Pieces of NASA's next Mars mission are coming together

[FLO]

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, the next mission to the surface of Mars, is beginning a new phase in preparation for a launch in August 2007. As part of this "assembly, test and launch operations" phase, Phoenix team members are beginning to add complex subsystems such as the flight computer, power systems and science instruments to the main structure of the spacecraft.

Phoenix will land near the red planet's north polar ice cap to analyze scooped-up samples of icy soil.

"We know there is plenty of water frozen into the surface layer of Mars at high latitudes. We've designed Phoenix to tell us more about this region as a possible habitat for life," said the University of Arizona's Peter Smith, principal investigator for the mission.

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[radioactive]

I am glad NASA have started to read my comments on this forum at last and take action on my advise I said quite some weeks back that this is a very logical next step in space exploration especaily now they have so much info on the make up of mars well done chaps that advice I gave you can have for nowt as I know your fiscal year is being cut :sunny:

[FLO]