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Following last week's momentous discovery that the chemistry of Mars could have once supported life, the Curiosity rover is on the fritz again. Engineers at NASA returned the rover to safe mode after noting a malfunction in its software, marking the second time in recent memory that the rover has needed to take a break and get its act together. In all fairness to Curiosity, though, finding evidence that an alien planet could once have supported life is probably tiring work, and we're not inclined to begrudge it a little nap in the wake of its biggest news yet. Little guy is all tuckered out!

Just what was in that sample of rock the Curiosity rover drilled out of Mars? We don't know yet, but we'll find out later this afternoon, and we'd love for you to join us. Watch with us live at 1:00 pm EST as NASA announces the contents of the rock sample and explains why those results are important. Chances are this won't be the end of the story on whether or not Mars was once capable of supporting life, but it has the potential to be a major piece of that puzzle, and you can watch its reveal live below thanks to the magic of NASA TV.

This morning, we tip our hats to NASA's hardware gurus, who have successfully rebooted the computer that runs the Curiosity rover, letting it get back to work after a few long, nail-biting days operating in 'safe mode' on it's second computer system. While the backup kept the rover running, it was essentially on life support, an unable to do the science we've come to treasure from it. So here's hoping you had a nice nap, Curiosity. Now get back to work -- this ain't no union shop.

The Curiosity Rover got its latest taste of Martian bedrock drilled from the planet's surface this week, and we are left to assume that it tasted like victory. Victory and sand, sure, but mostly victory. After penetrating the surface of the planet earlier this month, yesterday saw Curiosity ingest samples into its internal chemistry labs, meaning new analysis of previously untouched Martian soil is officially under way.

This afternoon NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will be hosting a live teleconference to update everyone on how the Mars Curiosity rover is doing. It seems like things are going well. Earlier today the team behind the rover confirmed that Curiosity collected the first ever sample from the interior of a Martian rock. The teleconference will start at 3pm ET, and we have the live feed right here for your convenience.

Searching for life on Mars is all the rage right now. We've covered the Curiosity rover mission quite a bit here at Geekosystem, because NASA shot a robot at a planet, landed it safely on the surface, and now that robot is drilling and sending back data. That's amazing. As amazing at it is, though, some scientists think we should be using our resources to look for life in a more likely spot -- Jupiter's moon Europa.

After celebrating their six month anniversary earlier this week, the Curiosity rover has finally consummated its relationship with the planet Mars by drilling its first hole into the rocky surface. Curiosity and Mars have been fooling around for a while now, with the rover analyzing samples and sending photos of the planet's mounds and craters to all its friends, but the two finally went all the way this weekend. Curiosity's next step is to further probe the hole to search for evidence of a once wet environment.

See that newly formed set of tracks in Mars' Gale Crater? Those are the tracks left behind by the Curiosity rover, which can apparently be seen from orbit. Well, from orbit around Mars and with about a bazillion dollars worth of camera equipment, we mean. Still, it's pretty cool to see the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's latest shot of the rover's... rovings, I guess? It's good to know that there's a backup plan in place on the chance that NASA loses contact with the rover, even if being able to see where it's tracks suddenly end seems like a pretty low-tech solution to a potential problem. Keep reading for a bigger photo with more Mars goodness.

Last month we reported that a film crew from Discovery Channel had captured footage of a giant squid at home in the inky blackness of the ocean's depths -- the place where all the most horrid nightmares are born -- for an episode of the cable network's Curiosity series. Since we're inclined to take a "pics or it didn't happen" view of the world over here, it's safe to say that we were all dubious of the claim, especially when past experience has shown that such overhyped discoveries are often run-of-the-mill colossal squid that don't even merit a second glance. Today, though, we're delighted to report that our cynicism was, for once, unfounded. The team of giant squid enthusiasts behind last month's bold claim has released this photo of the legendary aquatic beast that caused superstitious vikings and pirates to soil themselves at the mere mention of it -- we assume.

This might sound like a spoiled rich kid complaining they asked for a Ferrari for their birthday but got a Lamborghini instead, but when NASA's Curiosity rover tweeted that it would have a special New Year's message for the people gathered in Times Square last night, I thought it would be more... special? It was nice of NASA to send a message at all, but I hope the message Curiosity sends me for my birthday is better-- and that it's a Lamborghini.

Seen here in an artistic interpretation, the giant squid is thought to be the inspiration for many sea monster stories throughout history like the Kraken, Scylla, Cthulhu, and probably Sharktopus, but it refuses to be taken alive. It won't even let its picture be taken alive, until now that is. A film crew for Discovery has captured the first footage of a live giant squid in its natural habitat, probably doing squid stuff.

The last few days have seen a lot of exciting news coming out of the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, but this might be the most thrilling so far. NASA has announced that they plan to send another rover to Mars in the year 2020. NASA says the new rover's launch will close out a decade of new missions. It also calls this an important step in sending humans to Mars in the 2030's.

The Curiosity rover has been making all the headlines lately, even if they are a little underwhelming, but its predecessor Opportunity is still out there doing its thing. The Opportunity rover has just completed a 1,160 foot "walkabout" around Matijevic Hill. Like an older sibling jealous of all the attention the new baby is getting, Opportunity is still exploring the surface of Mars and sending its data back to Earth. Its mission was only supposed to last a few months, but as it approaches its nine year anniversary on Mars, the Opportunity rover is still going strong.

NASA has taken it upon itself to make sure we're not all getting too excited about the possibility of life on Mars, stepping in today to let everyone know that the Curiosity Rover has not found organic molecules -- which could indicate the presence of organic life in the planet's history -- on the Red Planet.

Have you ever had to keep a secret that you really, really wanted to share, but you couldn't because the timing wasn't right? That seems like the position NASA is in right now. After a whirlwind first couple of months on the surface of the Red Planet, the rover Curiosity has been silent, idling for sometime. Analysts Earth-side are poring over data from a series of five sand samples recently analyzed in the rover's mobile chemistry lab, the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) unit. There's no word on what they've found quite yet, but researchers are willing to say that it's something big. Like, historical event big. Considering Curiosity's mission is to find life on Mars, there's pretty much just one thing that could be considered historically big news from the rover -- signs of life on Mars. Not that anyone is saying that right now -- but sometimes, the way in which you don't say something could speak more than what you do say, and this certainly feels like one of those times.