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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.

Full-Scale Mars Lander To Be Unveiled At Phoenix Mission Event

Tucson AZ (SPX) Oct 18, 2006 - Phoenix Mars Mission Principal Investigator Peter Smith will unveil a full-scale Mars lander this Friday at a VIP celebration at the Phoenix Mars Mission Science Operations Center in Tucson. University of Arizona engineers will use the mock lander on its Mars-looking platform to test instruments and commands. Scientists will practice operations in the PIT (Payload Interoperability Testbed), where the lander resides, before performing them for real on Mars.

Oct 18, 2006

The View From A Promontory Call Cape Verde At Victoria Crater

Pasadena CA (JPL) Oct 17, 2006 - Opportunity is healthy and perched at the tip of the promontory Cape Verde, 3.1 meters (10.2 feet) from the edge of a sharp drop off on the rim of Victoria Crater. Soon after arriving at Victoria Crater's Duck Bay last week, Opportunity was sent on its way to Cape Verde. Six sols, four drives and 127.61 meters (419 feet) later, Opportunity arrived at the rock target Fogo near the tip of Cape Verde.

Oct 17, 2006

Is It Time For A New Martian Chronology

Moffett Field CA (SPX) Oct 17, 2006 - The classic technique for assessing the history of a rocky planet's geology is to count craters. On average, areas with longer exposure to space have had more impacts, and therefore more craters. By counting craters, scientists have broken the geologic history of Mars into three eras: Noachian (warm and wet), Hesperian (volcanic), and the present-day Amazonian (cold and dry). Following Earthly practice, each era is named for the location where the characteristic terrain was first identified.

Oct 17, 2006

Mars Express And The Story Of Water On Mars

Paris, France (SPX) Oct 17, 2006 - For a number of decades now, astronomers have wondered about water on Mars. Thanks to ESA's Mars Express, much of the speculation has been replaced with facts. Launched on 2 June 2003, Mars Express has changed the way we think of Mars. Since the Viking missions of the 1970s, planetary scientists have changed their perception of water on Mars several times, passing from the picture of a dry planet to that of a warmer and wetter one.

Oct 17, 2006

NASA Orbiter Reveals New Details Of Mars Both Young And Old

Pasadena CA (SPX) Oct 17, 2006 - During its first week of observations from low orbit, NASA's newest Mars spacecraft is already revealing 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 17, 2006

Spirit Studies Layers of Volcanic Rock

Spirit is healthy and continues to make progress on a winter science campaign of experiments.

Oct 16, 2006

Human Mars Missions Face Unsolved Technical Challenges

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Oct 10, 2006 - In two new papers published in Mars, The International Journal of Mars Science and Exploration (The Mars Journal), Donald Rapp reviews the current state of our understanding of life support and radiation safety for human missions to Mars.

Oct 10, 2006

Opportunity Set To Clock Up Six Miles On Mars

Pasadena CA (JPL) Oct 10, 2006 - NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity reached the rim of Victoria Crater on Sept. 27, 2006, during the 951st Martian day, or sol, of the rover's work in the Meridian Planum region of Mars. Opportunity drove 9.28 kilometers (5.77 miles) in the explorations that took it from Eagle Crater, where it landed in January 2004, eastward to Endurance Crater, which it investigated for about half of 2004, then southward to Victoria.

Oct 10, 2006

Galaxy Gardening More Than Hobby For Future Moon And Mars Residents

College Station TX (SPX) Oct 06, 2006 - Long periods of total darkness and poor soil needn't stop an avid gardener - at least not one who's willing to go out of this world to grow plants. Lush lettuce is growing by galactic measure in cylinders designed by Texas Agricultural Experiment Station researchers to mimic conditions on the moon and Mars.

Oct 6, 2006

NASA Spots Opportunity In Stunning MRO Image Of Victoria Crater

Pasanea CA (JPL) Oct 06, 2006 - NASA's long-lived robotic rover Opportunity is beginning to explore layered rocks in cliffs ringing the massive Victoria crater on Mars. While Opportunity spent its first week at the crater, NASA's newest eye in the Martian sky photographed the rover and its surroundings from above. The level of detail in the photo from the high-resolution camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will help guide the rover's exploration of Victoria.

Oct 6, 2006

NASA Announces Public Meeting For Proposed Mars Mission

Pasadena CA (SPX) Oct 05, 2006 - NASA officials will be available Tuesday, Oct. 10, from 1 to 4 p.m. EDT to exchange information and receive public comments about the recently released Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Mars Science Laboratory mission. The meeting will be at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill, Congressional 'A' Conference Room, 400 New Jersey Ave NW, Washington.

Oct 5, 2006

Opportunity’s View At The Rim Of Victoria: ‘Just Breathtaking’

Cornell NY (SPX) Oct 03, 2006 - NASA's Mars rover Opportunity has rolled up to the rim of Victoria crater after a 21-month trek across the vast expanse known as Meridiani Planum. And 250 million miles away on Earth, the view -- according to astronomer, geologist and mission principal investigator Steve Squyres -- is just breathtaking ... the most spectacular thing we've seen.

Oct 3, 2006

APL-Built Mineral-Mapping Imager Begins Mission At Mars

Laurel MD (SPX) Oct 02, 2006 - The most powerful mineral-mapper ever sent to Mars has opened its protective cover and is about to begin its search for hints of past water on the red planet. The Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM), designed and built by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., is one of six science instruments aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Oct 2, 2006

Victoria Crater Marks Giant Cake For 1000 Sols On Mars

Pasadena CA (SPX) Oct 02, 2006 - On Mars, over the next few weeks, two robotic explorers will reach 1000 sols a piece. At a real cost that's now under $350,000 a day, the 2004 Mars Rovers have been an engineering and scientific triumph beyond all expectation. And crowning the success of the missions has been the arrival of Opportunity at the rim of Victoria Crater, and the awakening of Spirit from it's long sebatical during the Martian winter.

Oct 2, 2006

Spirit Powers Up As A Second Summer Beckons

Solar power levels on Spirit are slowly beginning to rise again following a winter low of 275 watt-hours on Martian day, or sol, 933 (Aug.

Oct 2, 2006

NASA Mars Rover Arrives At Dramatic Vista On Red Planet

Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 28, 2006 - NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity has arrived at the rim of a crater approximately five times wider than a previous stadium-sized one it studied for half a year. Initial images from the rover's first overlook after a 21-month journey to Victoria Crater show rugged walls with layers of exposed rock and a floor blanketed with dunes. The far wall is approximately one-half mile from the rover.

Sep 28, 2006