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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

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

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
Legacy Reports

Peeling Back The Skin Of Mars Meter By Meter

Paris, France (ESA) Dec 27, 2006 - Scientists are finding an older, craggier face of Mars buried beneath the surface, thanks to pioneering sounding radar co-sponsored by NASA aboard the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft. Observations by the first project to explore a planet by sounding radar strongly suggest that ancient impact craters lie buried beneath the smooth, low plains of Mars' northern hemisphere. The technique uses echoes of waves that have penetrated below the surface.

Dec 27, 2006
Legacy Reports

Opportunity Looks For Entry Point Into Crater

Pasadena CA (SPX) Dec 20, 2006 - Opportunity is healthy and driving toward Bottomless Bay to gather data on whether this would be a suitable future entry point into Victoria Crater. The rover will continue traversing the crater rim and collecting images of the cliff walls. On Dec. 6, 2006, corresponding to the 1020th sol, or Martian day, of Opportunity's mission on the surface of Mars, NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter entered safe mode, a protective state during which only those systems vital to the orbiter's health continue to operate.

Dec 20, 2006
Legacy Reports

Latest Spirit Update – Relay Link Restored After Orbiter’s Recovery

Washnington DC (SPX) Dec 19, 2006 - After Spirit drove on sol 1041 (Dec. 7, 2006), NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter went into safe mode before the rover's could relay data to Earth about results of the drive. (Safe mode is a protective state during which only the systems essential to spacecraft health continue operating. This incident of Odyssey temporarily going into safe mode has been attributed to a burst of solar activity.)

Dec 19, 2006