Also, we’re doing what any field geologist would do in an area like this: climbing to a good vantage point for plotting a route.

One mystery we’ve been dealing with for a long time is the origin of the little dark ‘cobbles’ that we occasionally see out on the plains.

I’m leaving this one open for now.

The British mountaineer George Mallory was once famously asked why he was trying to climb Mount Everest and his famous reply was ‘because it is there.’ That’s a compelling argument when you are a mountaineer....

We’re just waiting. We’re just in awe of what we’re seeing and we’re just waiting to see the whole thing so we can really get about the business of deciding what to do.

Every time Spirit has gained altitude, we’ve found different rock types,

We have taken a beautiful 360-degree panorama, which I believe is going to be truly one of the signature accomplishments of this mission.

I think we’re going to make it.

They’d had to deal with huge technical as well as financial challenges. Just to get Beagle 2 to the launch pad is a huge accomplishment.

[Opportunity has wheeled up to such an outcrop that has some rinds on it,] among the best we ‘ ve ever seen, … So once we nail the cobble problem, we may go after the...

For Spirit, the priority has been to reach a safe winter haven.

There are cliffs the rover could fall over and die if we aren’t careful. We are gong to proceed carefully and methodically.

It’s astonishing to me how well it’s going. They’re tough machines built by a fantastic team.

Spirit has given us a wonderful window into the very ancient past of Mars. It was a violent place, a place where meteorite impacts, volcanic explosions happened frequently, where hot stuff was raining from the...

The hill is very steep in places … and the orbital images show a lot of tasty geology, some of it in pretty nasty-looking places. All in all, the next several weeks are going to...

Our speed of travel is driven as much by survival as by discovery.

So expect to see a very big panorama from this spot.

For Spirit, we’re going to head down the hill, looking for bedrock and heading toward Home Plate,

So there’s enough to keep us busy here for quite a long time.

We still want to get to the summit of Husband Hill and then head down into the ‘Inner Basin’ on the other side. But now we have more flexibility in how we carry out the...

This is a journey into the unknown, to something completely new.

This climb was motivated by science. Every time Spirit has gained altitude, we’ve found different rock types. Also, we’re doing what any field geologist would do in an area like this: climbing to a good...

One mystery we ‘ ve been dealing with for a long time is the origin of the little dark Ë cobbles ‘ that we occasionally see out on the plains,

We were fearful for a time that the motor may have failed permanently. If that were the case, we’d never be able to use the arm again.

This is [fundamentally] different than anything we have seen before.

For Opportunity, we’re going to continue south through the etched terrain, studying bedrock as we go and heading toward Victoria crater.

We’re also really getting the hang of driving in this terrain.

[Before launch] it just seemed impossibly far away, it seemed unreachable. Tonight, I go out knowing our rovers have been there a whole Martian year…it’s a much more familiar planet. We know the place.

I cannot tell you that we are going to reach those hills,

One mystery weve been dealing with for a long time is the origin of the little dark cobbles that we occasionally see out on the plains,

The berries are more numerous here, and some seem to be smaller than any we ‘ ve ever seen. And interestingly, some don ‘ t appear to be round. We ‘ re still debating what...

It was a hot, violent place with volcanic explosions and impacts. Water was around, perhaps localized hot springs in some cases and trace amounts of water in other cases.

But that’s purely conjecture at this point ” a working hypothesis. Everything is on the table until we’ve gotten more data down.

The root cause of the reset remains a mystery, but I guess the occasional odd glitch is to be expected from a vehicle that’s been on Mars for almost 600 sols.

Driving in that terrain was a challenge with all six wheels. With five wheels, it was a mess.