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The hunt for signs of life on Mars has been on for decades, and so far scientists have found only barren dirt and rocks. Now a pair of astronomers thinks that strangely shaped minerals inside a Martian crater could be the clue everyone has been waiting for. In 2008, scientists announced that NASA's Spirit rover had discovered deposits of a mineral called opaline silica inside Mars's Gusev crater. That on its own is not as noteworthy as the silica's shape: Its outer layers are covered in tiny nodules that look like heads of cauliflower sprouting from the red dirt. No...

Calif. (AP) - The California Institute of Technology is making a little green off the red planet. Caltech, which runs the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA, patented the twin rovers it sent to investigate the surface of Mars and is licensing their images for commercial use. Models of the six-wheeled Spirit rover are already on store shelves. Caltech has inked three deals so far and expects perhaps three more. Officials of the private university didn't say how much money they hope to make, but pledged to donate half to educational outreach programs and the rest for Caltech research. "We did...

The Spirit rover probe’s success in landing on Mars so soon after Beagle 2’s ominous silence may not be entirely surprising when the missions are compared. The disparity in the price tags alone is enough to raise a few eyebrows. The Americans have splashed out 820 million (£460 million) on their Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission, which includes a sister rover to Spirit, Opportunity. But the cash-strapped Brits, who unlike Nasa cannot throw huge amounts of taxpayers’ money at space projects, spent a paltry £140 million on the Mars Express package overall. While Spirit itself cost around 400 million (£220...