The Government has offered Australia's three mobile operators, and vividwireless, renewal of their existing spectrum allocated on 15 year licences in the late 90s and early 2000s at set prices, while the Government expects to rake in $3 billion.
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William Atkins
Thursday, 12 June 2008 19:50
The oven is part of the instrument called the “Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer,” or TEGA.
Phoenix send back data verifying that the oven contains sufficient soil to conduct its first experiment of its mission. The scientists state that the next step is to seal the oven, heat the soil inside, and then to measure the amount of water that evaporates off—in order to verify the composition of the soil.
Images related to these Wednesday activities are found on the University of Arizona website “NASA’s Phoenix Lander Has An Oven Full of Martian Soil.”
Associated Press science writer Alicia Chang describes the Martian soil as “crusty on the surface” and “looser below.” [WTOPnews.com: “Mars lander fills test oven with pinch of soil”]
The Phoenix scientists find it unlike anything they have studied on Earth. University of Arizona professor Peter Smith, the leader (principal investigator) of the Phoenix mission, adds, "It's apparently a very sticky material, too.” [WTOPnews.com]
Hopefully, with this success the scientists can now proceed with their investigation of the physical and chemical properties of the Martian soil. They hope to learn if the soil on Mars might have some time in the past contained microbial life.
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