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Mars Daily Editorial Team
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.

Legacy Reports

Europe Faces Crunch Decision Over Mars Rover Mission

Paris (AFP) Jan 17, 2007 - Members of the European Space Agency face a looming tough decision over whether to cut back a planned unmanned mission to Mars or stump up extra cash, ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain warned on Wednesday. The ExoMars mission entails sending a 200-kilo (440-pound) wheeled rover, which will carry a drill enabling it delve up to two metres (seven feet) below the surface to see if the Red Planet has microbial life, or the potential for it.

Jan 17, 2007
Legacy Reports

Spirit Continues To Test New Computer Smarts

Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 15, 2007 - On the rover's 1,068th sol, or Martian day of exploration on Mars (Jan. 4, 2007), Spirit used its new computer smarts to autonomously acquire images of the terrain using the hazard avoidance camera, construct a three-dimensional model of the terrain, identify rock or soil exposures of interest, and generate plans for placing the Moessbauer spectrometer and microscopic imager on 10 of those targets.

Jan 15, 2007
Legacy Reports

MRO Conducts Details Survery Of Mars Pathfinder Landing Site And Surroundings

Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 11, 2007 - The high-resolution camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has imaged the 1997 landing site of NASA's Mars Pathfinder, revealing new details of hardware on the surface and the geology of the region. Pathfinder landed on July 4, 1997, and transmitted data for 12 weeks. Unlike the two larger rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, currently active on Mars, Sojourner could communicate only with the lander, not directly with Earth.

Jan 11, 2007
Legacy Reports

NASA Funds Scripps Instrument For Probing For Life On Mars

San Diego CA (SPX) Jan 11, 2007 - On Monday, NASA announced $750,000 in funding for development of an instrument to detect signs of life on Mars proposed by a scientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. The instrument is designed to provide the most rigorous analysis possible for the past and present existence of biological compounds on Mars' surface, according to Jeffrey Bada, a professor at Scripps and lead investigator on the project team.

Jan 11, 2007
Legacy Reports

CU-Boulder Proposal Selected As Finalist For Mission To Probe Past Climate Of Mars

Boulder CO (SPX) Jan 10, 2007 - NASA has selected a team led by the University of Colorado at Boulder as one of two finalists for an orbiting space mission slated to launch in 2011 to probe the past climate of Mars, including its potential for harboring life over the eons. The team, led by CU-Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, will receive $2 million from NASA for a nine-month Phase A study for the proposed Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission, or MAVEN.

Jan 10, 2007
Legacy Reports

New Analysis of Viking Mission Results Indicates Presence of Life on Mars

Pullman WA (SPX) Jan 10, 2007 - We may already have 'met' Martian organisms, according to a paper presented Sunday (Jan. 7) at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle. Dirk Schulze-Makuch of Washington State University and Joop Houtkooper of Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany, argue that even as new missions to Mars seek evidence that the planet might once have supported life, we already have data showing that life exists there now-data from experiments done by the Viking Mars landers in the late 1970s.

Jan 10, 2007
Legacy Reports

NASA Selects Proposals For Future Mars Missions And Studies

Washington DC (SPX) Jan 09, 2007 - On Monday, NASA selected for concept study development two proposals for future robotic missions to Mars. These missions would increase understanding of Mars' atmosphere, climate and potential habitability in greater detail than ever before. In addition, NASA also will fund a U.S. scientist to participate in a proposed European Mars mission as well as fund instrument technology studies that could lead to further contributions to future Mars missions.

Jan 9, 2007
Legacy Reports

Opportunity Studies Unusual Rocks On Rim Of Victoria Crater

Pasadena CA (SPX) Jan 09, 2007 - Opportunity continued scientific studies of a rock called Santa Catarina on the rim of Victoria Crater. Scientists suspect that Santa Catarina may be a meteorite or a rock blasted out from beneath the surface of Victoria. Opportunity collected extensive measurements to determine the iron content of the rock using the Moessbauer spectrometer and will continue to do so during the coming week.

Jan 9, 2007
Legacy Reports

Opportunity Continues Survey From Rim Of Victoria Crater

Pasadena CA (SPX) Jan 04, 2007 - Opportunity remains healthy after completing a drive to a cobble nicknamed Santa Catarina on the way to the Bay of Toil at Victoria Crater. During the holiday break on Earth, Opportunity completed a campaign of scientific study of a rock target called Rio De Janeiro before driving away on Sol 1039 (Dec. 26, 2006). Opportunity's next activity was to begin the drive around the Bay of Toil toward Cape Desire, the next promontory clockwise around Victoria's rim.

Jan 4, 2007
Legacy Reports

Five Volunteers Picked For Simulated Mars Mission In Russia

Moscow (RIA Novosti) Jan 03, 2007 - Five volunteers have been selected for a simulated Mars mission, expected to be launched in Russia late next year, a spokesman for the Russian Space Agency said Friday. The Russian Institute of Medical and Biological Studies has completed the selection of participants for the Mars-500 experiment, Igor Panarin said. There are five of them, all are male, and they come from Russia as well as other countries.

Jan 3, 2007
Legacy Reports

NASA Mars Team Teaches Old Rovers New Tricks to Kick Off Year Four

Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 29, 2006 - NASA's twin Mars rovers, nearing the third anniversary of their landings, are getting smarter as they get older. The unexpected longevity of Spirit and Opportunity is giving the space agency a chance to field-test on Mars some new capabilities useful both to these missions and future rovers. In addition to their continuing scientific observations, they are now testing four new skills that were included in revised flight software uploaded to the rovers' onboard computers.

Dec 29, 2006
Legacy Reports

Spirit Tests New Computer Smarts

Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 27, 2006 - Spirit is healthy and conducting scientific analysis of a rock target known as Palma. During the past week, Spirit tested some new software sequences, including a watch for dust devil command and an automatic placement command. On the rover's 1052nd Martian day, or sol, of exploring Mars (Dec. 18, 2006), Spirit ran part of the dust devil watch, acquiring six images during the process, but did not run the dust-devil detection part of the program. Rover handlers planned to rerun the test on sol 1058 (Dec. 24, 2006).

Dec 27, 2006