EON

Phoenix Spacecraft Soft Lands On Martian Surface

Pasadena, California- Officials at the jet propulsion lab here in California were hugging and congratulating themselves at the apparent successful soft landing of the NASA Phoenix Spacecraft on Mars.

The Phoenix craft is a mission to Mars to seek out any signs of habitability. It is a craft that used a parachute to slow its decent and thrusters to help it brake the fall.

The craft went from over 20,400 km per hour speed to a soft landing onto its three legs on the Martian surface. The 420 million dollar craft is one that scientists will work to use to determine if there was ever conditions favorable to life in the Arctic regions of Mars.

The arctic regions of the Martian landscape are subject to changes from seasonal shift, in some ways similar to seasonal changes on earth.

The Phoenix Spacecraft was able to make landing in a flat region known as Vastita Borealis, and the topography is somewhat similar to areas found in Northern Canada on Earth.

The areas that the Spacecraft will explore will be those that the scientists may reveal water, and other organic minerals that are hoped to show signs of ability to support life.