Posted: Thu, Aug 28 7:04 AM ET (1104 GMT)
NASA's Mars rover Opportunity will soon exit a crater it has been exploring for nearly a year, in part as a precaution as the rover ages. Opportunity has spent nearly a year inside Victoria Crater, examining exposed rock layers within the crater that has provided scientists with insights to the planet's history. The rover will exit the crater at the same place it entered and return to the plains around it, studying rocks in the region. Part of the reason for having Opportunity leave the crater is a electrical current spike recently detected in one of the rover's six wheels; a similar spike in Spirit came just before the affected wheel was disabled. Project officials said Opportunity could probably not leave the crater on just five wheels. Spirit, meanwhile, has survived another Martian winter although it will not begin to move again for a few months, when solar energy reaches sufficient levels.

Related Links:

•  BBC article
•  New Scientist article
•  SPACE,com article
•  AP article
•  NASA press release

Posted: Wed, Aug 6 7:50 AM ET (1150 GMT)
Scientists with NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander mission said Tuesday that they have detected traces of perchlorate in samples of Martian soil analyzed by the spacecraft, but that the discovery did not necessarily have positive or negative implications to life on the Red Planet. In an unusual teleconference prompted by rumors and reports of a major discovery in the last several days, scientists said they had detected perchlorate with one instrument, MECA, but not with another, TEGA, although scientists added they had detected a strong oxygen signal in one TEGA sample that could be consistent with the presence of perchlorates. Scientists said if perchlorates do exist, it doesn't necessarily prove or rule out the presence of microbial life on Mars; while perchlorates can be toxic to some forms of life, it is a source of energy for others.

Related Links:

•  New Scientist article
•  SPACE.com article
•  Washington Post article
•  Nature News article
•  New York Times article

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