Phoenix, the Robotic Spacecraft to Look for Life in Mars
The search for life on Mars will resume next Sunday if NASA’s Phoenix spacecraft lands as planned on the icy fringe of the planet’s north pole.
The three-legged Phoenix Mars fitted with a backhoe arm is zeroing in on the unexplored Martian arctic region where a reservoir of ice is believed to lurk beneath the surface.
“Phoenix’s study of the northern permafrost takes 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,” said Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, the mission’s principal investigator.
Launched last summer from Cape Canaveral, Fla., Phoenix has been cruising on a 423 million-mile (681 million-kilometer) journey that is expected to end with a touchdown on Sunday.
The spacecraft is aiming for a landing farther north than any other on Mars, in an area with ice and perhaps signs of once-liquid water. NASA’s search for life in the solar system is based on the theme of “follow the water,” on the assumption that life needs water to exist. Although the temperatures will be well below freezing on the surface — minus-28 to minus-100 degrees Fahrenheit — scientists think the temperatures, and the ice, could be warmer below the surface and may once have even been liquid. The region is low and flat, and some speculate that it may have held an ocean long in the past.
Phoenix’s main tool is its 8-foot-long (2.44-meter-long) aluminum and titanium robotic arm capable of digging trenches 2 feet (61 centimeters) deep in the soil. Once ice is exposed — believed to be anywhere from a few inches to a foot deep — it will use its powered drill bit at the end of the arm to break it up.
Source: Washington Post
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