WASHINGTON, Aug 4: A US space probe named Phoenix Mars Lander was successfully launched early on Saturday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and began its nine-month journey to Mars, where it will dig for clues to past and present life.

The lander blasted off from Cape Canaveral aboard a Delta II rocket at 5.36am (0936 GMT) in a flawless launch that illuminated the dark night sky.

If everything goes as planned, Phoenix should complete its 680 million kilometre 420-million-dollar journey to Mars on May 25, 2008.

About 90 minutes after launch, the Delta II rocket will give the probe the final push it needs to send it from Earth orbit to Mars. The lander’s assignment is to dig through the Martian soil and ice in the arctic region and use its onboard scientific instruments to analyze the samples it retrieves.

“We have worked for four years to get to this point, so we are all very excited,” said Phoenix project manager Barry Goldstein at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

NASA hopes to land the probe on flat ground with few or no rocks at a Martian latitude equivalent to northern Alaska on Earth.

Phoenix is likely to face Martian temperatures that range from minus 73 degrees Celsius (minus 99 degrees Fahrenheit) to minus 33 C (minus 27 F).

Once it lands safely on the Martian surface, the probe will deploy a set of research tools never before used on the planet.

The solar-powered craft is equipped with a 2.35-metre robotic arm that will enter vertically into the soil, aiming to strike the icy crust that is believed to lie within a few inches of the surface.

The Phoenix’s robotic arm will lift soil samples to two instruments on its deck. One instrument will check for water and carbon-based chemicals, considered essential building blocks for life, while the other will analyse the soil chemistry.

The Phoenix Mars Lander measures 5.5 by 1.5 metres and carries 55 kilograms of scientific equipment.—AFP