....It's got MSBLASTER?

Isn't it obvious? The creatures which sabotaged Beagle 2, and those other Mars probes, have finally found the Rover and are wrecking it before it sends back any more incriminating pictures.

I fully expect the cylinders to start falling on Horsfell Common within the year.

(Anyone who doesn't get the above reference is lame. :))

So, is this a Gundam reference, or am I just lame?

Very lame. :) The reference is to H. G. Wells, War of the Worlds, 1899. Turned into a very silly prog-disco concept album by Jeff Wayne, 1978.

I suppose I would have actually had to have read that.

READ IT NOW! :P Its actually a good book.

Either Earth probes to Mars are defective, or Martian defense systems aren't.