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nitrogen, phosphorous, sulfur and oxygen. It's not equipped to search for living or fossil microorganisms. To get a definitive answer, a future mission needs to fly Martian rocks and soil back to Earth to be examined by powerful laboratories.
• The mission comes as NASA retools its Mars exploration strategy. Faced with tough economic times, the space agency pulled out of partnership with the European Space Agency to land a rock-collecting rover in 2018. The Europeans have since teamed with the Russians as NASA decides on a new roadmap.
• Despite Mars' reputation as a spacecraft graveyard, humans continue their love affair with the planet, lobbing spacecraft in search of clues about its early history. Out of more than three dozen attempts -- flybys, orbiters and landings -- by the U.S., Soviet Union, Europe and Japan since the 1960s, more than half have ended disastrously.
• One NASA rover that defied expectations is Opportunity, which is still busy wheeling around the rim of a crater in the Martian southern hemisphere eight years later.
• SD ultralight pilot makes safe emergency landing
• RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) -- The pilot of an ultralight plane made a safe emergency landing in a field near Rapid City after experiencing mechanical problems in flight.
• Authorities identified the pilot only as a local rancher. They say his plane's engine shut down shortly after takeoff Sunday, prompting the emergency landing.
• The pilot was not hurt and the plane was not damaged.
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