IBM's POWER processor technology is on the way to searching for life on Mars

The processors, which operate the game consoles, are also used to operate the main computer of the Phoenix that took off on Saturday on its way to Mars

Players on the new gaming machines from Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo can, starting this week, raise their eyes towards the planet Mars - knowing that the processor technology that drives their console is now making its way there as well, as it functions as the central processing engine of the Mars Phoenix Lander spacecraft.

The new spacecraft, which was launched on Saturday from Cape Canaveral, will try to give an answer to a puzzle that is troubling scientists and science fiction writers alike: Is it possible to have life on Earth's neighboring planet. The Phoenix spacecraft will also investigate changes in the atmosphere and weather on Mars - in an attempt to analyze the possible effects of the global warming process on Earth.

The cost of the Phoenix spacecraft launch program reaches 240 million dollars and the possibility of going to Mars only exists once every 26 months, when Mars and Earth are approaching the shortest distance between them.

IBM's POWER architecture - the same basic structure of processing chips that is at the center of Unix computers, Linux, System i servers made by IBM, as well as the central engine of all game consoles available on the market today - is also the cornerstone of the RAD6000 computer made by BAE Systems: a hardened, durable computer In the face of radiation and extreme environmental conditions typical of a journey in space, which is the central brain that processes the navigation data and manages the work of the central systems in the spacecraft making its way to Mars.

After a journey of about 680 million km, the spacecraft will reach its destination and then the system will face temperatures of tens of degrees below zero, and winds of more than 40 meters per second.

The spacecraft's central computer was built in IBM's 32-bit POWER architecture, by BAE Systems, based on a license granted to it by IBM, which includes authorization to harden the POWER processors in order to allow them to meet the radiation conditions typical of space travel.