NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander blasted off Saturday morning, beginning its long journey to the Red Planet to search for evidence of water and maybe even life around the northern polar region.
The spacecraft was launched into space at 5:26 am EDT aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base.
90 minutes after launch, the spacecraft established communications with the ground team in Goldstone California - after separating from the third stage of the launch vehicle. Phoenix project manager Barry Goldstein is happy with its trajectory, "our trajectory is still being evaluated in detail; however we are well within expected limits for a successful journey to the red planet."
With this stage of the adventure over, Phoenix will now make the long journey from Earth to Mars, traversing 679 million kilometers (421 million miles) to reach the Red Planet on May 25, 2008. When it arrives, it will use a combination of parachutes, atmospheric drag, and retrorockets to land gently in the planet's polar regions - at approximately the same latitude as northern Alaska here on Earth.
Unlike Spirit and Opportunity, this is a lander, not a rover. Wherever it lands, it'll be stuck there for the duration of its mission. It'll gather all the science it can reach with its extending arm.
Phoenix will use its robot arm to scoop up samples of soil - and hopefully ice - from its surroundings. It'll then transfer these samples to a series of instruments mounted on its deck, analyzing them for water and carbon-containing compounds.
If there's life in the ice today, Phoenix has the tools to find it.
