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Editorial Team

Mars Daily Editorial Team

Editorial Team

The Mars Daily Editorial Team produces Mars Daily's coverage of Mars exploration and science. We report on rovers and orbiters, sample-return and human-Mars planning, and the geology, atmosphere and astrobiology of the Red Planet. Articles reflect our team's collective editorial process, source verification, drafting, technical review, and editing, rather than a single writer's work. Mars Daily takes editorial responsibility for content under this byline. For more on how we work, see our editorial policy.

AMASE 2009 Expedition Takes Off In The Arctic

Washington DC (SPX) Aug 12, 2009 - From August 1 to 24, 2009 AMASE (the Arctic Mars Analog Svalbard Expedition) will be taking place in Svalbard (Norway, 76-81 degrees N). This expedition involves different researchers from the Carnegie Institution of Washington, NASA/JPL, ESA, Cornell University, the Earth and Planetary Exploration Services (Norway), DLR (Germany), the University of Valladolid (Spain) and the University of Leeds (UK).

Aug 12, 2009

Orbiter Safe After Computer Swap

Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 12, 2009 - NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is in safe mode, a precautionary standby status, and in communications with Earth after unexpectedly switching to its backup computer on Thurs. Aug. 6.

Aug 12, 2009

Mars, Methane And Mysteries

Paris, France (ESA) Aug 11, 2009 - Mars may not be as dormant as scientists once thought. The 2004 discovery of methane means that either there is life on Mars, or that volcanic activity continues to generate heat below the martian surface. ESA plans to find out which it is. Either outcome is big news for a planet once thought to be biologically and geologically inactive.

Aug 11, 2009

Meteorite Found On Mars Yields Clues About Planet’s Past

Pasadena CA (SPX) Aug 11, 2009 - NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity is investigating a metallic meteorite the size of a large watermelon that is providing researchers more details about the Red Planet's environmental history.

Aug 11, 2009

A Bit More Testing Before Next Driving Opportunity For Spirit

Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 10, 2009 - A review on Aug. 6 of test results to date yielded a decision to conduct further checkouts in an augmented testing set-up on Earth before beginning to send driving commands to Spirit for attempting to get out of the loose soil where the rover has partially embedded itself.

Aug 10, 2009

China’s first Mars orbiter in Russia for launch: state media

Beijing (AFP) Aug 6, 2009 - China's first satellite to probe Mars has been transported to Russia for a launch later this year, state media reported Thursday.

Aug 6, 2009

Possible Meteorite Imaged by Opportunity Rover

Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 05, 2009 - The Opportunity rover has eyed an odd-shaped, dark rock, about 0.6 meters (2 feet) across on the surface of Mars, which may be a meteorite.

Aug 5, 2009

Free Spirit Testing Nearing Completion

Pasadena CA (JPL) Jul 31, 2009 - Mars rover engineers at JPL are winding down testing of different escape maneuvers using a test rover in a sand box filled with soil to mimic the Martian surface.

Jul 31, 2009

Craters, Lava Flows And Tectonic Features Near Ma’adim Vallis

Paris, France (ESA) Jul 27, 2009 - The Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera imaged a region close to Ma'adim Vallis, one of the largest canyons on Mars, finding craters, lava flows and tectonic features.

Jul 27, 2009

JPL Mars Sandbox Testing Continues For Spirit Extraction

Pasadena CA (JPL) Jul 27, 2009 - Mars rover team members have begun a new phase of testing at JPL - using longer-duration experiments - in their preparations for driving Spirit again on Mars. They have completed assessments of individual maneuvers, using the test rover in a box of sloped, soft soil that simulates conditions at the patch of Martian ground called Troy, where Spirit's wheels have dug themselves hub-deep.

Jul 27, 2009

Opportunity Heads Toward ‘Block Island’ Cobble

Pasadena CA (SPX) Jul 24, 2009 - Opportunity had been driving to the west to go around a large field of impassable dunes on her long way to Endeavour crater. On Sol 1947 (July 16, 2009), the rover drove a little over 70 meters (230 feet) to the west, slightly north.

Jul 24, 2009

Australia Selected To Support Research For Future Mars Mission

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Jul 23, 2009 - Volunteers from the Mars Society Australia's Sydney chapter have been selected to support this year's Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) expedition by running the Pacific-based Mission Support Centre. FMARS is an annual research expedition conducted at a research station located at Devon Island near the North Pole. The peer reviewed research conducted at Devon Island, a Mars-like 'analogue' environment, is geared towards learning how humans will live and work on Mars, and has been visited by scientists and engineers from around the world since it was first constructed in 2000. Australia's contribution to this expedition follows in the tradition of assisting international space-related projects and makes this valuable research possible.

Jul 23, 2009

Opportunity On the Move Again

Pasadena CA (SPX) Jul 23, 2009 - Opportunity began the week positioned over exposed outcrop collecting in-situ (contact) science data and resting the right-front wheel's actuator.

Jul 23, 2009

Spirit Completes More Soil Studies And Extraction Tests

Pasadena CA (SPX) Jul 22, 2009 - Spirit, positioned on the west side of Home Plate, has been continuing her ambitious science campaign of remote sensing and in-situ (contact) science using all her payload elements.

Jul 22, 2009

Spirit’s View From Troy

Pasadena CA (SPX) Jul 21, 2009 - This scene combines seven frames taken by the navigation camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit during the 1,891st Martian day, or sol, of Spirit's mission on Mars (April 28, 2009). It covers a vista from south-southeast on the left to northeast on the right.

Jul 21, 2009

Test Rover Checks Pivoting Technique

Pasadena CA (SPX) Jul 20, 2009 - The Mars rover team is using a test rover at JPL to assess various extraction techniques that might get Spirit out of the loose soil of Troy on Mars. One of the maneuvers being run with the test rover involves turning the rear wheels toward the left while the left-front wheel is turned toward the right, and driving forward to pivot around the inoperable right-front wheel.

Jul 20, 2009