WASHINGTON, Oct 16, 2007 (AFP) - NASA Tuesday announced it was extending for the fifth time the mission of Mars space probes Spirit and Opportunity, in their indefatigable exploration of the Red planet.

The two robots touched down three weeks apart on Mars in January 2004 for an expected 90-day mission that instead could stretch out to 2009, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said on its website.

In September, Opportunity began a perilous descent into the Victoria crater, in Mars' Meridiani Planum region.

HYDERABAD, India, Sept 24, 2007 (AFP) - NASA aims to put a man on Mars by 2037, the administrator of the US space agency indicated here Monday.

This year marks the half-century of the space age ushered in by the October 1957 launch of the Sputnik-1 by the then Soviet Union, NASA administrator Michael Griffin noted.

In 2057, the centenary of the space era, 'we should be celebrating 20 years of man on Mars,' Griffin told an international astronautics congress in this southern Indian city where he outlined NASA's future goals.

WASHINGTON, Sept 21, 2007 (AFP) - A NASA spacecraft found seven possible cave entrances on Mars, triggering interest in hunting for other caverns that might be hiding life on the Red Planet, the US space agency said Friday.

While the possible caves discovered are too high in altitude to host life, scientists say caverns elsewhere on the Red Planet could be underground habitats or even one day become shelters for astronauts.

MOSCOW, Sept 14, 2007 (AFP) - Ten gerbils took off from the Russian-run Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan on Friday for a 12-day voyage to test the possible effects of a human mission to Mars, an official said Friday.

A Foton-M spaceship with the rodents on board took off on a Soyuz rocket, mission official Anfisa Kazakova told AFP by telephone.

The rocket is to include a cage with 10 rodents with the aim of studying the physiological and biological effects of long-term flights, she said.

PARIS, Sept 12, 2007 (AFP) - Mars has experienced 40 major ice ages over the past five million years, when vast areas of its porous soil froze and thawed again, according to computer simulations released on Wednesday.

The changes mainly result from Mars' angle of rotation, which is so extreme that the Red Planet experiences seasons. These seasons last far longer than Earth's because of the greater distance from the Sun.

Sub-surface ice exists in stable form today in both northern and southern hemispheres of Mars poleward of around 60 degrees latitude.

WASHINGTON, Sept 12, 2007 (AFP) - NASA's Mars rovers Opportunity and Spirit have resumed their three-year-old mission after surviving giant dust storms that nearly destroyed the twin robots, the US space agency said.

The rovers, which arrived on the Red Planet in January 2004 on a mission that was originally supposed to last three months, had been placed in hibernation mode in July to protect them from the Martian dust storms.

WASHINGTON, Aug 4, 2007 (AFP) - NASA said all systems were 'go' and the weather forecast was good for Saturday's launch of space probe Phoenix on its nine-month journey to Mars, where it will dig for clues to past and present life.

The Phoenix Mars Lander is scheduled for blastoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida with a first attempt at 5:36 am (0936 GMT) and a second attempt, should it be needed, at 6:02 am (1002 GMT).

WASHINGTON, Aug 2, 2007 (AFP) - NASA on Saturday is to launch space probe Phoenix on a nine-month journey to Mars' arctic region, where it will dig through ice for clues to past or present microbial life on the red planet.

The Phoenix Mars Lander is scheduled for blastoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida on August 4, with a first attempt at 5:36 am (0936 GMT), and a second attempt, should it be needed, at 6:02 am (1002 GMT).

WASHINGTON, July 31, 2007 (AFP) - Adverse weather Tuesday at Cape Canaveral, Florida, delayed by 24 hours the launch of Mars probe 'Phoenix' on its novel mission to dig in Martian soil for water and signs of life, NASA said.

Weather conditions prevented fueling of the two-stage Delta II rocket atop which Phoenix was scheduled to blast off on Friday, the US space agency said in a statement.

The launch will now take place on Saturday with a first attempt at 5:36 am (0936 GMT), and a second attempt, should it be needed, at 6:02 am (1002 GMT).