Mars is an extreme planet that offers little hospitality to visitors due to its arid, rocky, and cold conditions. It has the largest volcano in the solar system and crazy weather patterns, posing challenges even to extreme sports enthusiasts. The Phoenix spacecraft launched in 2007 to study Mars' northern polar regions and search for water ice and organic compounds, landing in 2008. It has an oven and laboratory to analyze soil samples from trenches dug by its robotic arm up to 1.6 feet deep to study seasonal climate changes in the water ice layers. Phoenix also scans the atmosphere and measures temperature and pressure.