Photos: NASA grapples with Martian dirt dilemma

The lander touched down in the North Polar region of Mars on May 26. NASA hopes that the robotic arm aboard the craft will be able to take ice samples beneath the surface and test for the presence of water and possibly life on Mars. Here, the scoop shows off one of its first samples of Martian soil.

Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Max Planck Institute