Actually, the rovers were supposed to be on the surface of Mars forever (or until a museum crew came to take them back home for an exhibit). They were supposed to OPERATE for three months.

Those bloody gypsy travellers get everywhere!

... for those NASA dudes to kick that sucker into neutral and let it just roll on in there must be well nigh irresistable, or mybe that's just me.

It's all very well completing this back-up drive over the crater rim to prove they can do it, but the only way to do that is to drive into the crater in the first place, Shirley? What if they *hadn't* succeeded? NASA could hardly find some Martian farmer and offer to buy him a beer if he brings his tractor over for a quick tow, could they?

Are you well strapped in for temptation? Rock and Roll 42Run Beta Register?

And that is a Leading Question at odds with the The Presidents Continual Emergency Scare Mongering....... http://cryptome.org/pn091207.htm.

Stop pushing it, pimp. Your IT sucks, Mr President .

After waiting weeks for the Martian winds to clean up Rover, NASA boffins are now confident they can get her down this crater and back out again after a jolly good sniff about.

Winds + rocks = sands. Sands + gravity = filled holes in the ground. Does nobody else see that Mars is different from the Mojave? So different in fact that there's a crisis of scientific explanation they don't want to talk about?

Well now, they could use regenerative braking on the way down and not have to worry about dust on the solar panels.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/54360

say what?