Third Probe Set For August Launch

The University of Arizona in Tucson is preparing to launch a Mars probe in August, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center... and the craft will have much to prove. Mars missions have held more than their share of disappointments lately.

The $386 million mission will attempt to drill the surface of the Martian polar region, looking for signs of water and life. First, however, it must complete a successful launch... and survive its 10-month journey to the red planet.

Then, it must land and avoid shutting off its rocket engines 130 feet above the ground, like 1999's Mars Polar Lander did. The resulting crash destroyed that probe, and halted NASA's 2001 Mars Surveyor program.

In the hopes the new probe will be a success, it has been named Phoenix... after the mythical bird which dies in a fire, but is reborn from the ashes. But there will be nothing hot about the existence of this Phoenix.

NASA states the polar ice caps of Mars are so cold they're actually made of dry ice, or frozen carbon dioxide. Phoenix is expected to operate for about five months before it succumbs to temperatures of minus 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

Phoenix is scheduled to blast off August 3... six years later than originally planned.

FMI: www.nasa.gov/missions/solarsystem/phoenix_water.html