The U.S. spacecraft that plunged into the atmosphere of Mars and landed in the Red Planet's northern polar region on Sunday night has begun 90 days of digging in the permafrost to look for evidence of the building blocks of life. Less than two hours after finding its feet, the Phoenix Mars Lander beamed back four dozen black-and-white images including one of its foot sitting on Martian soil amid tiny rocks. Others included the horizon of the arctic plain and ground with polygon patterns similar to what can be found in the earth's permafrost regions. "Absolutely beautiful,' said Dan McCleese, a chief scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). "It looks like a good place to start digging.' Cheers swept through mission control when the touchdown signal from the Phoenix Mars Lander was detected after a nail-biting descent. Engineers and scientists hugged and high-fived one another. "In my dreams it couldn't have gone as perfectly as it went,' project manager Barry Goldstein said. "It went right down the middle.' The first pictures were meant to give engineers information on the condition of the lander, including its power supply and the health of its science instruments. An image showed the lander unfurled its solar panels as planned after the dust settled. Initial results showed that Phoenix had landed almost level, tilted at a quarter of a degree. "The hardest part is over. There's still a lot of drama left,' said Mr. Goldstein, who kept up a JPL tradition by passing out bowls of lucky peanuts during the landing. 10-month voyage Phoenix plunged into the Martian atmosphere at more than 19,300 kmph after a 10-month, 711 million-km voyage through space. The lander kept in contact with the earth through the orbiting Mars Odyssey during the entire "seven minutes of terror.' It performed a choreographed dance that included unfurling its parachute, shedding its heat shield and backshell, and firing thrusters to slow down to 8 kmph. "Touchdown detected!! We're on the surface of Mars and there is celebration in Mission Control!!' JPL engineer Brent Shockley blogged from inside mission control. It is the first successful soft landing on Mars since the twin Viking landers touched down in 1976. NASA's twin rovers, which successfully landed on Mars four years ago, used a combination of parachutes and cushioned air bags to bounce to the surface. Mission chief scientist Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson, had two words to describe the landing: "Picture perfect.' Phoenix's landing is a relief for NASA since Mars has a reputation of swallowing spacecraft. More than half of all nations' attempts to land on Mars have failed. Phoenix's target landing site was 48-km-wide shallow valley in the high northern latitudes similar in location to the earth's Greenland or northern Alaska. The site was chosen because images from space spied evidence of a reservoir of frozen water close to the surface. Like a tourist in a foreign country, the lander initially will take in the sights during its first week on the Red Planet. It will talk with ground controllers through two Mars orbiters, which will relay data and images. Phoenix is equipped with a 2.4 meter-long arm capable of digging trenches in the soil to get to ice that is believed to be buried up to 30 cm deep.