The Nasa/JPL lander Phoenix continues to perform well and may already have discovered ice beneath the red planet’s surface.

The probe has already got its claw wet, dipping its robot arm into the icy soil and creating this footprint (conspiracy theorists put your pens down now).

From today, the probe will being scooping soil samples into its en suite laboratory. Each soil sample will be heated to ever-higher temperatures to measure the composition of resulting gases.

Exciting times.