Phoenix landing

On May 25, Mars will receive a new alien contraption from Earth, the Phoenix Mars Lander. Its three month mission is to sample buried soil and ice--and maybe find signs of life--in the North Polar region of the Red Planet.

Unlike the last landing when the Mars rovers were covered with air bags and bounced to a stop, the Phoenix will land on its three legs. It is expected to enter the Martian atmosphere at 13,000 mph and will hopefully slow down to 5 mph when it reaches the surface and lands, seven minutes later.

"This is not a trip to grandma's house. Putting a spacecraft safely on Mars is hard and risky," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

May 15, 2008 9:51 AM PDT

Photo by: NASA/JPL-Calech/University of Arizona