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Environment

Phoenix Lander begins search for life on Mars

The Takeaway

    (Image: NASA)

    The Phoenix Mars Lander launched Aug. 4, 2007, in a quest to find life on Mars. After a 10-month, 422 million-mile journey, the lander successfully touched down on the planet's northern polar surface last night. CNN's technology and environment correspondent Miles O'Brien has been at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory since Friday. He joins "The Takeaway" live from Pasadena, California, to talk about the significance of this event.

    This is the first time a probe has been sent to Mars with the capability of excavating and analyzing the planets polar surface. The mission is meant to look for evidence of microbial life and analyze climate change on the red planet. NASA is hoping to analyze the ice just below the planets permafrost surface.

    The last time JPL and NASA made a successful, controlled soft landing on Mars was back in the 1970s.

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