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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...

LOS ANGELES - NASA says it has absolutely no plan to turn off either of the Mars Rovers because of budget cuts. NASA is saying Tuesday that it has rescinded a letter that recommended budget cuts in the Mars Rover program to cover the cost of a next-generation rover on the Red Planet. The move comes a day after scientists at the agency's robotics center said they would need to hibernate one of the twin Mars robots and limit the duties of the other because their budget was being cut by $4 million. That announcement was based on a letter...

The twin Mars rovers are getting wiser with age. Engineers have transmitted new flight software to the rovers' onboard computers - just in time for the third anniversary of their landings. The software is aimed at boosting their intelligence and independence so that they can roll around the Red Planet with less help from humans. "We're teaching an old dog new tricks," said John Callas, the mission project manager with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, which is in charge of the rovers. Among the rovers' new skills is the ability to automatically recognize and transmit to Earth photographs that...

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...

<p>PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - Scientists working on NASA's twin rover mission to Mars said Friday they are settling in for the long haul, as they ready to dispatch the six-wheeled robots on extended treks that could stretch into the late summer.</p>

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - NASA (news - web sites)'s two robotic rovers on Mars have begun scaling back their working hours as the approach of autumn on the Red Planet and dust on their solar panels slowly chokes off their power supplies, a NASA official said on Friday. The rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which landed on the Red Planet three weeks apart in January, are engaged in intensive searches for signs of water on opposite sides of Mars. Evidence of rocks or soil that formed in water would help validate scientists' theories that for the first half of its 4.6-billion-year...