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Phoenix lifts off for Mars
04/08/2007 12:36 - (SA)
Cape Canaveral - An unmanned Delta
rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station early
on Saturday, sending a water-analysing science probe on its way
to Mars.
The Phoenix spacecraft
is expected to reach the northern polar region of Mars on May
25.
"It's a wonderful morning to go to Mars," Phoenix project
manager Barry Goldstein, with Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
in Pasadena, California, said during the televised commentary
shortly before liftoff.
Upon reaching Mars, Phoenix will use a heat shield,
parachutes and thruster rockets to gently lower itself onto
frozen soil, which is believed to cover a thick layer of water
ice. The probe's robotic arm is about 7 1/2 feet long (2.3
metre) has a 7.7-foot-long robotic arm, equipped with a drill
and other instruments, to bore down into the ground and
retrieve soil and ice samples for analysis.
The work will be done within the body of the lander.
Phoenix's lab includes eight ovens to bake samples so that a
gas sniffer can detect vaporised gases.
The experiment should tell scientists several things about
Mars' water, including whether it once was liquid and whether
it contains any organic molecules. Both conditions would
substantially increase the chances that Mars was suitable for
life to develop.
Unlike the Viking missions of the mid-1970s, Phoenix's goal
is not to search for life directly but rather to ascertain if
the conditions on Mars were or are suitable for indigenous
microbial life to take root.
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