Five spacecraft are circling Mars and creeping across its ruddy surface, looking for traces of long-gone waters and signs that the cold, arid planet may once have been hospitable to life. The robotic martian invasion - three orbiters and two six-wheeled rovers - has already uncovered strong evidence that water once flowed on Mars and is now locked in subsurface ice. But big questions about water on Mars remain. When did it flow? How long did it last? How much was there? Where did it come from? Where did it go? Perhaps the most tantalizing question: Were there long-lived watery environments where microbial life could have gained a foothold?

People could land on Mars in the next 20 to 30 years provided scientists can find water on the red planet, the head of NASA's surface exploration mission said on Wednesday. Two partially solar-powered "robot geologists" -- Mars Exploration Rovers, or MERs -- have been trundling across 3 miles of the planet and into craters since January, beaming back data about the makeup of what scientists believe is Earth's sister planet. Asked how long it could be before astronauts land on Mars, Arthur Thompson, mission manager for MER surface operations, told Reuters in an interview in Lima, "My best guess is 20 to 30 years, if that becomes our primary priority."

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration originally hoped that its rovers Spirit and Opportunity would survive long enough to travel at least half a mile each. Now the space agency has awarded Ohio State engineer Ron Li and his team nearly $900,000 to develop tools that will enable the next-generation rover to travel at least three miles. Other research teams around the country have received an initial round of funding as well. Future field tests will determine which team will help build the control system for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), set to launch in 2009.

Colin Pillinger has asked the US space agency to put a Beagle "pod" on its Mars Science Laboratory probe for 2009. Professor Pillinger says he wants to send a second Beagle instrument package to the Red Planet as soon as possible. "We wrote to NASA last week, asking them if they'd like to put a Beagle pod on MSL and drop it off in an interesting place," he said.

NASA is not wasting time in moving forward on its next rover that will strut its stuff across the far-flung sands of the red planet. The space agency released mid-month an "Announcement of Opportunity" that calls for science gear and related ideas that could wind up onboard the Mars Science Laboratory -- or MSL, for short. The overall MSL science objective is to explore and quantitatively assess a local region on the Mars surface as a potential habitat for life, past or present.

A miniature laboratory that can spot a tell-tale chemical signature of life is set to be part of NASA's 2009 Mars mission. The device will look for amino acids, the molecular building blocks of proteins. "Amino acids are the best molecules to look for if you want to find evidence of life that existed a long time ago. Unlike DNA, they could last for millions of years on Mars without changing," says Alison Skelley, a chemist at University of California, Berkeley, who helped build the 'life chip'.

NASA’s nuclear future promises more maneuverable, longer-lasting spacecraft and rovers with more onboard power than scientists know what to do with. Nuclear propulsion and power systems also could greatly reduce travel times to distant planets and supply energy to future planetary settlements, said Al Newhouse, director of NASA’s Project Prometheus nuclear power and propulsion program.

NASA's two Mars rovers were busy through the long holiday weekend, one progressing toward a distant crater and the other digging a trench to expose material beneath the martian surface for study by geology instruments, mission officials said Tuesday. NASA, meanwhile, changed the leadership of the $820 million double-rover mission to allow project manager Pete Theisinger to join a new program aiming for a Mars launch in 2009. Deputy project manger Richard Cook will take over the rovers.

Spherix Chairman Gilbert V. Levin has watched the images from NASA's Martian rovers with a mixture of amazement and envy. Like others, he is fascinated by the otherworldly images from the $820 million space mission. However, he is also disappointed that the scientific mission may leave a controversial question lingering: Is there life on Mars? "I wish I were going back with my experiment," Levin said.

While the Spirit and Opportunity rovers wheel themselves into the history books of Mars exploration, get ready for the next giant leap in rolling across the red planet. The Mars Science Laboratory is an all-terrain, all-purpose machine, akin to an extraterrestrial Sport Utility Vehicle. To be rocketed toward Mars in 2009, this long-range, long-duration robot is a trend setter. It will scope out Mars like never before to assess that puzzling planet as a potential habitat for life -- past or present -- and help verify if human explorers could exist there in the future.

If you think the Mars rovers are interesting, wait until you see a mini-van clambering over the planet's red rocks and dusty lake beds. The two golf-cart size rovers that are mesmerizing the country now are preparing the way for a 2009 mission to Mars called the Mars Scientific Laboratory, says William Hiscock, head of the physics department and director of the Montana Space Grant Consortium based at Montana State University-Bozeman. The 2009 mission will involve a rover, too, but that vehicle will be the size of a mini-van.

If you think the Mars rovers are interesting, wait until you see a mini-van clambering over the planet's red rocks and dusty lake beds. The two golf-cart size rovers that are mesmerizing the country now are preparing the way for a 2009 mission to Mars called the Mars Scientific Laboratory, says William Hiscock, head of the physics department and director of the Montana Space Grant Consortium based at Montana State University-Bozeman. The 2009 mission will involve a rover, too, but that vehicle will be the size of a mini-van.

NASA scientists are testing a robot named FIDO for a trip to Mars. The six-wheel, 145-pound, solar-powered "K9 rover," FIDO (Field Integrated Design and Operations), is undergoing research at Graniterock Co.’s quarry. Liam Pedersen, NASA scientist, said NASA needed a rocky Mars-like research spot that isn’t covered in vegetation. The quarry fit the bill. The rover will act as a research guinea pig to develop another robot NASA will use for its 2009 Mars Science Laboratory mission.

Using an anonymous patch of the American West as a stand-in for Mars, NASA has begun the second field tests of an advanced rover prototype developed to help it explore the Red Planet.

The FIDO prototype rover that is being used to test technologies in support of the Mars Sample Return Mission in 2005 has taken another spin around JPL's MarsYard.