May 23 2007
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Blown wheel makes for good Science.
One of NASA’s Mars rovers, Spirit, had a breakdown of sorts recently when one of its six wheels stopped turning. But given the rover was only designed to work for 3 months and now almost 3 years later, it can still drag itself around nobody was too upset.
One of the effects of the stuck wheel was to gouge a tench into the Martian surface, revealing something odd; silica. Apparently this substance can only be made in the presence of water. So there is now conclusive, or near enough, evidence that Mars did at one time have water. And where there was water there might have been life!
