All the wheel spinning the Mars rover Spirit has done over the past few months, trying to free itself from deep sand, has produced some data that wouldn't have been gotten otherwise.
Spirit's wheels haven't been able to get enough traction to drive Spirit away, but they have broken through the surface crust and dug through the next layer of sand. Beneath the surface, NASA has found sulfate material. Sulfates are formed in the presence of streaming water, or in hot springs. The odds are surely long against one of the early Mars rovers just happening to get stuck on the site of an ancient hot springs, which in turn suggests water once flowed rather freely on Mars.
It's one more piece of evidence for a wetter Mars in the past. That's good for those looking for Martian life-- and for those planning future human missions to the planet.
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