OK, I smell a rat from the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, recently celebrating five years trundling around on Mars.

Here’s what I think really happened: Five or six years ago some clever PR person told NASA scientists planning their rover mission to keep quiet about the fact that this was a ten year mission, and suggested instead telling the public that the rovers were only going to roam around on Mars for 3 months.

“Imagine the headlines in five years’ time!” the PR person would have said. “These dirty little robots would become world famous. I can see it now, headlines like ‘After 5 years, Mars rovers still going’ (Arizona Republic), or even ‘Rovin; rovin’ rovin’ – Mars explorers don’t want to stop’ (Sydney morning Herald).”

“From the first anniversary of landing, guaranteed fame at least once a year," clever PR person would predict, "And if the rovers take some nice pictures, or measurements of some sort, I guess that would be a bonus.”

Well done clever PR person, for these little robots have really captured the hearts of the space-loving newshounds. Including me: I have been astounded, amazed, worried, relieved and a whole range of other emotions about these rovers as they encounter cliffs, craters, sand storms and survive time and again. And they are providing us with some stunning images. Now they’ve been up there for five years, though, I begin to think I should have saved myself some of the heart ache.

It is a relief that in the swathes of coverage the word “plucky” has been kept to a minimum, with just one sighting that I found courtesy of Yahoo! News, picked up at Space.com as well. (Not to be confused with plucky UK football team Blackburn Rovers).

Whether intended or not, five years is quite an achievement. I raise my hat to you Spirit and Opportunity. Happy anniversary!

Image: Opportunity crawls out of Victoria crater, credit NASA/JPL-Caltech