Mars Rovers Still Going Strong

There was absolute euphoria at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory when the first rover touched down on Mars and pictures started streaming in. Three weeks later, its twin landed safely on the other side of the Red Planet.

And now?

CBS News correspondent Jerry Bowen reports there is daily disbelief. The rovers Spirit and Opportunity are still at it, well beyond their original 90-day warranties. No one is more surprised than project lead scientist Steve Squyres.

"It's been two years and we're still going!" he says.

Because Martian winds and dust devils unexpectedly are keeping the solar power panels clear of blinding dust, the rovers are powered up to probe the surface.

So far it has provided convincing evidence that Mars once had water. It is still unclear if there was life.

"We're going to be analyzing the data for decades," Squyres says. "We've taken well over 100,000 pictures. I haven't even seen them all!"

Rover Driver Scott Maxwell pilots the rovers to go where the scientist want to explore. That very first drive still seems just like yesterday.

"At that moment, 100 million miles away on the surface of another planet, there was a robot doing what I told it to do," Maxwell says.

Now the images that have been captured here at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are coming to a theater near you. The twin rovers are going Hollywood, stars of a new film about their travels on the Red Planet.

The rover odyssey from launch to the Martian landscape will be seen on 100-foot high IMAX screens.

"They became almost human," says Frank Marshall, producer of the "Roving Mars" movie. "They were up there being new astronauts, being explorers."

But the real show is still up there, where the rovers are still roving.

"All I can tell you for sure is that I'll be here driving them until the wheels fall off," Maxwell says.

That's the new rover warranty.