After years of hoping to find direct evidence of ice on Mars, and after three failed missions, the scientists at NASA are finally about to see their dream come true. The Phoenix mission is scheduled to land on Mars on May 25 in order to find and analyze samples of the ice and soil of the planet.

The first mission that was aimed at this failed in 1999 after contact was lost during the landing procedure. In 2003, Beagle 2, the European Space Agency’s mission that was looking for proof of life, had the same fate. 

The odds of landing this mission are not good. 55 percent of the attempts to land on Mars have failed, and the steering rockets that are used by the mission in order to have a more precise landing are part of a method that hasn’t been used for 32 years. The propulsive landing system is considered to offer better landing results for spacecrafts that are heavier, such as the ones that could be used if a human mission would be sent to the planet.

The scientists are mostly afraid of the 7-minute period of time while the Lander will be steering through Mars’s atmosphere in order to land in an area about two times larger that Hong Kong, located near the planet’s North Pole.

After the landing, Phoenix will use its robotic arm in order to retrieve samples of soil and ice from the planet’s surface. The samples will then be analyzed using its small ovens and spectrometers.

Scientists say that even if the mission is not aimed at finding life on the planet, the results of the ice analysis might point in the direction of whether life is or was ever possible on Mars.