The clumping of the soil has taken the team by ...

The clumping of the soil has taken the team by surprise and that suggests to me it is wetter here than they thought in fact it looks like clay in the scoop. A lot of the rover pics especially Spirits dragging wheel made me think of cold wet sand caused by the morning dew in the desert. We definately have a big problem getting samples through these 2.5cm filters typical we finally land in the north pole and can't get the samples into the TEGA. The scoop is going to have to press down on the filter applying constant pressure and then move backwards and forwards and sideways to squeeze and compress the soil through the gaps think cheese grater guys.