] The rovers' lifetimes will depend on factors such as
] durability of their electric motors, cumulative effects
] of severe day-night temperature swings, and the amount of
] available power from solar cells, Naderi said. For an
] added $15 million, the $820-million mission has been
] extended to Sept. 13. Mars will pass behind the sun then,
] Naderi said, cutting communications.

Someone asked me about this a few weeks ago. They are apparently running way longer then expected, and NASA has funded further work with them.

Mars rovers still working...

] Researchers are reporting new evidence supporting their
] earlier discovery of an inexpensive "tabletop" device
] that uses sound waves to produce nuclear fusion
] reactions.
]
] The researchers believe the new evidence shows that
] "sonofusion" generates nuclear reactions by creating tiny
] bubbles that implode with tremendous force. Nuclear
] fusion reactors have historically required large,
] multibillion-dollar machines, but sonofusion devices
] might be built for a fraction of that cost.

Freakin cool

Evidence bubbles over to support tabletop nuclear fusion device

] Called the Berkeley Lower Extremity Exoskeleton, or
] BLEEX, it is part of a Defense Advanced Research Projects
] Agency venture designed to help foot soldiers carry
] heavier loads over even longer distances, by connecting
] robotic supports to their legs to reduce the load.

New Scientist - Exoskeleton

] The Hubble Ultra Deep Field images and data, released
] Tuesday at the Space Telescope Science Institute in
] Baltimore, provide the first glimpses of galactic
] activity from around 700 million years after the Big
] Bang, reaching back into our celestial history about 300
] million years further than previous observations.

Worth a look. Galaxy Soup.

Wired News: Hubble Offers Glimpse of Creation

Opportunity's Microscopic Imager found this intriguing object, looking more like Rotini pasta. Its odd shape has stirred up Mars researchers, both inside and outside of the NASA Mars Rover Exploration team. Whether or not this object is related to biology has prompted a variety of views.

Main Story:
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/opportunity_news_040302.html

Martian Pasta

] The Great Barrier Reef off the east coast of Australia
] will be largely destroyed by 2050 because of rising sea
] temperatures, according to a new report.
]
] Researchers from Queensland University's Centre for
] Marine Studies said there was little evidence that corals
] could adapt quickly enough to cope with even the lowest
] projected temperature rise of 2C.

ugh...

Australia reef's days 'numbered'

] NASA's Opportunity rover sent back new images from Mars
] showing that small spheres previously found on the
] surface also exist below, in a trench the rover dug.
] Hints of salty water were also found in the trench, but
] much more analysis is needed to learn the true
] composition.

MSNBC - Have the Mars rovers struck water?

] According to De Pasquale, the circles in the cells are
] nothing but the first numbers of the Fibonacci series, in
] which each number is a sum of two previous: 1, 2, 3, 5.
]
]
] The abacus would then work on a base 40 numbering system.

sounds pretty cool, if unverifiable for the time being.

Incan Counting System Decoded?

] At the nerve center of each MER rover is a 6-by 9-inch
] electronics board containing one computer responsible for
] every process that goes into a mission, whether it be
] monitoring spacecraft health in transit, deploying
] parachutes during landing or roving about the red planet.
] The computer, called a RAD6000, is a tried and true
] component for NASA space mission that has formed the
] brains of past Mars missions in the, as well as the
] recent Stardust comet encounter.

More interesting technical details about the rovers.

Thinking on Mars: The Brains of NASA's Red Planet Rovers

] A Danish biotech company has developed a genetically
] modified flower that could help detect land mines and it
] hopes to have a prototype ready for use within a few
] years.

Yahoo! News - Flower-Power Could Help Clear Land mines