Mars bake test hastened after oven short circuit

July 11th, 2008 in Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Mars bake test hastened after oven short circuit (AP)

This artist rendition provided by NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory shows the Phoenix lander on the arctic plains of Mars digging a trench through the upper soil layer. The Phoenix Mars lander suffered a short circuit several weeks ago to one of its eight tiny test ovens. Scientists fear another outage could render the crucial equipment useless.(AP Photo/NASA-JPL, Cory Waste)

(AP) -- Will the Mars lander's next baking test of soil and ice be its last? Scientists worry that it could be, thanks to an electrical glitch that threatens the $420 million quest to find the chemical ingredients for life near the Martian north pole.

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