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Washington, August 27 (ANI): The next sample of Martian soil being grabbed for analysis is coming from a trench about three times deeper than any other trench NASAs Phoenix Mars Lander has dug.

On August 26, the spacecraft will finish the 90 Martian days originally planned as its primary mission and will continue into a mission extension through September, as announced by NASA in July.

Phoenixs main task for Sol 90 is to scoop up a sample of soil from the bottom of a trench called Stone Soup, which is about 18 centimeters, or 7 inches deep.

On a later sol, the Landers robotic arm will sprinkle soil from the sample into the third cell of the wet chemistry laboratory.

This deck-mounted laboratory, part of Phoenixs Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer (MECA), has previously used two of its four soil-testing cells.

In the first two cells we analyzed samples from the surface and the ice interface, and the results look similar. Our objective for Cell 3 is to use it as an exploratory cell to look at something that might be different, said JPLs Michael Hecht, lead scientist for MECA.

The appeal of Stone Soup is that this deep area may collect and concentrate different kinds of materials, he added.

Stone Soup lies on the borderline, or natural trough, between two of the low, polygon- shaped hummocks that characterize the arctic plain where Phoenix landed.

The trench is toward the left, or west, end of the robotic arms work area on the north side of the lander.

The science team had considered two finalist sites as sources for the next sample to be delivered to the wet chemistry lab.

This past weekend, Stone Soup won out.

We had a shootout between Stone Soup and white stuff in a trench called Upper Cupboard, Hecht said. If we had been able to confirm that the white material was a salt-rich deposit, we would have analyzed that, but we were unable to confirm that with various methods, he added.

Both candidates for the sampling location offered a chance to gain more information about salt distribution in the Phoenix work area, which could be an indicator of whether or not liquid water has been present.

While proceeding toward delivery of a sample from Stone Soup into the wet chemistry laboratory, Phoenix is also using its Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer to examine a soil sample collected last week from another trench, at a depth intermediate between the surface and the hard, icy layer. (ANI)