Phoenix On Target

NASA's Phoenix lander is closing in on Mars after a near-perfect flight so far. The real tough part, of course, is still ahead. Roughly half of the missions so far sent to Mars by humans have failed.

Phoenix can be seen as a throwback mission. Unlike recent missions to the surface, it has no rovers, and rather than land on parachutes and airbags, Phoenix is designed to descend on a pillar of fire from its rocket engine. Once on the surface, Phoenix will use its robot arm to dig into the soil or water ice around it and deposit samples in mini-lab experiments onboard to search for signs of life. The lander will also deliver daily weather reports back to Earth from the Martian far north.

Phoenix is scheduled to land May 25.