The new frontier of exploration.

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.

Spirit Studies Dust Devils In Concert With The MRO

Pasadena CA (SPX) May 15, 2007 - Spirit is healthy and has finished investigating a patch of churned-up, white-toned, silica-rich material known as Gertrude Weise. Meanwhile, the rover's first attempt to autonomously place and exchange scientific instruments at the same target was partially successful. Spirit backed up over Gertrude Weise to a spot 2 meters (6.6 feet) beyond it and placed the Moessbauer spectrometer on the target, but did not replace it with the microscopic imager due to potential collisions.

May 15, 2007

Not Enough Hours In The Day Then Look To Mars

Washington (AFP) May 15, 2007 - Scientists have proved it is possible to pack another hour into the day in a study which could help prepare humans for life on Mars. Using bright, fluorescent lights, researchers artificially lengthened the days for 12 people who agreed to spend 65 days living in individual rooms without windows, clocks or any other clues as to the time in the outside world.

May 15, 2007

Next Mars Lander Crosses The Mississippi

Cape Canaveral FL (SPX) May 09, 2007 - A U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo aircraft carried NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander spacecraft Monday, May 7, from Colorado to Florida, where Phoenix will start a much longer trip in August. After launch, Phoenix will land on a Martian arctic plain next spring. It will use a robotic digging arm and other instruments to determine whether the soil environment just beneath the surface could have been a favorable habitat for microbial life. Studies from orbit suggest that within arm's reach of the surface, the soil holds frozen water.

May 9, 2007

Spirit Examined Light – Colored Material Near Home Plate

Pasadena CA (SPX) May 08, 2007 - Spirit is healthy and has completed its investigation of a knobby rock target known as GoodQuestion. Next on Spirit's itinerary is a drive to the north and an attempt to climb onto Home Plate. On the way, Spirit will examine white--toned material where one of the rover's wheels disturbed the soil.

May 8, 2007

Opportunity Conducts Path Planning Test And Gets Another Energy Boost

Pasadena CA (SPX) May 08, 2007 - Opportunity drove 224 meters (735 feet) this week. The sol 1160 checkout of the D-star hazard avoidance path planner (drive planning software) was a resounding success. In order to make the test as safe as possible, D-star was told that rocks in its path were hazards, when actually Opportunity is capable of safely driving over them.

May 8, 2007

COROT Discovers Its First Exoplanet And Catches Scientists By Surprise

Paris, France (ESA) May 04, 2007 - COROT has provided its first image of a giant planet orbiting another star and the first bit of 'seismic' information on a far away, Sun-like star- with unexpected accuracy. The unanticipated level of accuracy of this raw data shows that COROT will be able to see rocky planets - perhaps even as small as Earth - and possibly provide an indication of their chemical composition.

May 4, 2007

Mars Rover Spirit Finds Evidence Of Ancient Volcanic Explosion

Ithaca NY (SPX) May 04, 2007 - NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has discovered evidence of an ancient volcanic explosion at Home Plate, a plateau of layered bedrock approximately 2 meters (6 feet) high within the Inner Basin of Columbia Hills, at the rover's landing site in Gusev Crater. This is the first explosive volcanic deposit identified with a high degree of confidence by Spirit or its twin, Opportunity.

May 4, 2007

Depth-To-Ice Map Of A Southern Mars Site Near Melea Planum

Pasadena CA (SPX) May 03, 2007 - Color coding in this map of a far-southern site on Mars indicates the change in nighttime ground-surface temperature between summer and fall. This site, like most of high-latitude Mars, has water ice mixed with soil near the surface. The ice is probably in a rock-hard frozen layer beneath a few centimeters or inches of looser, dry soil. The amount of temperature change at the surface likely corresponds to how close to the surface the icy material lies.

May 3, 2007

Opportunity Gets A Boost Of Energy And Continues Imaging

Pasadena CA (SPX) May 03, 2007 - Scientists and engineers are still deciding on when and if Opportunity will enter Victoria Crater. In the meantime, Opportunity has a lot to accomplish, such as driving back to the area of its original arrival at Victoria, approximately 600 meters away (over one-third of a mile).

May 3, 2007

Spirit Discovers Changes In Soil Near Home Plate

Pasadena CA (SPX) May 02, 2007 - Spirit remains healthy after completing scientific investigation of a light-toned soil patch nicknamed Everett. Everett is interesting because scientists thought it would be rich in sulfur like other soil exposures they've investigated. Instead, it turned out to be low in sulfur and ultramafic in composition -- made of iron- and magnesium-rich silicate, a chemistry often associated with volcanic rocks. Everett appears to be different from other materials the rover has encountered around Home Plate.

May 2, 2007

Instruments To Dig Deep In Space

Fayetteville AR (SPX) Apr 30, 2007 - University of Arkansas researchers, in partnership with a local company will develop a probe for future planetary rovers that will help scientists study the history of the solar system by examining the properties of layers of material beneath the surface of the moon, Mars, comets and other planetary bodies.

Apr 30, 2007

Imaging Alicante At Crater Victoria

Pasadena CA (JPL) Apr 25, 2007 - Over the last week, Opportunity investigated the second of two dark streak soil targets named Alicante. The sol 1145 Mossbauer touch sequence that was commanded did not make contact with the soil because of a minor targeting discrepancy.

Apr 25, 2007

Canadians Teaming Up To Develop Mars Mission Concepts

Longueuil, Quebec, April 24, 2007 - When a mission to Mars is being developed, mission planners must consider many factors. Space technology advances, scientific needs and objectives, how to deal with distance, communications delays, and landing through the thin Martian atmosphere-all this must converge into a useful, workable mission concept.

Apr 24, 2007

Spirit Continues Studies Of Rocks Near Home Plate

Pasadena CA (JPL) Apr 24, 2007 - After a few attempts, Spirit finally made it to the outcrop called Madeline English, where the rover is performing scientific studies. Madeline English is interesting because of the apparent presence of clasts -- rock fragments -- in the outcrop. Scientists are interested in determining whether the clasts have a different composition from surrounding material.

Apr 24, 2007

Seeking A Soft Landing On Mars

St Louis MO (SPX) Apr 20, 2007 - Earth and planetary scientists at Washington University in St. Louis are paving the way for a smooth landing on Mars for the Phoenix Mission scheduled to launch in August this year by making sure the set-down literally is not a rocky one. Phoenix is the first mission in NASA's Scout Program and will study the planet's ice cap.

Apr 20, 2007

A Close Up Look At Martian Rocks From The Comfort Of Your Couch

Burbank, CA (SPX) Apr 17, 2007 - 37 Martian rocks that somehow reached our planet over the eons may be key to telling us how Mars was formed, and may also tell us the best place to land when we visit the Red Planet.

Apr 17, 2007