The results from the Phoenix Mars Lander’s first set of chemical analysis did not turn out quite as expected, as the scientists did not manage to find any traces of water.

The researchers are still very optimistic about the upcoming soil investigations and firmly believe that the needed compounds are just a few inches below the planet’s dirt.

The tests finished yesterday involved several procedures on the soil sample released into one of the Phoenix’s eight ovens. The Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA) prepared the soil for its first test at a temperature of 95 degrees and the second test demanded a temperature of 350 degrees. The second procedure proved that there was no chance for finding any sort of ice fragments in the sample, as it would have surely melted at the extremely high temperature.

One of the compounds found was carbon dioxide, which did not come as a surprise, taking into consideration the fact that the Martian atmosphere is primarily made of CO2.

The $420 million mission’s main objective is to determine whether the Martian environment could sustain the emerge of primitive life and even though the Lander’s devices are not able to identify living organisms, at this point the scientists are only looking for traces of water and other compounds that could support their thought.

The TEGA is set to heat its chambers at a maximum of 1,800 degrees and during the upcoming tests, if there will be any sort of ice-fragment stuck to the minerals or any other studied particles, it will surely be detected.

"We think it's ice. But again, until we can see it disappear ... we're not guaranteed yet," mission scientist Ray Arvidson from the Washington University in St. Louis said yesterday, according to the Associated Press.