Nine pairs of science teachers have been selected from across the country to become part of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander and Mars 2001 Odyssey missions. The phoenix Mars Lander is scheduled to launch in August 2007 and it's purpose is to dig into Mars surface and touch water-ice.

The teachers will spend the summer in Fairbanks Alaska where they will be doing scientific investigations at the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL), permafrost tunnel and at University of Alaska-Fairbanks research labs. There they will learn about frozen ground, polar processes, climate change, glaciers, polar ice, astrobiology and arctic environments both on Earth and Mars. The hope is that not only will NASA bring mars to the classrooms but maybe the teacher can have some insight as to how to handle and explore the water ice of Mars.

"The learning will go both ways,"  said Smith Mellon a Phoenix co-investigator. "As we participate, hand-in-hand with the teachers in investigating the permafrost tunnel, we may develop a deeper understanding of how we may explore the water ice in Mars' arctic region."