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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.

NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Reaches Planned Flight Path

Pasadena CA (SPX) Sep 13, 2006 - NASA's newest spacecraft at Mars has completed the challenging half-year task of shaping its orbit to the nearly circular, low-altitude pattern from which it will scrutinize the planet. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter fired its six intermediate-size thrusters for 12.5 minutes Monday afternoon, Sept. 11, shifting the low point of its orbit to stay near the Martian south pole and the high point to stay near the north pole.

Sep 13, 2006

Peroxide Snow Hampers Search For Martians

Berkeley CA (SPX) Sep 13, 2006 - The planet-wide dust storms that periodically cloak Mars in a mantle of red may be generating a snow of corrosive chemicals - including hydrogen peroxide - that would be toxic to life, U.S. researchers say.

Sep 13, 2006

Animated Elevation Model Of Victoria Crater

Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 11, 2006 - After driving more than 9 kilometers (5.6 miles) from the site where it landed in January 2004, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity approached Victoria Crater in September 2006. The crater is about 750 meters (half a mile) across.

Sep 11, 2006

NASA Rover Nears Martian Bowl Goal

Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 07, 2006 - NASA's Mars rover Opportunity is closing in on what may be the grandest overlook and richest science trove of its long mission. During the next two weeks, the robotic geologist is likely to reach the rim of a hole in the Martian surface wider and deeper than any it has visited. The crater, known as Victoria, is approximately 750 meters (half a mile) wide and 70 meters (230 feet) deep.

Sep 7, 2006

Spirit Recovers From Reset And Makes Finishing Touches To Winter Panorama

Pasadena CA (SPX) Sep 06, 2006 - Spirit experienced a software reset during the evening overpass of the Odyssey orbiter on sol 944 (Aug. 29, 2006). The rover was in the process of receiving command sequences for the following two Martian days, sols 945 and 946 (Aug. 30-31, 2006).

Sep 6, 2006

Returning To Sample Mars

Washington DC (SPX) Sep 05, 2006 - At the recent Viking thirtieth anniversary celebration, Noel Hinners championed what could be the next great challenge for planetary science: a Mars Sample Return mission. Hinners pointed out that, like Viking, Mars Sample Return will prove to be extremely difficult but immeasurably rewarding.

Sep 5, 2006

Opportunity Mars Rover Inching Closer To Victoria Crater

Pasadeda (SPX) Sep 04, 2006 - Opportunity is healthy and still 218 meters (715 feet) from Victoria Crater. Over the weekend, the rover's shoulder azimuth joint stalled as Opportunity was trying to start measurements on a trench it dug on Sol 919 (Aug. 25, 2006). Consequently, all weekend arm activities were aborted, but remote science activities were executed as planned.

Sep 4, 2006

Mars Express Images The Kasei Valles Outflow Channel System

Paris, France (ESA) Sep 01, 2006 - These images, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, show the region of Kasei Valles, one of the biggest outflow channel systems on Mars. Kasei is the Japanese word for the planet Mars. The HRSC obtained these images during orbit 1429 at a ground resolution of approximately 29 metres per pixel.

Sep 1, 2006

A New Mars

When two Viking landers set down on the surface of Mars in the summer of 1976, Gentry Lee was there to witness the first images beamed back to Earth.

Aug 29, 2006

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Nears End of Aerobraking

Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 29, 2006 - NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has begun the final and fastest-paced portion of its aerobraking process of using friction with the top of Mars' atmosphere to shrink the spacecraft's orbit. After nearly 400 drag passes into the atmosphere during the closest-to-Mars portion of each orbit, the spacecraft has reduced the farthest point in its orbit to an altitude of 1,100 kilometers (684 miles).

Aug 29, 2006

Rare High-Altitude Clouds Found On Mars

Paris, France (ESA) Aug 29, 2006 - Planetary scientists have discovered the highest clouds above any planetary surface. They found them above Mars using the SPICAM instrument on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft. The results are a new piece in the puzzle of how the Martian atmosphere works.

Aug 29, 2006

Spirit Discovers New Class Of Igneous Rocks

Pasadena CA (SPX) Aug 27, 2006 - During the past two-and-a-half years of traversing the central part of Gusev Crater, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has analyzed the brushed and ground-into surfaces of multiple rocks using the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer, which measures the abundance of major chemical elements.

Aug 27, 2006

Closer And Closer To Victoria Crater

Pasadena CA (SPX) Aug 27, 2006 - Opportunity is healthy and located only 218 meters (715 feet) from the rim of Victoria Crater. Opportunity's odometer clicked past the 9-kilometer (5.5-mile) mark as it drove 237.81 meters (780 feet) during the week. The terrain within the annulus, or ring, of material surrounding Victoria is homogeneous and flat, which is favorable for long drives. The team planned a trenching activity for sol 919 (Aug. 25, 2006) to prepare for a robotic arm campaign during the weekend.

Aug 27, 2006

Spirit Continues Mid-Winter Studies Of Martian Rocks And Soil

Pasadena CA (SPX) Aug 27, 2006 - Spirit continued to make progress on the rover's winter campaign of science observations, acquiring microscopic images and data about rock composition with the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer and the miniature thermal emission spectrometer. Spirit took images of the spacecraft deck for incorporation into the McMurdo panorama.

Aug 27, 2006

Has The Mariner Meteor Mystery Been Solved

Huntsville AL (SPX) Aug 24, 2006 - On July 14, 1965, Mariner 4 swooped over Mars. It was a moment of high drama. Six other probes had already tried to reach the red planet and failed. Since the days of H.G. Wells (War of the Worlds, 1898), people had been hearing about life on Mars, and they were ready to see the canals and cities. The wait was becoming excruciating.

Aug 24, 2006

China And Russia To Launch Joint Mission To Mars

Beijing (AFP) Aug 23, 2006 - China and Russia are planning a joint mission to Mars that will bring back samples to earth and land on one of the red planet's tiny moons, state media quoted a Chinese scientist as saying Wednesday. Ye Peijian, of the Chinese Research Institute of Space Technology, made the announcement at a forum on the nation's space technology development, Xinhua news agency said.

Aug 23, 2006