NASA is moving ahead with plans to put a long-armed Lander on Mars’ icy North Pole to search for clues for water and possible signs of life£®

The $386 million Phoenix Mars is planned to touch down in the Martian arctic in 2008£®The stationary probe will use its robotic arm to dig into the icy land and pick up soil samples to analyze£®In 2002, the Mars Odyssey orbiter spotted evidence of ice-rich soil near the arctic surface£®