Originally Posted by Hamlet

So? Why does that makes it stupid? Were the Viking and Surveyor missions stupid because they stayed in one place?

Phoenix is a low-cost mission reusing parts from the cancelled Mars Surveyor Program and is meant to complement other major missions. We've never been to the poles of Mars and this should give us a good introduction. There are 7 different instruments that will be used to collect data for the nominal 3 month mission.

Knowledged gained from this mission will point to where we should concentrate future polar missions.