optical microscope attached to the Phoenix.