NASA has launched a spacecraft on a nine-month journey to Mars, where it will dig below the surface for clues to the existence of past or present life.

If everything goes to plan, the Phoenix Lander should arrive at Mars next May.

The US space agency wants to land the probe on relatively flat terrain at a Martian latitude of equivalent to Northern Alaska.

On these northern plains, ice is thought to lie just below the surface, within reach of the space craft's robotic arm.

Mission scientist Tom Pike, from the Imperial College in London, says the probe will see whether the region could support microbial life.

© NewsRoom 2007