Adding volumes of scientific knowledge of Mars with two government-conceived and administered robot probes is good. Redefining the face of space exploration itself with the private sector is better.

After suffering a systemwide breakdown, Spirit prevailed:

The Spirit rover has completed its primary mission to Mars, yet continues to roll along, moving towards a cluster of hills that could yield more evidence that the planet had a wet past. On Monday, Spirit's 90th full day on Mars, the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration's unmanned robot and its twin, Opportunity, had accomplished nearly all of the assigned tasks that would make their joint mission a full success.

Adversity, of course, prepares us for the better things in life. Like more adversity:

Spirit is several days into a trek towards a cluster of hills that may contain geologic evidence of a more substantially wet environment, perhaps including layered rocks formed in standing water.

Some of the twin rovers' exploits can be read here and here. Find everything you want to know at NASA's official website. By all standards, Spirit and Opportunity have been a smashing success on the Red Planet. Not bad for the smallest major agency in the federal government, is it?

Glenn Reynolds and James Lileks are on the Hugh Hewitt Show talking weblogs. Glenn Reynolds sounds like Glenn Reynolds. James Lileks sounds like John Billingsley.

The European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter discovered traces of methane, another possible indication of life, on the Red Planet. (Via Rand Simberg.) A rough conversion of methane-to-biospheric activity can be found here.

News-hunting again? Here's another resource for you: the Daily Earth, an online directory of press agencies and newspapers around the world. Like, say, Japan.

I'm currently Googling for aircraft pictures to use in a sign project. I was rather innocently looking for a photograph of Atlantic Aircraft's Atlanta P-W-2. Google gave me this.

Surly bonds of earth got you down? Slip 'em. Spirit and Opportunity are still crawling around on the Red Planet - the volume of stunning photographs and hydrospheric evidence grows.

When Spirit met Bonneville.

Quote of the day:

"I came to admire this machine which could lift virtually any load strapped to its back and carry it anywhere in any weather, safely and dependably. The C-47 groaned, it protested, it rattled, it leaked oil, it ran hot, it ran cold, it ran rough, it staggered along on hot days and scared you half to death, its wings flexed and twisted in a horrifying manner, it sank back to earth with a great sigh of relief - but it flew and it flew and it flew."

- Len Morgan

They won't make another like it.

Yes, Virginia, there are practical applications to the Mars rovers' discoveries:

The Opportunity findings show that the strategy of "follow the water" was the right direction to pursue, said Geoff Briggs, Scientific Director of the Center for Mars Exploration at the NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California.

Briggs said that the forthcoming Mars Science Laboratory mission will carry a new generation of instruments to help decipher "in the field" the history of the red planet. The prospect of a returning to Earth soil and rock specimens from Mars next decade, while sure to be scientifically rewarding, would also flex the technology muscle to eventually send humans there...Over the years, Briggs said, robotically returning samples from Mars has been inhibited by two things: high cost and high risk.

The NASA initiative that calls for humans to Mars in the foreseeable future, Briggs said, should give more programmatic support and the funds to make a robotic return sample effort happen before astronaut explorers set foot on the planet.

Granted, most are for future exploration - but pure exploration has rewarded the American public with a wealth of dividends. And if that's not enough, fine: let's spare the killjoy taxpayer and reward the private sector with full privileges to explore space. Aviation wouldn't be what it is today without free enterprise. It's win-win.