The Phoenix lander has already proven its mettle by finding ice on Mars, and now it's gone and shown off its quick-thinking skills by shutting down its robotic arm after receiving a command that could have permanently damaged it. The lander apparently did it's best to find a workaround first, however, but ultimately determined that any further movement would have bent its wrist out of shape. That left NASA engineers scrambling yesterday to come up with some new instructions to send to the lander, and they're now simply waiting to see if they meet with the robot's approval.

[Via Slashdot]

While NASA has plenty of long term plans for Mars in the works, most of its attention these days is focused on its Phoenix Lander mission, set to launch this August. After a long, lonely journey through space, the robot craft will (hopefully) ease its way down to the surface near Mars' northern pole on May 25, 2008 and get to work digging up soil samples in search of evidence of past (or present) life on the planet. To accomplish that, the lander's equipped with 7.7 foot long robotic arm capable of digging up to three feet into the ground, which NASA expects will be enough to get at frozen water thought to be hiding beneath the Martian surface. The mission is also notable for being NASA's first attempt at a so-called "soft landing" on Mars in three decades, eschewing the airbags employed as of late in favor of a heat shield/parachute combination, with some rocket engines firing at the last minute to gently set it down Lunar Lander-style.

[Photo courtesy of Corby Waste/Jet Propulsion Laboratory]