Why did the Mars lander lose a day of work by stopping digging?
The probe temporarily filled up its computer memory, which prevented some images from being stored and transmitted later. The glitch was cleared up and the photos were retaken and transmitted. Additional transmissions were scheduled to prevent this from happening again. The probe scooped out a trench while taking samples, and several shiny lumps were exposed. Pictures of the trench and lumps were taken and sent back to Earth. Hours later, the trench was photographed again, and the shiny lumps were missing. The most reasonable conclusion from this is that the lumps were water ice, and after they were exposed to sunlight, they melted/evaporated/sublimated and disappeared. Depending on how much ice is still on Mars, that could mean future astronauts have a supply of water and fuel waiting for them, making the journey less costly and more safe. It is unlikely that life as we know it exists in or near the ice, since water only exists as ice or vapor on Mars. But this ice discover does incre
