The lander will head to the polar north of Mars where it will dig into the frozen surface in search of the building blocks of life. This probe will be outfitted with a radiation-hardened RAD6000 computer by BAE Systems and based on Power Architecture. As the "brains" of the space craft, the RAD6000 will process navigational data and drive key systems both in space and on the planet surface.

The program cost for the Phoenix launch is $420 million dollars and launch opportunities come only once every 26 months. Once on the surface, Phoenix will endure temperatures down to -100 degrees Fahrenheit and wind speeds of up to 40 meters per second. The RAD6000's proven ability to withstand the rigors of space and open architecture programmable from workstations to supercomputers, make it an ideal platform for the 423 million mile journey.

In 2003 NASA launched the Spirit and Opportunity Mars Exploration Rovers toward Mars to see if water, a key building block of life as we understand it, was ever present on the planet. The mission, originally planned for 90 days continues to this day transmitting an unprecedented amount of data and stunning photos back to earth.

The key instruments on both rovers relied on a single board computer built with a 32-bit Power Architecture licensed to BAE Systems by IBM and a RAD6000 processor radiation hardened by BAE systems.

The launch of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander is scheduled for Saturday, August 4 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.