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NASA goes north

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Written by Matt Kanner

Tuesday, 07 August 2007

On Saturday, August 4, NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander launched toward Mars, where it is meant to land within the Martian Arctic Circle.

The craft is scheduled to land on Mars on May 25, 2008, and then spend three months digging up and analyzing soil and ice. It will be looking for organic compounds which would indicate past or present life on Mars.

If organic molecules exist on Mars, they are most likely to be preserved in the ice. Scientists estimate that 6 inches of soil will cover the ice where Phoenix is landing, so that's what the lander will have to dig through to take ice samples.

Samples of soil and ice will then be examined by being mixed with water and looked at by microscope, and by being baked and having the vapors analyzed, among other methods.

The name "Phoenix" is partly due to the craft's use of parts from a cancelled 2001 NASA Mars lander mission.

The lander weighs 772 pounds and will stretch 18 feet across once its solar panels are deployed on Mars. With its weather mast, it will be 7 feet tall.

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