This is a highly ambitious project with a real possibility of finding signs of extra-terrestrial life.

Let’s hope that NASA does not screw this up.

Phoenix Mars Lander Readied for Launch(Subscription Required)

Aviation Week & Space Technology
06/11/2007, page 56

Craig Covault
Denver, Colo. & Tuscon, Ariz.

The Phoenix lander—with U.S., Canadian and European technology—will broaden the search for life’s clues beyond Earth

Printed headline: Back to Mars

The NASA Phoenix Mars lander, carrying the most ambitious laboratory hardware ever sent to another planet, is ready for launch on a mission to taste Martian water and search for the organic carbon building-blocks of life near the planet’s north pole.

The spacecraft’s nearly 8-ft.-long robotic arm will dig trenches up to 3 ft. deep for imagery of subsurface layers and the retrieval of soil and ice samples for its complex mini-laboratories. This should enable Phoenix to determine what’s happening now, relative to the suitability for life, at a specific landing site where scientists know there’s water in the form of permafrost or ice. This is in contrast to the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which are equipped with geology sensors to determine what happened in the past, back to billions of years ago at their respective landing sites.

And Phoenix, with advanced technology from the U.S., Canada and Europe, will conduct much more complex sample processing and climate studies than was possible on the 1976 twin Viking landers that had a less capable arm and different analysis labs.

The Phoenix lander will lift off in August on a Delta II headed for touchdown in the north polar region of Mars. It will sample Martian water, ice and soil, searching for organic compounds critical to life. The circular Phoenix solar arrays, spanning 18 ft., were designed by ATK and adopted by Lockheed Martin for its winning Crew Exploration Vehicle design.Credit: PAT CORKERY/LOCKHEED MARTIN

Phoenix will land on 12 Aerojet hydrazine-powered rocket engines. They will be fired after separation from the spacecraft’s parachute at 1,870-ft. altitude 26 sec. before touchdown—171 million mi. from Earth. Phoenix is too large to use airbags, as did the Mars rovers and earlier Pathfinder lander. The 1976 Vikings also used powered descents.Credit: NASA JPL/UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

Water blasts through 12 descent engines on nonflight engineering model of spacecraft in critical test of propellant-line stresses as engines cycle on and off on split-second basis.Credit: PAT CORKERY/LOCKHEED MARTIN

Robotic arm (A) equipped with lights and scoop (B) will deposit water, ice and soil samples in eight TEGA ovens (C) that will bake out organic signatures at up to 1,800F. The arm will also deposit soil in MECA wet chemistry lab (D) that will add water to four cells. MECA also has 10 atomic force microscope slides. Canadian weather station (E) includes laser ranging beam and silver temperature/wind mast (center). Stereo imager (F) will take detailed images of trench layers. Lander must relay all data by UHF antenna (G) to Mars orbiters.

Phoenix in launch configuration is encased in aeroshell with heat shield at blunt end for a Mars atmospheric entry. It will employ Mars hypersonic guidance using a segment of the Apollo Earth-reentry algorithm.Credit: PAT CORKERY/LOCKHEED MARTIN