Mike Moran celebrated his 21st birthday on Mars. Sort of. The Beverly Hills man is part of a six-member team taking part in a research expedition at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah. Moran is the chief astronomer for the crew. “This mission is going well so far,” he wrote from the station. “We're at Sol 10 right now (a sol is a Martian day) and the crew and I have almost completely adjusted to living and working in the Hab.” Funded by The Mars Society, Moran and the other crew members spent two weeks living in a model habitat near Hanksville, a small desert town that once served as a supply post for Butch Cassidy. Their mission was to conduct experiments and test equipment, as if they were on Mars.

In August 1999, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Advanced Projects Design Team (Team X) studied a robotic mission to determine the ages of the volcanic and sedimentary rock layers in the walls of Valles Marineris, the great martian canyon system. The Mars Stratigraphy Mission (MSM), as it was called, would see a lander similar to that planned for the 2001 Mars Surveyor Program lander mission leave Earth atop a Delta 7925 rocket in April 2007 and land on Mars in October 2009. It would steer itself to a precision landing at 14° south latitude, 68° west longitude, no more than 10 kilometers from the Valles Marineris southern rim. The MSM lander would deploy a specialized rover with three spherical inflatable "wheels." Throughout the surface mission, the solar-powered rover would communicate with Earth via a communications satellite in equatorial Mars orbit. The rover would need no more than 50 days to travel to the canyon rim. Once there, it would anchor the end of a tether to the ground and, paying out the tether behind it, rappel into the six-kilometer-deep canyon.

Recent drives by the Spirit rover from Jan. 14 to Feb. 4, 2010 (Sols 2145 to 2165) moved the center of the rover approximately 13.4 inches (34 centimeters) backwards. Since Jan 26 (sol 2157), drive commands have concentrated on placing Spirit into a favorable tilt toward the sun as the Martian winter approaches.

Tonight we talk about this weekend’s Mars and Moon duets visible to the unaided eyes. The planet Mars buzzes Beehive star cluster Saturday evening and on Sunday morning the crescent Moon pairs up with Antares.

The technologies that may be deployed in future space exploration were tested on slopes of Mauna Kea this week, 9,000 feet above sea level on the Big Island of Hawaii. The collaborative science camp set up on the cold and dusty terrain of the mountain included NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, the German Aerospace Center and the University of Hawaii at Hilo's Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES). Amidst the testing area crawling with lunar rovers and busy scientists were stationary structures working to hatch out an effective process that would enable future extraterrestrial colonists to "live off the land". The equipment processed the fine grained volcanic soil, similar in composition to the regolith that would be found on Mars or the Moon, in order to produce oxygen and water for survival. Not only would the manufactured oxygen be used to sustain the lives of colonists, it would also be used to create rocket fuel. Another mechanism focused the energy of the sun to create a lava-like soil fusion to be used, when cooled, to create a launch pad. The international group of scientists also worked to produce the energy, on site, that would power the processes.

President Obama has decided to abandon plans to return to the moon and focus on a much more ambitious effort -- a manned trip to Mars -- instead. A return to the moon would have been possible within this decade, but going to Mars will require cooperation among space-faring nations and is likely 30 years, give or take, into the future. The president's new budget request provides US$3 billion over five years for "robotic exploration precursor missions that will pave the way for later human exploration of the moon, Mars and nearby asteroids," Bolden explained. "These missions will inform us of the most interesting places to explore with humans, and validate our approaches to get them there safely and sustainably." Also included in the proposed $3.8 trillion budget are funds for developing new engines, propellants, materials and combustion processes, as well as cross-cutting technologies such as communications, sensors and robotics, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said.

Sky-watchers who routinely gaze at Mars observed an abrupt change in the appearance of the planet's arctic zones. "Over the weekend (Jan 30-31) a dust stream appeared," said Pete Lawrence of Selsey, UK, "and it is cutting across Mars' north polar cap." He photographed the activity through a telescope as seen above. The bright white area is the polar ice cap of Mars which is composed of a surface layer of frozen carbon dioxide, and vast amounts of water ice beneath. Notice that in the rightmost image, the land mass is obscured. This is evidence of an enormous dust cloud.

Even with February weather there will be a few good stargazing evenings so be certain to take advantage of them. Mars is perhaps the best naked-eye target, shining brightly high in the east as soon as the sun sets. Mars is a giveaway because it does not twinkle but shines with an orange hue. February is an excellent time to visit your local astronomy club so you can learn more and get prepped for the clearer, warmer months to come.

Performance Network Theatre announces its production of "It Came From Mars" by local playwright, Joseph Zettelmaier, beginning February 18 and running through March 21, 2010. "Mars," which is a co-production with Williamston Theatre (WT), is a recipient of the prestigious Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award, which is granted to only a handful of theatres nationwide. This world premiere comedy stars Wayne David Parker, Sandra Birch, Joseph Albright, Jacob Hodgson, Alysia Kolascz and Morgan Chard. It is directed by WTArtistic Director Tony Caselli (A PICASSO). "It Came From Mars," which is featured in the February issue of American Theatre Magazine, is a hilarious comedy about a troupe of radio actors terrified by Orson Welles'War of the Worlds broadcast. Passions ignite and secret identities are revealed when a washed up director, his diva ex-wife, a German sound effects wiz and a wanna-be war hero believe that they are about to be annihilated by men from Mars!

Defending a budget that effectively cancels a program that would have returned humans to the moon by 2020, NASA's top official said the space agency is looking beyond the lunar surface—to Mars. In a statement, NASA administrator Charlie Bolden noted that the $3.8 trillion federal budget proposal handed down earlier this week by President Obama provides $3 billion over five years in funds "for robotic exploration precursor missions that will pave the way for human exploration of the moon, Mars, and nearby asteroids." Bolden said robotic exploration is an essential precondition for manned missions to Earth's closest celestial neighbors. "These missions will inform us of the most interesting places to explore with humans, and validate our approaches to get them there safely and sustainably," said Bolton.

Disney has released the official synopsis for the movie and also started an official Facebook fan page for the film. Production is under way in London for Andrew Stanton’s latest film, which is set to come out in 2012.

"Apollo on steroids"? Forget about it. Back to the moon? Not anytime soon. NASA's new vision for space exploration is less specific on a destination, but more focused on making room for new technologies and new players in spaceflight. Some critics in Congress say they'll fight to keep some elements of the moon plan in place - but one of the most influential critics says it would be "very difficult" to change NASA's new course. In its budget request, released today, the White House is seeking $19 billion for the space agency during fiscal 2011, which is a slight increase from the current fiscal year's $18.7 billion. But over the next five years, NASA says it will have $6 billion more than previously planned, with most of that going to support technology development and commercialization. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told reporters that the increase represented "an extraordinary show of support in these tough budgetary times."

This certainly isn't a surprise, considering Buzz Aldrin has been advocating manned missions to destinations other than the moon for some time, but it's certainly worth hearing what the second man on the moon has to say about today's announcement about NASA's shake-up. In a nutshell, Aldrin supports President Obama's revised vision for NASA space exploration. This means canceling a return trip to the lunar surface and concentrating on other destinations first, pushing the envelope of human endeavor.

Notwithstanding the chill in Indo-Pak ties, students from both the countries have come together in designing an innovative crew ship to travel from Earth to Mars and jointly compete with students from other countries at NASA. Under the Sixteenth Annual International Space Settlement Design Competition, sponsored by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Boeing, school students from Lahore and Delhi have prepared a novel project on future of human civilisation in Mars. The project on crew ship is to travel from Earth to Mars reflects an innovative idea of people of the Earth going to Mars by this space craft. "You can go from Earth to Mars by a space craft. You can leave the space craft in the orbit between Earth and Mars and it will cross the orbit of Mars from where people can safely go to Mars," said Sanaa Nusreid, a student from Lahore Grammar School. As per the project, 8,800 people, including 2,300 crew members and 6,500 travellers, can go Mars in the space craft.

NASA's beleaguered Mars rover Spirit may no longer be much of a rover, but it's not the end of the road for her yet. The semi-stuck robot still has plenty of science left to do on the red planet, mission scientists say. "There's actually a whole class of scientific objectives that you can only address from a vehicle that doesn't move. So far we've pretty much tended to ignore those," said rover mission principal investigator Steven Squyres of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Squyres and other mission mangers announced last week that they were halting the effort to free Spirit from the sand trap it has been stuck in since May and shifting efforts to preparing the rover for the upcoming Martian winter. The rover's handlers will try over the next week to position the rover to maximize the amount of solar radiation it receives to give it the best chance of making it through the winter. "Energy is getting so low that we think we only have, you know, at maximum another half-dozen drives to be able to do that before we have to hunker down and get through the winter campaign," said science team member Ray Arvidson of the Washington University in St. Louis. That winter campaign won't see the rover doing much: "In the dead of winter, it can try to survive, that's about it," Arvidson told SPACE.com.

Mars is the fourth planet from our Sun in the Solar System. Out of the various planets and moons in our Solar System, Mars perhaps bears the most similarity to Earth, featuring an atmosphere, polar ice caps, and remnants of tectonic activity on the planet’s surface. Mars has fascinated both astronomers and the general public for years, and has been the subject of countless movies and fiction works. Currently, several nations in the world are planning to send missions to Mars for exploration, and NASA’s Spirit Rover recently ended a 6 year exploration of the surface after becoming trapped in sand.

For the first-time ever, VMC has imaged what we believe to be the shadow of Mars' moon Phobos crossing the surface of Mars. The shadow cast by Phobos as it passes between the Sun and Mars was photographed by VMC on 30 January, just as Mars Express approaches an intensive scientific observation campaign of Phobos.

At a populist level there may be much pain and anger in America over President Obama’s budget proposal to abandon the Constellation project to return US astronauts to the moon by 2020. But this is about much more than the symbolism and science of the original moon race of half a century ago. It goes way beyond the GWB plan to set up a permanent manned base on the moon as a way station to Mars, a proposal that was in its own right running into some severe criticism at various levels from its impact on science spending in general to the probability of the astronauts being killed by solar flare radiation long before making it to the red planet. It is about American engagement with the race that China, Russia, Europe and India are already running hard in the space industry stakes. This is the industry of designing, making and selling both disposable and re-usable multi mission space freighters, the business of giant research and military assemblies in orbit or on the surface of accessible asteroids, the future convergence of prime orbital real estate with the distribution of communications bandwidths orders of magnitude larger than what the world uses today, the cleansing of near space from space junk, and, alas, locations from which directed energy weapons can cover almost half a world. When the White House media management machine was leaking the abandon-the-moon message to reporters over the weekend it also had a sub text.

Last week, it was recipes. This week, it's finance. And Mars. The Bing team has partnered with the Pacific Science Center in Seattle to teach kids about Mars. And, it seems, teach kids to use Bing at the same time. Microsoft's "Captain Mike's Mars Adventure" site was launched in conjunction with the "Facing Mars" exhibit opening Saturday at the Science Center. On the Web site, kids have to answer questions about Mars by searching on Bing. The goal is to tell Captain Mike enough about Mars so he can go on his space mission.

This weekend promises two very special "close encounters" with our nearest neighbors. Planetary scientist Barbara Cohen at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center will answer your questions online via a a live Web chat on Friday, January 29, 2010 from 3:00-4:00 EST to field questions about Mars at Opposition and the "largest" full moon of the year.

On 26 January, Mars Express completed its 7777th orbit around the Red Planet, an auspicious milestone as the satellite is readied for the closest-ever flyby of Phobos, scheduled for just a few weeks from now. Mars Express has been in orbit since 25 December 2003, returning a wealth of scientific information and some of the most stunning high-resolution imagery of the Red Planet ever. Its data have allowed scientists to measure the abundance of water ice and vapour in the martian subsurface, surface and the atmosphere, as well as previously unknown methane in the atmosphere. Mars Express' highly elliptical orbit will enable Mars Express, on 3 March, to conduct the closest flyby and examination of Phobos, Mars’ largest moon. The flyby, at a planned altitude of just 50 km, will collect very precise radio Doppler data to help determine the moon’s gravity field more accurately than ever.

"Earth or Mars?" That's the question posed to visitors as they enter Pacific Science Center's new exhibit, "Facing Mars," a question that has two sides to it. The first involves personal inclination: Which planet would you rather be on? Visitors vote their preference by choosing between "Earth" and "Mars" gates as they enter the exhibit. (At the exit, after you've seen the displays, you can vote on the question again.) The second concerns powers of perception: A widescreen TV flashes image after image of arid terrain. The photographs are captionless for 8 seconds, allowing visitors to guess whether it's Earth or Mars they're seeing. The answer, when given, is almost always a surprise. The Atacama Desert, sand dunes of the Sahara and McMurdo Dry Valley of Antarctica can look awfully Mars-like to the untrained eye.

Addy and I are both weeping dusty red-colored tears in honor of the Spirit Rover's new permanent surroundings after reading this xkcd chronicle of his poor little life.

NASA will probably not build an outpost on the moon as originally planned, the agency's acting administrator, Chris Scolese, told lawmakers on Wednesday. His comments also hinted that the agency is open to putting more emphasis on human missions to destinations like Mars or a near-Earth asteroid. NASA has been working towards returning astronauts to the moon by 2020 and building a permanent base there. But some space analysts and advocacy groups like the Planetary Society have urged the agency to cancel plans for a permanent moon base, carry out shorter moon missions instead, and focus on getting astronauts to Mars.

A space-loving animator has created stunning flyovers of Mars from data captured by NASA’s HiRISE imager, which is mounted on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter satellite. HiRISE creates detailed digital-elevation models. Crunch that data, add perspective and some cinematic effects, and you have the movies that Doug Ellison, founder of UnmannedSpaceflight.com, posted to YouTube this morning.

On the seven year anniversary of the loss of the space shuttle Columbia, the Obama administration will unveil NASA’s budget. According to inside sources the president has decided not to include a $ 1 billion boost to the space agency. As NASA struggles to accomplish the tenets of the Vision for Space Exploration this further lack of funding will at best only further delay plans to return astronauts to the moon before pushing on to Mars. The Augustine Commission in its report to the president stated that NASA could not develop the Ares I rocket, which would be used to carry the crew into orbit. To adequately do so would require the funding that NASA had been promised – but later denied. Alongside the Ares I there would also be developed the heavy-lift capable Ares V – which would be used to hoist key flight hardware, lunar landers and the necessary upper-stage. With this shortfall in funding the fate of both vehicles is placed into doubt.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will unveil the U.S. space agency's spending priorities for 2011 during a Feb. 1 announcement at NASA headquarters here, according to administration officials. President Barack Obama's 2011 budget request is expected to realign NASA's human spaceflight activities and investments to foster development of commercial systems capable of ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station. The request is not expected to include a much-sought after billion-dollar boost to aid NASA's funding-hampered human spaceflight efforts. NASA currently plans to retire its three aging space shuttles this year after five more missions. But plans to use the shuttle fleet's replacement – NASA's new Ares rockets and their Orion crew vehicles – for an eventual return to the moon are still in flux.

NASA plans to attempt a series of tricky maneuvers to save the Spirit Mars Rover from the Red Planet's oncoming winter. Spirit is stuck in the sand on Mars' surface, and all of NASA's attempts to free it by remote control have failed to date. Now, the space agency says the best it can do is redirect the vehicle's solar panels so it can generate enough electricity to make it through the winter and remain in contact with Earth.

On Jan. 27, Mars will be closer to Earth than any other time between 2008 and 2014. A mere 60 million miles away, the red planet will be a great target for backyard telescopes, and will appear bright to the naked eye as well. Every 26 months, the two planets’ orbits bring them closer together, sometimes closer than others. In 2003, Mars came within 35 million miles of Earth, a 60,000-year record. Observers with a telescope will be able to see changes over the north pole of Mars as the carbon dioxide ice cap is nearing summer and evaporating into gas that affects the polar clouds.

Time Lapse: Six years of exploration through the "eyes" of the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit.

After six years of unprecedented exploration of the Red Planet, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit no longer will be a fully mobile robot. NASA has designated the once-roving scientific explorer a stationary science platform after efforts during the past several months to free it from a sand trap have been unsuccessful. The venerable robot's primary task in the next few weeks will be to position itself to combat the severe Martian winter. If Spirit survives, it will continue conducting significant new science from its final location. The rover's mission could continue for several months to years.

If you’ve been outside after it gets dark lately, you may have noticed the brilliant reddish star in the east. But that’s no star; it’s Mars! About every year and a half, the Earth passes Mars as they both orbit the Sun, very much like how a faster racing car on the inside track laps a slower-moving car on the outside track. When Earth does lap Mars, the Red Planet’s on the opposite side of the sky from the Sun, rising at sunset and setting at sunrise — we say that Mars is at opposition when that happens. When it does, we get two advantages in one: it’s at its closest point, so it’s bigger in telescopes, and it’s up all night so you can observe it at your convenience. This happens next in just a few days, on January 29, 2010. That’s why the Beauty Without Borders program has set up a Mars observing campaign, to get everyone outside and looking at Mars. If you are part of a local astronomy group, let them know about the campaign, which lasts from tonight, January 25th, through the 30th. Get folks to attend and see Mars through a telescope! It won’t be terribly big like you might see in space probe pictures, of course, but you may catch the polar ice caps, or some other features.

If NASA returns to the moon in 2020 as planned, astronauts will step out in a brand-new space suit. It will give them new mobility and flexibility on the lunar surface while still protecting them from its harsh environment. The suit will also be able to sustain life for up to 150 hours and will even be equipped with a computer that links directly back to Earth. The new design will also let astronauts work outside of the International Space Station (ISS) and will be suitable for trips to Mars, as outlined in NASA's program for exploration, called Constellation. "The current suits just cannot do everything we need them to do," says Terry Hill, the Constellation space suit engineering project manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "We have a completely new design, something that has never been done before."

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured more than 13,000 images of the red planet’s surface. And now, the space agency wants your input on what images to acquire next. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera is currently the most powerful camera on any NASA spacecraft. The images it has collected are truly amazing. They highlight how similar the Martian landscape is to Earth in some ways, as well as how otherworldly other parts of Mars can seem. We’ve collected just a few of the oddest and most beautiful shots. If they inspire you to want to pick the next strange location for HiRISE to focus on, NASA has created a website where you can scan the planet’s surface and make suggestions.

What would it take to green the red planet? For starters, a massive amount of global warming. Could we “terraform” Mars—that is, transform its frozen, thin-aired surface into something more friendly and Earthlike? Should we? The first question has a clear answer: Yes, we probably could. Spacecraft, including the ones now exploring Mars, have found evidence that it was warm in its youth, with rivers draining into vast seas. And right here on Earth, we’ve learned how to warm a planet: just add greenhouse gases to its atmosphere. Much of the carbon dioxide that once warmed Mars is probably still there, in frozen dirt and polar ice caps, and so is the water. All the planet needs to recapture its salad days is a gardener with a big budget.

NASA Headquarters managers face an imminent decision to formally halt further extraction maneuvers by the Mars rover Spirit to conserve electricity and to save the rover's life while it remains stuck in a sand trap 61 million miles from Earth. After six years of roving, Spirit's continued survival on Mars is now an open question as this marvel of robotics, human affection and ingenuity now risks freezing to death in the weeks ahead.

Most space scientists, sociologists and sci-fi writers agree: when humankind finally sets down roots somewhere other than the planet of our birth, Mars is our most likely destination. Chilly, lifeless (as far as we know) and frighteningly far away, Mars still offers the best hope for a human race whose figurative eggs have been kept in one basket for far too long.

NASA’s Mars rover Spirit passed its six-year anniversary January 3rd, but the upcoming Mars winter may spell the end for the ‘all-terrain’ vehicle. Last year, Spirit’s wheels broke through a crusty Mars surface layer and became trapped in the loose sand hidden underneath. Here, a NASA scale model mockup is seen trying to maneuver out of the predicament. Latest attempts to recover the real rover have resulted in it sinking deeper in the Martian soil. Spirit’s twin rover, Opportunity, landed on the opposite side of Mars 3 weeks after Spirit, and is still able to rove across the planet’s surface. The two rovers combined have traveled more than 16 miles, sending back photos and lots of data about the planet. As daily sunshine on the Red Planet’s southern hemisphere declines with the approaching winter, NASA ground operators are trying to adjust the tilt of Spirit’s solar panels to compensate for the decrease in solar energy.

Every summer there’s misleading e-mail that circulating about how on Aug. 27 Mars will be as close as it’s been to Earth in 60,000 years and will be as big as a full moon. Some folks have fallen for it, grabbing lawn chairs, mosquito juice and over inflated high hopes to see this momentous event, and … nothing happens. Just another pleasant evening under the stars. The annual Mars hoax is based on a real event that did take place on Aug. 27, 2003, when Mars was the closest it’s been to Earth in 60,000 years. It was a great event, but by no means was Mars as big as a full moon, not even close. This month Mars will be the closest it’s been in more than two years. Astronomers call it opposition, and it happens when the Earth and another planet are lined up with the sun, with the Earth in between the sun and the planet.

"OFF WORLD. Robin Parrish. Bethany House. $14.99 Softcover. Well, Robin Parrish of North Carolina has written an account set on Aug. 11, 2032, about what happens when a crew from NASA arrives on Mars, has an incredible flight back to Earth - and finds that everyone has vanished. Buildings are empty, cars are lined up at the toll booths with no one in them - the world has disappeared. Eerie? Yes! Could this happen if some terrorists have hidden something with plans to blow the world apart. Is Houston's NASA and Florida's Kennedy Space Center taken by surprise? How will we ever know. Until a woman appears. Her name is Mae. Was she ever really born? Was she murdered?

The 2010 opposition of Mars happens on January 29. You want to see the planet Mars, right? Sure! Everyone does! About every two years, Mars suddenly becomes much more noticeable. That’s already happening as I write this, in mid-January of 2010. Mars’ brightness has increased, and it is appearing in the sky for more hours of the night now than it has for the past couple of years. In late January of 2010, Mars will be at its best for this two-year period. The chart below shows Mars on January 29, when it will be near the full moon. You’ll find Mars every evening now in the east by the time true darkness falls. By late January, Mars will be ascending in the east immediately after sunset. In February, it will be in the east already when the sun goes down. Mars is reddish. It shines steadily. Look in the east any evening now, and you’re likely to notice it!

FIRST there were canals. Then an ominous face lept from Mars' mysterious surface. Now, what looks like rows of alien trees is causing something of a stir. Like the tall tales that have gone before it, this latest image of Mars is nothing but an optical illusion. Taken by NASA and the European Space Agency's Mars Express Orbiter, the picture is from a collection showing vast sand dunes and icy landscapes on the surface of the red planet. Australian National University associate professor of astronomy Charley Lineweaver said the sand dunes were extremely steep, and the "tree-like" shapes were simply gullies running down the slopes.

Using the vibration from a stereo speaker to levitate dust off surfaces may one day help keep colonies up and running on Mars and the Moon. Blasting a high-pitched noise from a tweeter into a pipe that focuses the sound waves can create enough pressure to lift troublesome alien dust from equipment, suits or vehicles, according to a study published January in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. Dust is one of the biggest obstacles for long-term lunar and Martian space colonies. On the moon, there’s no atmosphere and no water, so the dust particles don’t get moved around, worn down and rounded like they do on Earth. Consequently, dust kicked up by rovers and astronauts is “very abrasive and sharp, like freshly broken glass,” said University of Colorado Boulder physicist Zoltan Sternovsky, who was not involved in the study.

NASA says they heard no signals from the Phoenix lander this week during 30 communications passes over the probe's icy landing site, an expected outcome because the craft was never designed to survive the dark and cold Martian winter. The Odyssey orbiter circling Mars listened for potential radio signals from Phoenix 30 times over three days this week. NASA announced late Thursday that Odyssey did not detect any communications from Phoenix. "After all their tries so far, they haven't recovered it yet," said Peter Smith, the Phoenix mission's principal investigator at the University of Arizona. Officials cautioned the odds of hearing anything from Phoenix were very slim because the lander was not designed to weather the bone-chilling temperatures and months of darkness during winter on Mars' northern polar plains.

NASA's embattled Mars rover Spirit has managed its first successful, but ever-so-small, climb as it drives in reverse to escape a Martian sand trap that has plagued it for more than eight months. Spirit lifted itself by nearly half an inch (just over 1 cm) during its latest two drive attempts this month, NASA announced Thursday. While that seems tiny, it's the first upward motion for the rover since escape attempts began in November, the agency added. The rover also moved about 2.6 inches (6.5 cm) backwards in the maneuvers, which took place on Jan. 14 and Jan. 16. Spirit's left-middle wheel stalled on Tuesday during yet another drive attempt. "The explanation here is that the rover's rear wheels are climbing, raising the back of the rover," NASA officials said in a statement. "Images from the rear hazard avoidance camera confirm this."

Walt Disney Pictures announced filming is underway on John Carter of Mars starring Taylor Kitsch (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) as John Carter and directed by Andrew Stanton. Stanton earned Academy Awards for Finding Nemo and WALL-E, and John Carter of Mars marks his first time helming a live-action feature film.

As with most things in life, NASA missions tend to gain the most attention when they either succeed fantastically or fail utterly. When Apollo 11 touched down on the lunar surface in 1969, the New York Times ran with the headline "MEN WALK ON MOON." And when NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory took a nosedive into the Indian Ocean in 2009, newspaper editors and bloggers alike were quick to break out the "FAIL" headlines.