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Get Ready - visit Space.com - they have a number of “Answer Blogs” that are the best I've seen on the Web - here goes on a couple of your questions - Mars may have some geothermal heat, but not enough to generate a magnetic field, so it is much less than earth, and possibly zero - stars and planets form in “molecular clouds” which are like nebula clouds except they have the full menu of elements, not just hydrogen and helium - molecular clouds are believed to be the end product of star explosions, also known as supernovas - as a new star forms at the center of a molecular cloud, its heat and gravity causes atoms and molecules to sort themselves out at various radii - planet formation is pure chaos - collisions, nearby stars, the kind of central solar star, can have enormous impact on what kind of planets form and where they orbit - on Earth, living organisms, bacteria really, the size of a human mitochondria, have been found miles below the surface, so for simple life space radiation may not be a problem - life as we understand it requires some level of a liquid medium, like water or methane, so that different kinds of molecules can dissolve, and move, and interact - the basic rationale for the Phoenix Mars probe is to see if ice exists just below the surface, and, once melted, if Martian water holds organic molecules - for some reason, Phoenix has no capability to actually test for life - seems crazy to me - it costs $400 million and took hundreds of people to get it to Mars - why they didn't add a few life detecting instruments is a complete mystery to me

the basic rationale for the Phoenix Mars probe is to see if ice exists just below the surface, and, once melted, if Martian water holds organic molecules - for some reason, Phoenix has no capability to actually test for life - seems crazy to me - it costs $400 million and took hundreds of people to get it to Mars - why they didn't add a few life detecting instruments is a complete mystery to me

I'm not sure I understand your logic here.
You state that Phoenix is testing for organic molecules then state it has no capability to test for life.
Seems to me that organic molecules are evidence of life. They are organic.

Here is Mission #1 as stated on the Phoenix site:
Goal 1: Determine whether life ever arose on Mars Continuing the Viking missions' quest, but in an environment known to be water-rich, Phoenix searches for signatures of life at the soil-ice interface just below the Martian surface. Phoenix will land in the artic plains, where its robotic arm will dig through the dry soil to reach the ice layer, bring the soil and ice samples to the lander platform, and analyze these samples using advanced scientific instruments. These samples may hold the key to understanding whether the Martian arctic is a habitable zone where microbes could grow and reproduce during moist conditions.
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/science02.php

When one considers the amount of scientific instruments packed into a 5 ft. diameter, 700 lb. lander, your complaint sounds like someone receiving a 60 in. flat screen for his birthday and complaining that he didn't get a full entertainment center.