Mr. Miami Beach

When the NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity touched down on Mars in 2004, they weren't expected to last long—perhaps 90 days, or six months at most. But 90 days stretched into five years, and a short-term science mission searching for evidence of water has turned into one of the greatest adventures of the Space Age. The rovers have trekked miles across hostile plains, climbed mountains, ventured in and out of deep craters, survived dust storms and mechanical failures, and cheated death so often that no one will venture a guess as to how much longer they might last.

This is the story of the epic struggle to get the rovers Spirit and Opportunity to Mars. When they landed in 2004 the rovers weren’t expected to last much more than 90 days but instead they repeatedly cheated death for years, with Opportunity still going today. Their unprecedented record of discovery and resilience opened the Martian frontier for good and launched the modern age of exploration.

NOVA goes behind the scenes at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to offer a look at the construction and launch of two Martian exploratory rovers: "Spirit" and "Opportunity".

The long running, often bitter scientific debate over the origin of birds and the evolution of flight.