LBlix_78 writes:
NASA is planning to launch the Phoenix Mars Lander in August 2007. Phoenix, which should land on the North Pole of the Red Planet in 2008, will analyze soil samples for water and possible signs of life. The project has risen out of the wreckage of the 1999 Mars Polar Lander, like the mythical bird it is named after.
Meanwhile, this may all be moot as a new theory suggests that Mars has always been cold and lifeless.