Those Mars Rovers Keep on Going and Going . . .

Eight months after landing on Mars, the rovers Spirit and Opportunity still keep Steve Squyres busy. Each robot has more than doubled its expected lifetime of 90 sols, or Mars days, but the pace continues to be hectic as the team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory tries to squeeze even more work out of the plucky pair. Between normal flight-operations meetings and a conference about a possible dune drive for Opportunity, Squyres, the head of science operations for both rovers, managed to wolf down some lunch while he spoke with me about the rovers’ successes and future plans.