ROYAL CITY - Two teachers in the Royal City School District helped with NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander project by acting as ambassadors for the state of Washington.

Since landing on Mars Sunday, Phoenix delighted scientists with the first-ever peek of the planet's unexplored northern latitudes.

Royal High School teacher Mario Godoy-Gonzalez, and Royal Middle School teacher Ben Orth were selected as ambassadors to the mission in 2006.

"They will keep us informed for as long as the mission goes on," Godoy-Gonzalez said.

According to the University of Arizona, nine pairs of teachers were selected nationwide, and more than 500 teachers applied for the program.

Phoenix will dig into the soil using its 8-foot-long arm to reach the ice believed to be buried inches to a foot deep. The lander will study whether the site could have supported primitive life. Among the things it will look for is whether the ice melted in Mars' history and whether the soil samples contain traces of organic compounds, one of the building blocks of life.

Godoy-Gonzalez said when Phoenix landed Sunday, he was inside his classroom with five students who are attending a Student Biotechnology Expo in Bellevue.

He said he experienced the "seven minutes of terror" right before the landing. He and students viewed the mission's Web site, where they received information and photographs before the public could get them.

He and Orth participated in a 10-day trip to Fairbanks, Alaska, where they entered a permafrost tunnel to conduct experiments in preparation for the Phoenix landing. During the time, they met the project's principal investigator, Peter Smith.

"We had a blast," he said.

He said they spoke with scientists, where they discussed not only the "cool" aspects of the mission, but also their fears.

The Associated Press contributed to this story