Are we alone?

Nasa said all was well ahead of its nail-biting mission to Mars, with its most advanced robotic rover poised to hunt for clues about past life and water on Earth’s nearest planetary neighbour.

US space agency Nasa is delaying a mission to Mars that already had been over budget and will get even more costly.

Nasa declared an end to the Phoenix mission, five months after the spacecraft became the first to land in Mars’ arctic plains and taste water on another planet.