About 6 HRS.+ and we will have a burned up lander or a mission success. CNN will have live coverage starting at 7 PM.

NASA Site: NASA - Phoenix

This site has mny links in the story.

Phoenix Lander Takes Aim at Martian Arctic : SPACE.com -- Phoenix Lander Takes Aim at Martian Arctic

By Tariq Malik
Senior Editor
posted: 01 May 2008
07:00 am ET


NASA's Mars-bound Phoenix spacecraft is gearing up for a landmark landing near the martian north pole this month to find out whether the region could have once supported microbial life.

Phoenix is on course for a planned May 25 touchdown in the martian arctic that, if successful, will mark the first powered landing on Mars since NASA's hefty Viking 2 lander set down in 1976. But first, the probe is expected to fire its thrusters several times in the next few weeks to fine-tune its flight path.

"It's scary how smooth it's been," said Barry Goldstein, Phoenix project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. "The vehicle has just been behaving beautifully."

The Phoenix lander tweaked its course in early April and is scheduled to fire its thrusters in three successive Saturday maneuvers beginning May 10. The spacecraft has flown so accurately that one of the maneuvers may not be necessary, Goldstein said.

Launched in August 2007, Phoenix is a stationary lander equipped with a trench-digging robotic arm to bite into the martian surface and scoop up samples of nearby soil and water ice. The probe's top-mounted suite of ovens and wet chemistry instruments are designed to help determine whether its arctic plain landing site - a region similar in latitude to central Greenland or northern Alaska on Earth - could have once proven habitable for primitive life.

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Prophet Muhammad - “Do you love your creator? Love your fellow-beings first.”

Pix and video at the site.

Spacecraft reveals look at Mars' polar region By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer
2 hours, 39 minutes ago

Spacecraft reveals look at Mars' polar region - Yahoo! News

PASADENA, Calif. - NASA's newest outpost in the solar system is a polygon-cracked terrain in Mars' northern polar region believed to hold a reservoir of ice beneath.

Hours after the Phoenix Mars Lander softly landed Sunday in the Martian arctic plains, it dazzled scientists with the first-ever glimpse of the Red Planet's high northern latitudes.

A flood of images sent back by Phoenix revealed a landscape similar to what can be found in Earth's permafrost regions — geometric patterns in the soil likely related to the freezing and thawing of ground ice.

"This is a scientist's dream, right here on this landing site," principal investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson said in a post-landing news conference.

Phoenix landed on Mars after a 10-month, 422 million-mile journey. After a week checking out its science instruments, the lander will begin a 90-day digging mission to study whether the northern polar region possesses the raw ingredients needed for life to emerge.

Phoenix joins the twin rovers on the Martian surface, which have been exploring the equatorial plains since 2004. Unlike the mobile rovers, Phoenix was designed to stay in one spot and dig trenches in the soil.

Early indications show the lander is healthy, said Barry Goldstein, project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The images confirm the lander unfurled its solar panels, hoisted its weather mast and unwrapped the protective covering of its 8-foot-long robotic arm. It'll be several days before the arm will be unstowed.

"Everything just worked like a charm," said Goldstein, who kept up a JPL tradition by passing out bags of lucky peanuts on landing day.

Mission control erupted in cheers when a radio signal from Phoenix was detected after a hair-raising plunge through the atmosphere that required the lander to slow itself down from over 12,000 mph to a 5 mph touchdown using a combination of friction, parachute and thrusters.
And this pix I found.... humm me thinks they will find some form of life.

__________________
Yea can't keep the words of your great leader.

Prophet Muhammad - “Do you love your creator? Love your fellow-beings first.”