Phoenix fights the big freeze

By Matt McGrath
Science reporter, BBC World Service

The Mars Phoenix Lander is in a race against time and temperatures as it struggles to resolve some key questions about the Red Planet.

The onset of the harsh Martian winter means that there is now less Sun to charge Phoenix's batteries.

Researchers at the University of Arizona who are in charge of the mission are also struggling with the soil conditions as they try to sift the dirt for evidence of organic chemicals.

But they hope soon to activate the lander's microphone and record the sounds of Mars for the first time.

Housed in building that could easily pass as a tax office or library, the mission headquarters in Tucson is carving out a little piece of history: Phoenix marks the first time that a Mars Lander has been controlled by a university scientist, not by the boys at Nasa.

That scientist is Professor Peter Smith, the principal investigator on the mission.

This giant of a man, with a wit as dry as the Arizona desert, is hopeful that Phoenix can tackle two remaining problems before its batteries peter out.

"We are still valiantly searching for organic molecules. We'd love to be able to claim that we had found organic materials in the northern plains of Mars. And that's a key and most important ingredient of our search.

"But it's also the hardest thing to find. We are pushed right down to the wire in our last samples to try to make that case. So I don't know if that will happen or not, I hope so. That would be big."

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