Phoenix to land near the Martian North Pole
NASA’s Mars-bound Phoenix spacecraft is gearing up for a landmark landing near the martian north pole this month to find out whether the region could have once supported microbial life.
Phoenix is on course for a planned May 25 touchdown in the martian arctic that, if successful, will mark the first powered landing on Mars since NASA’s hefty Viking 2 lander set down in 1976. But first, the probe is expected to fire its thrusters several times in the next few weeks to fine-tune its flight path.
"It’s scary how smooth it’s been," said Barry Goldstein, Phoenix project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. "The vehicle has just been behaving beautifully."
It’s a very overwhelming news that another of our sent expeditions will eventually land on the Martian surface. This mission is with the Phoenix Lander that will explore the planet’s area in search for evidences that could tell if the area supported life in the planet in the past. This mission, if successful will eventually put another very big step in our history.
A photo of the Phoenix lander
