NASA’s Mars Phoenix Lander is currently sending photos of Mars’ surface on the first day of its three-month mission: to analyze the soils and permafrost of Mars’ arctic tundra for signs of past and present life.

Mars Phoenix Lander is capable of scooping ice and dirt in search for organic evidence that life once existed there or to prove that life currently exists there. Like some NASA spacecrafts, it comes equipped with a robotic arm specifically for the mission.

Peter Smith, an optical scientist of the University of Arizona said:

“We are not going to be able to answer the final question of is there life on Mars. We will take the next important step. We’ll find out if there’s organic material associated with this ice in the polar regions. Ice is a preserver and if there ever were organics on Mars and they got into that ice, they will still be there today.”

The twin to the Mars Polar Lander spacecraft, Phoenix was supposed to travel to Mars in 2001 as the Mars Surveyor spacecraft but Polar malfunctioned and crashed during its descent into Mars’ atmosphere in 1999 due to various design flaws and other malfunctions. The mission’s failure, as well as another spacecraft called the Mars Climate the same year, led NASA to put future missions on hold and to think strategically for “better, faster, cheaper” approach. In 2003, Mars Phoenix, literally and figuratively, had risen from the ashes of Surveyor.

NASA team was concerned with the landing system of the Phoenix. NASA had not successfully landed a probe on Mars using landing legs and stabilizing thrusters since the 1970s Viking missions. Three successful Mars landings, Pathfinder and the Spirit and Opportunity rovers have used massive airbags that inflated around the landing craft just before landing to cushion the impact. The Phoenix doesn’t have airbags like other aircrafts of NASA since it was too big and heavy which could interfere with its functioning.

Phoenix Lander’s landing site was targeted for the far northern plains of Mars, near the polar ice cap. Mars Odyssey spacecraft data indicate large quantities of ice there, likely in the form of permafrost, either on the surface or just barely underground. In 2004, the rover Opportunity found evidence that a salty sea once lapped the shores of an area near Mars’ equator called Meridiani Planum. Astrobiologists generally agree that it’s best to look for life in wet places, just as NASA’s Mars exploration strategy, “follow the water” became the unifying theme.