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If NASA’s Phoenix Spacecraft lands on the icy fringe of Mars’s North Pole on Sunday, May 25, 2008, then the NASA scientists can very well resume their quest of search of life on the planet. Landing on Mars has not been an easy task to face and so far only about half of the attempts have succeeded. Peter smith of the University of Arizona, who is the mission’s principal investigator, remarked that Phoenix’s study of the northern permafrost is going to be the next step in Mars exploration by determining whether this region, which may encompass as much as 25 percent of the Martian surface, is habitable.
The Phoenix spacecraft if arrives safely and in one piece on the planet then the craft will start digging into the soil and ice beneath it to look for signs that life once existed or could have existed on the Martian land. Already over 150 Scientists, technicians and support staff from around the world have landed in Tuscon for the Mars mission. The Mars mission members will be based at the UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory’s Science Operations Center to run the surface science operation for the $420 million mission. The last time that a Mars mission specifically looked for chemical signs of life on the planet was way back in 1976. However to the disappointment of the planetary scientist’s team, they could not find any organic material.
