WATER ICE ON A HOT(TER) PLANET. Our planet's ice caps may be receding at a rate of 9% per decade, but Mars' "frigid arctic landscape" seems to be holding up just fine. NASA is preparing to launch the the 18' x 5' Phoenix Mars Lander, the Mars Scout Program's latest attempt to determine whether the Red Planet's polar environment is or ever was a "habitable zone for primitive microbes." While previous probes have been confined to Mars' equatorial region, the Phoenix will venture into the permafrost region -- believed to harbor subterranean "water ice" deposits which unlike the planet's substantial reserves of frozen H20, are theoretically capable of supporting life. But based on a NASA budget proposal for fiscal year 2008, the Phoenix might be the last probe to touch down on Mars for the foreseeable future. The Senate bill, despite allocating an overall increase in NASA's budget, includes a severe cut of $30 million in funding for planetary science missions, which will presumably be withdrawn from the Mars program. Unless Phoenix Mars Lander brings home the goods, NASA may be forced to look for water ice on other planets -- maybe even this one. --Mara Revkin
