Space.com is carrying another update on those trail terrors, the Mars rovers. Both have now traveled farther in the last few weeks than they did in the first two months of their mission. Spirit has made like a six-wheeled mountain goat and climbed to "Larry's Lookout", a spot about 200 feet above its landing site. On the other side of the planet, Opportunity is still trekking southward toward a rugged landscape called "etched terrain". Now that the Martian spring is in full swing, scientists are looking forward to perhaps another entire Martian summer and fall of exploration. Assuming the rovers hold together:

"It seems like every time we go higher on Husband Hill, we find more interesting stuff," [said Steve Squyres, leader of the Mars rover science team at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York] ... "but we’ve completely voided the warranty at this point. Every day is a gift," Squyres concluded.

Very cool!