Phoenix will Assess Chance for Life in Mars' Northern Hemisphere

In this article, the NASA spacecraft Phoenix is scheduled to land on Mars in 2008 for a 90 day mission to investigate the possibility that the icy northern plains of Mars have supported life in the past. In the geologically recent past, the northern plains could have supported life since the climate was warmer. NASA scientists are attempting to determine whether the conditions of this environment are not lethal to potential life forms. The spacecraft Phoenix is equipped with a robotic arm that can dig trenches up to 1.6 feet in depth in order to collect a sample of icy soil topped by a thin layer of dry soil. Phoenix will then place the samples in ‘ovens’ aboard the craft and heat them to search for the building blocks of life, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur, and other basic essential elements.
The Northern plains were chosen as the destination for Phoenix because a high concentration of hydrogen molecules were previously discovered by the Odyssey spacecraft, meaning the content of the soil is 50% ice. The overarching goal of the Mars Exploration program is the search for life, but part of that includes searching for habitats on Mars that are suitable for life to occur.