NASA’s Phoenix probe prepares to land

Another addition to the two Mars based probes already in situ is set to land later this week, the Phoenix has been travelling since August last year and hopes to unearth new information on the planet up in the Arctic regions.

Armed with a robotic titanium ice-pick, scientists hope to crack through top soil and reach the ice below before transferring the material onto a platform on-board Phoenix for some of the most detailed analysis ever seen from the red planet.

The $380m project has been on the drawing board for well over a decade, and unlike the Mars rovers sent up four years ago (which have travelled a total of ten miles), Phoenix will stay in one spot up in the northern extremities of the planet with the sole purpose of cracking through the ice.

Lets keep our digits crossed for the rest of the week that they’ll be cracking open something else over at NASA HQ after a successful landing.

Daily updates available via the Phoenix blog

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