A THUNDERBIRDS-like spacecraft will land on Mars to look for signs of life.

Phoenix will make the first powered descent to Mars since the Viking 2 mission in 1976.

Unlike previous landers it will not bounce down on a cluster of air bags.

Instead, the American probe will brake by firing retro-rockets, like a craft from the Thunderbirds TV puppet show.

Slowing to 5mph, Phoenix will set itself down on three legs.


Ice

It is expected to land at 12.53am British Summer Time on Monday.

In 2002, the American space agency Nasas Mars Odyssey orbiter discovered signs of ice beneath the surface of the north polar plain.

Phoenix has a robot arm almost eight feet long which will reach out and dig a 20-inch deep trench to extract soil and ice samples.

The material will be transferred to an on-board lab containing some of the most advanced technology ever sent to Mars.

The instruments include a microscope which is 1,000 times more powerful than any other, equipment to carry out chemical analysis and a stereoscopic camera for taking pictures.

Dr Tom Pike, who heads a team from Imperial College London which made silicon substrate "slides" for the probes two microscopes, said: "What Phoenix could show is the potential for life, and thats a very interesting result on its own."

The landing area, nicknamed "The Green Valley", is an enormous flat plain where the ice has cracked into giant polygonal paving slabs.

Dr Pike said scientists were interested in the shape of the soil particles. If they were rounded, it would suggest erosion by liquid water some time in the past.

Entering the Martian atmosphere at 13,000 mph, the probe will have to survive temperatures of 1,427C before deploying its parachute.