Big sky country . . .

One of the first color images from the Phoenix Mars Lander shows the surface of Mars after the spacecraft landed successfully in the first-ever touchdown near Mars' north pole on May 25. Reuters/NASA,JPL

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander lifts off from Pad 17A aboard a Delta II 7925 rocket amid billows of smoke at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 5:26 a.m. on Aug. 4, 2007. NASA/Regina Mitchell-Ryall and Jerry Cannon.

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, was partway through assembly and testing at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, in September 2006. In this photograph, spacecraft specialists work on the lander after its fan-like circular solar arrays have been spread open for testing. The arrays assumed in this configuration when the spacecraft became active on the surface of Mars.

How scientists believe Phoenix will look entering the Martian atmosphere. Image: NASA London Guardian

This artist's concept depicts NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander a moment before its planned touchdown on the arctic plains of Mars. NASA/JPL-Calech/University of Arizona

The landing site was chosen in the icy wastelands near the red planet’s north polar ice cap as the most likely point to find buried ice that may have once formed part of the planet’s oceans.

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