How can you not love these little troopers. They build em for 3 month missions and they run for 4 years going on 5. Tuff bastards? Seems so.
The Phoenix lander is touching down on Sunday. Unlike the Rovers it is using the older method of landing with thrusters. Its been done a lot so its pretty safe. Phoenix will be of course sampling and analyzing the polar surface of MARS where you go to get more CANDY BARS. Unfortunately since its a lander and not a rover, its 6 month mission will no doubt be its only real mission. It has instruments for climate monitoring, but once it does its thing the one location, thats pretty much it.
Both Rovers were spared from the HUGE NASA budget cuts and will continue to do what they do best. Unfortunately Opportunity is having some weird issue with one of its arms, so its starting to show its age
And there's always the Mars Odyssey keeping watch on everything!
