PASADENA, Calif. — A three-legged NASA spacecraft was closing in on Mars Sunday for what scientists hope will be the first-ever touchdown near Mars’ north pole to study whether the permafrost could have supported primitive life.

The time it takes the Phoenix Mars Lander to streak through the atmosphere and set down on the dusty surface has been dubbed “the seven minutes of terror” for good reason. More than half of the world’s attempts to land on Mars have ended in failures.

“I’m a little nervous on the inside. I’m getting butterflies,” Peter Smith, principal investigator from the University of Arizona, Tucson, said on the eve of the landing. “We bet the whole farm on this safe landing and we can’t do our science without this safe landing.”

Phoenix is pre-programmed to plummet through the Red Planet’s atmosphere, and will rely on the intricately choreographed use of its heat shield, parachute and rockets to slow its descent from over 13,000 mph to a 5 mph touchdown.

This could be must see TV. But you’ll only be able to watch it on the Internet: At 6 p.m. ET on Sunday, NASA begins live coverage of the Phoenix Mars Lander, as it attempts to make the first powered landing on the red planet since Viking 2 in 1976. Watch it online here.

Phoenix will enter Mars’ atmosphere at almost 13,000 miles per hour Sunday evening and then undergo what NASA engineers refer to as “seven minutes of hell” as it deploys a heat shield, then a parachute, and fires thrusters to touch down at just before 8 p.m. ET. At least that’s when NASA first learns if the landing was a success–it takes the signal 15 minutes to reach Earth.

NASA is expecting upwards of 500,000 to tune in to its live coverage on the Web. Those tuning in will see the images at the same time as NASA, and get the analysis in real time. Phoenix’s mission: Dig for ice that scientists believe exists just below the surface, and determine if it has ever, or could ever, support life.

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