It appears that the "We're just going to keep launching probes there until one of the damned things lands successfully!" approach has finally struck pay-dirt: the Spirit rover has landed on Mars, and the probe has actually begun returning images. Kudos to all involved: space exploration needs a shot in the arm these days. For further updates, check the Jet Propulsion Laboratory website. It's days like this that I get a tear in my eye that Dr. Sagan is no longer alive.
Scientists were flummoxed, though, by the lack of the one feature they most expected to find at their selected landing site: a sign reading "Future Site of a Wal-Mart Supercenter".
(And I think it would be cool if, in Star Wars Episode III, George Lucas tipped his hat to NASA by having a spaceship that lands not by lowering landing gear but by deploying a sheath of balloons and bouncing all over the planet surface until it rolls to a stop!)
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