NASA scientists aren't the only folks poring through the near-constant stream of data coming from the Spirit and Opportunity rovers on Mars. An international team of students, sponsored by the non-profit Planetary Society and LEGO Company, is trying its hand at planetary science, working out of NASA's rover mission control in rotating weekly shifts.

The effort is part of the society's Red Rover Goes to Mars Project to offer hands-on experience to students interested in space science. The "student astronaut" team consists of 16 teenagers who won their berths on the project through a worldwide essay contest held by the Planetary Society and LEGO.

Each week, at least two students will sit in the Mars Exploration Rover control room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and study mission data and images as they arrive. Students record their efforts online in daily journals, summarizing their activities during their time at JPL.

On-duty Student Astronauts: Dàvid Turczi, 15, of Hungary and Saatvik Agarwal, 14, of India.

Like past student astronaut shifts, David and Saatvik worked briefly alongside the last shift, Maciej Hermanowicz, 17, of Poland, and 14-year-old Janice deBerg of the United States.

Dàvid and Saatvik kicked off their term with a visit to JPL's In Situ Instrument Laboratory, where mission controllers use an Earthbound duplicate Mars rovers to test different procedures before putting the actual robots through the same action. JPL scientists were evaluating whether their rovers could dig a trench in the Martian surface while sitting on a 20 percent incline similar to that seen by Opportunity at its Meridiani Planum landing site. The test session provide that even rocket scientists are not without a sense of humor.

"One of the guys had a big emergency control to use in a case of a dangerous sequence, and that control looked exactly like a big detonator button," wrote Dàvid in a Feb. 6 journal entry. "So there was a lot of joking about blowing up the Opportunity [rover]."

JPL researchers were also planning a multi-day jaunt for Spirit from its location at a rock called White Boat out to the outer rim of a nearby crater, dubbed Bonneville. Set over a number of days, mission scientists called the crater run a 'touch-and-go' operation, with Spirit stopping only briefly during travel to perform specific science activities.

One of the key decisions facing mission controllers was whether to control the rover from the ground or let Spirit drive itself using an onboard Hazard Avoidance System to stay safe and on target. The rover successfully used the system to drive on past former rock target Andirondack.

"The Hazard Avoidance System uses a lot more energy and time than the other system," Saatvik wrote on Feb. 7. "The speed with the autonomous navigation ON is about 10 times slower as when the system is OFF."

The slower system helps ensure that Spirit stays safe while it drives around, but it also eats into the amount of time researchers would have to conduct science. At the same time, with the rover driving itself, mission controllers have more time to themselves to plan more mission activities.

"Hence, choosing the driving model is of critical importance," Saatvik added.

The student astronauts said one of the prime goals of Spirit's handlers is to have the robot reach the crater rim by Sol 60, of the rover's 60^th day on Mars - one Martian day is called a Sol. Compared to Opportunity, Spirit is the old hand at Mars exploration and has already spent more than 35 days on the planet. But red planet seniority comes with a price. The more time a rover spends on Mars, the longer dust has to settle on its solar panels and affect its power supply.

"The reason why scientists really want to get to the crater rim by Sol 60 is because by that time the energy generated by the solar panels will be considerably lesser," Saatvik wrote in his Feb. 6 journal entry.

The next shift of student astronauts is set to start Feb. 13 with 16-year-old Krysten Rodzinyak, of Canada and the U.S., and Taiwan's Cheng-Tao Chung, 13.

The Planetary Society is a non-profit space advocacy organization based in Pasadena, California. Founded in 1980, the society consists of more than 100,000 members from over 140 countries. Individuals interested in joining the organization can do so here.