Spacecraft ready to explore Mars

A Nasa’s space craft has performed a successful edgy landing in Mars this night.

Nasa’s Phoenix lander touch down as planned at 2353 GMT on 25 May in the far north of the Red Planet, after a 680-million-km (423-million-mile) journey from Earth.

Now Phoenix will begin a three-month mission to search for ice beneath the Martian surface.

It will use a robotic arm to dig through the protective topsoil layer and lift samples of both soil and ice to its deck for scientific analysis.

Dr Tom Pike of Imperial College, London, is part of the British team involved in the project.

“The main goal of the mission is to get below the surface of Mars to where we are almost certain there is water,” he told BBC News.

“The orbiters that are around Mars have already surveyed in great detail the area in which we are landing and we know that there is ice – solid water – 10cm, or maybe even less, below the surface.

“Water, of course, is of critical importance because it is one of the building blocks – one of the essential habitats we need – for life.”

Landing on Mars was a notoriously tricky business. Of the 11 missions that have tried to land probes on Mars since 1971 – only five have succeeded.

Phoenix is an apt name for the current mission, as it rose from the ashes of two previous failures.

Source BBC