That looks a fair summary of the state of the flotilla of spacecraft that sailed boldly forth from Earth last summer to study Mars.

ECONOMIST: The current crop of Mars missions has got off to a bad start

The base will actually be built inside a real crater and the daytime temperature of -23 degrees Celsius is like a nice summer's day on Mars.

BBC: Destination Mars on Earth

In the summer of 2000, the Mars Society, a group of scientists, engineers and astronauts, will open its Mars Arctic research station in the Canadian high Arctic.

BBC: Destination Mars on Earth

But the southern half of Mars has warmed up slowly into spring and then summer over the last six months.

CNN: Summer is 'sublime' in sunny south of Mars

PASADENA, California (CNN) -- The summer has warmed up the south of Mars, melting away much of its icy polar cap.

CNN: Summer is 'sublime' in sunny south of Mars

The elevation measurements were collected by the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA), an instrument aboard NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, during the spring and summer of 1998.

BBC: By BBC News Online Science Editor Dr David Whitehouse

There are only ten episodes left, eight of them due next summer, a welcome deadline that has allowed Gilligan to shape his ending without the vamping that mars so many multi-season dramas.

NEWYORKER: Child��s Play