Whoever designed and built the Mars Rovers deserves a huge amount of credit. These things lasted far longer than expected and continue to produce useful data even after they were trapped. Fine hackers must have put these together.

Makes me wonder if Mars is a bit more hospitable than it's made out to be.

Sure, if you don't need to breathe or maintain a 37C body temperature it's not too bad at all.

hospitable relative to say venus or an econolodge. obviously it's not San Diego.

The Mars rovers were amazingly successful and continued to function well longer than anyone expected. It was a minor miracle that they even survived the landing and everything deployed as planned. They got so much data from the rovers they actually made an IMAX movie with the gigapixel imagery! Scientists have found tons of evidence of water and more, but they are extremely hesitant to discuss because no one wants to be the scientist ridiculed for saying aliens existed on Mars. Here's an article that discusses a little - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4480097/

Life imitates art: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1256039/synopsis

(spoiler alert, in case someone missed Big Bang Theory)

By the way, you can see the engineers working on the next bigger, badder rover here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasajpl

I may not live to see my great great grand children, but I want to live long enough to see us reclaim these little guys.

Absolutely. Your life might not change that much after the first couple of billions, but hey - you have a better chance of getting these guys back.

On the other hand - they are just a piece of iron, silicon and a few other metals. They don't have feelings.