Mars lander to carry recordings, writings of visionaries

The "Visions of Mars" mini-disk secured to the lander will be the first library on Mars - a gift from past and present dreamers to possible future settlers.

"I'm glad you're there and I wish I was with you," Sagan said in a recording made for the mission before his 1996 death.

An excerpt from his book "Cosmos" is also on board.

Other musings, in written and audio format, come from Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Percival Lowell and Kim Stanley Robinson.

"For any science fiction writer," Robinson said on the eve of launch, "it's really a thrill.

"Green Mars," the second novel in his classic trilogy, is on the disk.

The Phoenix Mars Lander was scheduled to blast off before sunrise on Saturday aboard an unmanned rocket.

Its journey to Mars will take nearly 10 months and cover 679 million kilometres.

NASA is aiming for a landing within Mars' Arctic Circle in May 2008.

The three-legged Phoenix is equipped with a long digger that will penetrate the red soil and underlying ice, and tiny ovens that will bake dirt and ice samples.

If any traces of organic compounds are found, it could indicate an environment conducive to life.

Previous Mars missions have pointed to liquid water in the long-ago past, already raising the possibility of life.

That is what red planet enthusiasts have been envisioning for decades - life on Mars, both native and human.

Robinson foresees permanent Martian colonies with hundreds and even thousands of people within 100 years, similar to the Antarctic stations. - DDNEWS