Mars: Updates from the Red Planet (and Earth)

Opportunity has dipped its toes into Victoria Crater, stopping at a band of bright bedrock partway down the slope of the crater. The rover will bring its suite of instruments to bear as soon as mission managers are sure that safety checks (needed because of the 25 degree tilt of the rover) are working.

"This will be the first of several stops within this band of rock," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the science payloads on Opportunity and its twin rover, Spirit. "By sampling it at several different levels in the crater, we're hoping to figure out the processes that led to its formation and its very distinctive appearance."

Meanwhile, on the other side of Mars, Spirit is exploring the top surface of a plateau called "Home Plate," where rocks hold evidence about an explosive combination of water and volcanism.

Now that Spirit has lasted longer on the surface of Mars than the venerable Viking 2 lander, it is time to take another look at highlights from this mission that just won't quit! And: bet you'd love to see this help-wanted ad in your local paper..."Mars Rover Driver Wanted!"

In orbit around Mars, the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft is returning to normal operations after going into "safe mode" recently. The orbiter has sent back images of what appears to be possible cave "skylights" in seven areas on the surface of Mars. Some hope that these windows into the geology of the planet or even potential underground habitats. Odyssey is also allowing scientists to map ground ice under the surface of Mars.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter seems to have fully recovered from a camera problem earlier this year; pictures returned recently have not conclusively proved, one way or the other, visible signs of the presence of flowing water on the surface of Mars.

The Mars Science Laboratory, scheduled to be launched in 2010...2011...2012... (take your pick), has been the subject of some controversy recently. Depending on how you look at it, NASA is either trying to keep costs under control and make people stick to a budget or NASA is acting "weird".

From Europe, comes word that instruments similar to those used on the failed Beagle-2 probe (previously announced as going to Mars thanks to NASA, although NASA did not seem to have agreed on the addition!) are now...strangely...going to Mars on another NASA mission. Even stranger...NASA again doesn't seem to know anything about it. The European Space Agency is testing out a "life chip" that might make the journey to Mars on its planned ExoMars rover (scheduled for a 2013 launch).

And some news on (simulated) human missions to the Red Planet. Readers in Canada can see a mini-series and a multi-part documentary on a mission to Mars (no word yet on where else this will be seen). Various government and private groups have wrapped up another season on a Mars-like part of the Arctic. Russia is running a simulation of a mission to Mars; let's hope it goes better than a previous one.