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There aren't a lot of machines that operate 20 times longer than they were supposed to. There aren't a lot of scientists doing 20 times more research than they intended to. There aren't a lot of explorers covering 20 times more ground than they were supposed to be able to. But then again, there aren't a lot of things like NASA's Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers, the robotic ships that landed on the Red Planet five years ago this month with an expected lifespan of 90 days, and yet have chugged along ever since — surviving paralyzing cold, blinding dust...

Those "never say die" robots on Mars-- NASA's Spirit and Opportunity--continue to chalk up science at their respective exploration sites. Looming large for the Opportunity rover at Meridiani Planum is Victoria Crater--a grand bit of territory that's roughly half a mile (800 meters) in diameter. That's about six times wider than Endurance Crater, a feature that the rover previously surveyed for several months in 2004, gathering data on rock layers there that were affected by water of long, long ago. "We are closing in ... we've got only about a kilometer to go now," said Steve Squyres, lead scientist at...

The warranty expired long ago on NASA's twin robots motoring around Mars. These two golf cart-sized vehicles were only expected to last three months. In two years, they have traveled a total of seven miles. Not impressed? Try keeping your car running in a climate where the average temperature is 67 below zero and where dust devils can reach 100 mph. "These rovers are living on borrowed time. We're so past warranty on them," says Steven Squyres of Cornell University, the Mars mission's principal researcher. "You try to push them hard every day because we're living day-to-day." The rover Spirit...

NASA's twin Mars rovers continue to turn up intriguing new rock formations after a combined total of nearly 1120 Martian days on the planet. After discovering relatively little, other than basaltic lava flows, during its first six months on the Red Planet, Spirit continues to make up for lost time as it ascends Husband Hill - unearthing clues to violence in the planet's youth. Meanwhile, Opportunity is also experiencing a reversal of fortune on the other side of Mars. After trudging over desolate stretches of sand for about five months, it has finally reached an island of bedrock that appears...

And you think your operating system needs to be reliable. page 1 Introductions Mike Deliman was pretty busy last January when the Mars rover Spirit developed memory and communications problems shortly after landing on the Red Planet. He is a member of the team at Wind River Systems who created the operating system at the heart of the Mars rovers, and he was among those working nearly around the clock to discover and solve the problem that had mysteriously halted the mission on Mars. Deliman serves as chief engineer of operating systems at Wind River Systems. After leaving the...

'Columbia Hills' from OrbitThis view of the "Columbia Hills" in Gusev Crater was made by draping an image from the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter (image E0300012 from that camera) over a digital elevation model that was derived from two Mars Orbiter Camera images (E0300012 and R0200357). This unique view is helpful to the rover team members as they plan the journey of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit to the base of the Columbia Hills and beyond. Spirit successfully completed a three-month primary mission, and so far remains healthy in an extended mission of bonus exploration....