MARS:A NEW weather station is about to begin beaming out information about temperature and cloud cover, not from Earth but from Mars.
The Phoenix Lander is set to touch down on the Martian surface and all going well will report its safe arrival there just before midnight tomorrow.
Launched last August 4th, NASA's latest lander mission has had an uneventful flight but will shortly become one of the most important visits yet to the Red Planet.
It will dig down into the surface to reach layers of water ice hidden under the Red Planet's desiccated soil. The ice and the soil itself will be cooked in tiny ovens as part of a chemical analysis to reveal any signs of carbon, a building block of life.
The compact lander weighs under 59kg but is packed full of experiments that will answer important questions about whether Mars could have supported life.
While it will not look directly for any living or dead organisms, its chemical tests will show whether the soil conditions are favourable for supporting life, either now or in the past.
Phoenix will land in the far north of the planet.
There, in the planet's polar region, conditions will be exceptionally cold - down to a chilly minus 73 degrees.
Previous orbiting satellites have demonstrated that water ice does exist under a thin soil cover, and the lander's robotic arm will reach out up to 2.35m and excavate down half a metre to dig out samples of this ice.
A number of experiments will provide important information about chemicals in the ice and provide details about its "history" on the planet.
Access to local water supplies will be essential for any manned mission to the Red Planet.
The ice, if it can be reached, will be about as hard as concrete and so the robotic arm is equipped with a rasp that will grind off ice samples for testing in the lander's small ovens.
Phoenix naturally is also equipped with high resolution stereo cameras that will take pictures which also provide information about dimensions and distances to nearby objects.
It also has a powerful microscope that will be used to examine soil particles.
The lander has a minimum operational life of three months, during which time it will take samples, images and conduct atmospheric experiments.
This includes relaying details about the local weather back to the Nasa scientists.
The landing of the Phoenix will be one of the most important missions for some time, according to Kevin Nolan, a lecturer in physics at the Institute of Technology, Tallaght.
Phoenix is set to "revolutionise our understanding of the Red Planet", he suggested.
"It will provide the first ever detailed molecular analysis of Mars' soil and hopefully come into contact with water-ice on the surface.
"It will provide a wealth of information on the prospects for past and present life," he said.
Mr Nolan is a planetary scientist who this July publishes a book on the Red Planet: Mars - A Cosmic Stepping Stone.
