Winter on Mars is a cruel season.
Nights are long. The sun is a shrunken orb, half its size on Earth. With temperatures plunging to a heart-stopping minus 175 degrees, there is little relief from the alien chill.
What lies ahead is even worse: dust storm season, when howling, planet-wide siroccos can claw at the surface and choke the atmosphere.
NASA’s twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have been operating in this brutal environment since they landed on Mars in January.
And it shows.