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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.

Rosetta Healthy And On Target For February Mars Flyby

Paris, France (ESA) Nov 21, 2006 - The Rosetta spacecraft and its payload are in excellent health and everything is set to prepare the Mars flyby on 25 February 2007. On 26 July the Rosetta spacecraft came out of the two-month Near Sun Hibernation Mode (NSHM). The spacecraft performance during that period was nominal. Subsequently it was reconfigured to Active Cruise Mode. Rosetta is back to two ground station passes per week, which are used for telemetry recovery and S/C maintenance operations.

Nov 21, 2006

NASA’s Newest Mars Orbiter Passes Communications Relay Test

Pasadena CA (JPL) Nov 19, 2006 - An orbiting NASA spacecraft just starting to study Mars with six science instruments has successfully tested another key part of its payload, a versatile radio for relaying communications with robots on the surface of Mars. During its first relay test since reaching Mars in March, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter used this radio payload, called Electra, in a two-way link with NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit.

Nov 19, 2006

NASA’s Red Planet ‘Photographer’ Jim Bell Presents ‘Postcards From Mars’

Ithaca NY (SPX) Nov 17, 2006 - On Earth, Cornell astronomer Jim Bell says, he is an amateur photographer at best. But I've always been drawn to landscapes, he says. That's a good thing. These days he finds himself accumulating a lot of them: 160,000, actually, taken by two tireless faraway helpers called Spirit and Opportunity over the last two-and-a-half years.

Nov 17, 2006

Piecing Together Life’s Potential

Moffet Field CA (SPX) Nov 16, 2006 - Carol Stoker, a planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center, is a team member for the upcoming Phoenix Lander. This mission, launching in 2007, aims to land in the high northern latitudes of Mars to search for frozen water and any indications of past habitable conditions. In this interview with Astrobiology Magazine's Leslie Mullen, Stoker describes what Phoenix can expect to find when it lands on the northern plains of Mars, and why astrobiologists have high hopes for finding the signs of life there.

Nov 16, 2006

Spirit Rover Ready To Bump Back Into Action On Mars

Pasadena CA (JPL) Nov 14, 2006 - After Spirit's successful 0.71-meter (28-inch) bump on sol 1010, the team has new targets in the robotic arm's work volume for the first time in 204 sols. There is some interesting light and dark material within arm's reach and this week the team planned a robotic arm campaign including a microscopic imager mosaic, four hours of alpha particle X-ray spectrometer integration and 43 hours of Moessbauer spectrometer integration. Spirit is receiving a little over 320 Watt-hours now and is able to occasionally use the Moessbauer or alpha particle X-ray spectrometer overnight.

Nov 14, 2006

SciSys Wins Key Technology Role In Support Of Europen Mars Rover

Chippenham, UK (SPX) Nov 14, 2006 - Space software experts SciSys have been awarded a key role in a 1.7 million pound technology development programme supporting Europe's return to Mars. The programme sponsor (the UK Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council or PPARC) has given its highest priority to a SciSys-led development known as the autonomous robotic scientist. This development includes academic support from Aberystwyth, Leicester and Strathclyde Universities.

Nov 14, 2006

Mars Global Surveyor Goes Quiet After 10 Year Mission To Mars

Houston (UPI) Nov 13, 2006 - NASA engineers tried Monday to re-establish contact with the Mars Global Surveyor, which has quit communicating with Earth. The 10-year-old spacecraft has failed for a week to respond to communications to adjust a solar panel, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said.

Nov 13, 2006

Opportunity On The Move After Solar Conjunction

Pasadena CA (SPX) Nov 13, 2006 - Opportunity is healthy and has driven away from the Cape Verde promontory for further exploration around the rim of Victoria Crater. Over the course of the next week, the rover will make its way clockwise around Victoria Crater to the next promontory, Cape St. Mary. Opportunity will then image the northeast-facing cliff of Cape Verde to characterize lateral changes in layers of the crater wall. Along the way, Opportunity will be using the panoramic camera to scout a safe place to drive into the crater.

Nov 13, 2006

Navigating The Unknown About Mars

Pasadena CA (SPX) Nov 10, 2006 - Navigators on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission don't have much free time. For weeks, they have been too frantic to chronicle their experiences during the critical aerobraking and orbit adjustment periods.

Nov 10, 2006

Ground Team Stays Busy on 10th Anniversary of NASA Mars Launch

Pasadena CA (JPL) Nov 09, 2006 - Engineers are striving to restore full communications with NASA's Mars Global Surveyor on the 10th anniversary of the spacecraft's Nov. 7, 1996, launch. The orbiter is the oldest of five NASA spacecraft currently active at the red planet. Its original mission was to examine Mars for a full Martian year, roughly two Earth years.

Nov 9, 2006

(Your Name) Can Go To Mars

Pasadena CA (SPX) Nov 08, 2006 - In 2007, The Planetary Society will send a specialized silica-glass DVD to Mars aboard Phoenix, NASA's newest Scout mission, led by Principal Investigator Peter Smith at the University of Arizona. The disk, which is attached to the deck of the Phoenix lander, will include Visions of Mars, a collection of 19th and 20th century stories, essays, and art inspired by the Red Planet.

Nov 8, 2006

A Mission To Mars – Part Two

Moscow (RIA Novosti) Nov 02, 2006 - The 438-day flight aboard the Mir orbiter by physician Valery Polyakov at the end of the last century showed there are no fundamental medical or biological restrictions to extended space missions. Radiation, however, is another matter. Its effects intensify multifold when the vehicle leaves the protection of the Earth's magnetosphere. This demands a special anti-radiation facility. It might be a radiation shelter that could absorb charged particles or an artificial electromagnetic field built up around the craft.

Nov 2, 2006

Minerals And Mountains On Mars

Kingston, Canada (SPX) Nov 01, 2006 - A Queen's University researcher has discovered a mineral that could explain the mountainous landscape of Mars, and have implications for NASA's next mission to the planet. Satellites orbiting Mars show us images of canyons and gullies that appear to have been created by a flood or rapid out-washing, says Ron Peterson, Queen's geologist.

Nov 1, 2006

Mars Science Laboratory Shakedown In The High Arctic

Moffett Field CA (SPX) Oct 31, 2006 - Members of the AMASE team (AMASE stands for Arctic Mars Analog Svalbard Expedition) last month completed their fourth field season on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen. They went to test out instruments similar to those that will fly on an upcoming mission to Mars, and to perform a field test of a prototype rover, Cliff-bot, that is capable of climbing up and down 80-degree slopes.

Oct 31, 2006

The Search For Martian Water Is In The Fine Details

Pasadena CA (JPL) Oct 30, 2006 - During its first week of observations from low orbit, NASA's newest Mars spacecraft revealed new clues about both recent and ancient environments on the red planet. Scientists hope the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will answer questions about the history and distribution of Mars' water by combining data from the orbiter's high-resolution camera, imaging spectrometer, context camera, ground-penetrating radar, atmospheric sounder, global color camera, radio and accelerometers.

Oct 30, 2006

Russian Dreams Of Reaching Mars First

Moscow, Russia (UPI) Oct 30, 2006 - The 1920s are remembered not only for their political upheavals, but also for a new interest in exploring other planets. Imaginative authors of all calibers wove intricate fantasies about exploring the length and breadth of Mars in their books. The budding movie industry made its contribution, too. But it is only a century later, in the 2020s, that humankind has hope of finally touching down on the Red Planet.

Oct 30, 2006