On and On and On and Hopefully On Some More

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University

Opportunity recently clocked up over twenty kilometres driven on Mars. Not bad for something originally expected to peter out after 600m, although her current destination is still twelve kilometres distant. Read more here.

Poor Spirit, meanwhile, has - as her friends on Earth expected - missed a scheduled communication, most likely due to simply not having enough energy to speak. Further south than Opportunity, Spirit is more affected by the southern winter, and also unable to angle herself too well to catch the sun. Hopefully communications will resume when things warm up again. Read more here.

And finally, as much as I like to anthropomorphise our robot explorers on and around other worlds, its worth remembering that there are hard-working human beings behind them, and those behind the Mars Rovers have deservedly won a NASA achievement award.