Touchdown! Nasa Craft Lands On Mars
Nasa's Phoenix space craft has landed safely on Mars' north pole on an expedition to find out whether there has ever been life on the Red Planet.
The small probe blazed through the skies above Mars before touching down on a frozen desert where it will search for water and assess conditions for sustaining life.
Phoenix landed after a perilous plunge through the planet's thin atmosphere. It is the first time a spacecraft has successfully landed at one of the planet's polar regions.
Pulled by Mars' gravity, Phoenix was tearing along at 12,700 mph (20,400 kph) before it entered the atmosphere, which slowed the craft so it could pop out a parachute and fire thruster rockets to gently float to the ground - a method familiar to fans of TV puppets Thunderbirds.
"It's down, baby, it's down!" shouted a Nasa flight controller, looking at signals from Mars showing that Phoenix had landed.
Scientists found in 2002 that Mars' polar regions have vast reservoirs of water frozen beneath a shallow layer of soil.
Phoenix was launched on August 4, 2007, to sample the water and determine if the right ingredients for life are present.
Nasa attempted a landing on Mars' south pole in 1999 but a problem during the final minutes of descent ended the mission.
The US space agency cancelled its next Mars landing bid but successfully dispatched two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, to the planet's equatorial region to search for signs of past surface water.
Phoenix was created out of spare parts from the failed Polar Lander mission and the mothballed probe. Unlike the rovers, Phoenix will not be bouncing to the planet's surface in airbags, which are not suitable for larger spacecraft.
Instead, like the 1970s-era Viking probes and the failed Polar Lander mission, it uses a jet pack to lower itself to the ground and fold-out legs to land on.
"We haven't landed successfully on legs and propulsive rockets in 32 years," said Nasa's space sciences chief Ed Weiler. "When we send humans there, women and men, they're going to be landing on rockets and legs, so it's important to show that we still know how to do this."
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Touchdown! Nasa Craft Lands On Mars
Nasa's Phoenix space craft has landed safely on Mars' north pole on an expedition to find out whether there has ever been life on the Red Planet.
The small probe blazed through the skies above Mars before touching down on a frozen desert where it will search for water and assess conditions for sustaining life.
Phoenix landed after a perilous plunge through the planet's thin atmosphere. It is the first time a spacecraft has successfully landed at one of the planet's polar regions.
Pulled by Mars' gravity, Phoenix was tearing along at 12,700 mph (20,400 kph) before it entered the atmosphere, which slowed the craft so it could pop out a parachute and fire thruster rockets to gently float to the ground - a method familiar to fans of TV puppets Thunderbirds.
"It's down, baby, it's down!" shouted a Nasa flight controller, looking at signals from Mars showing that Phoenix had landed.
Scientists found in 2002 that Mars' polar regions have vast reservoirs of water frozen beneath a shallow layer of soil.
Phoenix was launched on August 4, 2007, to sample the water and determine if the right ingredients for life are present.
Nasa attempted a landing on Mars' south pole in 1999 but a problem during the final minutes of descent ended the mission.
The US space agency cancelled its next Mars landing bid but successfully dispatched two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, to the planet's equatorial region to search for signs of past surface water.
Phoenix was created out of spare parts from the failed Polar Lander mission and the mothballed probe. Unlike the rovers, Phoenix will not be bouncing to the planet's surface in airbags, which are not suitable for larger spacecraft.
Instead, like the 1970s-era Viking probes and the failed Polar Lander mission, it uses a jet pack to lower itself to the ground and fold-out legs to land on.
"We haven't landed successfully on legs and propulsive rockets in 32 years," said Nasa's space sciences chief Ed Weiler. "When we send humans there, women and men, they're going to be landing on rockets and legs, so it's important to show that we still know how to do this."
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Nine Dead As Tornadoes Tear Across US
At least nine people have died after a series of powerful tornadoes ripped through America's Midwest.
Authorities in the state of Iowa said six people were killed in the neighbouring towns of Parkersburg and New Hartford.
Dozens of homes were flattened and rescue crews used listening devices to search for more people trapped by debris.
A two-year-old child was also killed and nine others were seriously injured in Minnesota, according to reports.
In another incident, two people were killed in Kansas when their car was swept up by a tornado.
"We've definitely had an unusually high death toll, which is the misfortune of having tornadoes hitting population centres," said Roger Edwards, a meteorologist at the Storm Prediction Centre in Oklahoma.
The storm systems formed late last week and have delivered hail and high winds in a line from Texas to Minnesota.
Earlier this month at least 23 people died across three states after a number of powerful tornadoes struck.
Towns in Missouri, Oklahoma and Georgia were devastated, prompting President Bush to promise federal aid.
Tornado season in the US peaks in spring and early summer but twisters can also pose a threat in autumn.
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