NASA has been trying all ways to find life or even traces of it on the red planet. NASA has tried to find clues of life on Mars with its twin rovers that are currently operating on Mars. But unfortunately none of them has been able to find any traces of present or past life on the planet.
Now the space agency will try to find some life with its new envoy to the red planet. This Mars Lander is called Phoenix and is due to launch sometime between August 3 and August 24 from Florida. If all goes well then the Lander will reach the surface of Mars on May 25, 2008.
The three-month long mission will mainly try and find any clues of a possible microbial life on the planet. NASA wants to land the Lander at a site which is devoid of boulders and should be at a latitude equivalent to Northern Alaska on Earth. Considering the altitude and conditions on the planet, the Lander will have to complete its missions at a temperature of about minus 148 Fahrenheit or minus 100 Celsius.
This mission will now add to the latest mission of the space agency to seek a deeper understanding of Earth’s closest planet. This mission is expected to answer some questions that have been troubling astronomers for long.
If all goes according to the plan of NASA then the Lander will reach Mars in 2008 and will then wield a robotic arm 7.7 feet long. This arm can dig up to 3 feet to get a sample of the buried soil and frozen water that is thought to be present under the surface of Mars.
The Lander will then perform some experiments to let us know whether the conditions on Mars are favorable or were favorable for microbial life. Water is one of the main elements required for life and if we are able to get some samples of frozen water beneath the surface of Mars then its can help scientists determine whether the water on the planet was fit to harbor life or not.
The critical step of the whole mission is the landing of the mission on the surface of Mars. Earlier NASA used air bags to cushion the landing of Spirit and Opportunity so that they don’t suffer any damage in the landing process. However, this time the space agency will be using a “soft landing” approach, a feat that the space agency has not used in the past three decades.
The Lander will use a heat shield to slow its entry from space and then a parachute will be deployed, this will further reduce its speed to about 135 mph. The Lander will then free itself from the parachute and then fire rocket engines in the opposite direction to further slow it down to just 5.5 mph and then it will finally land on its three legs.
Via: Reuters
