The new frontier of exploration.

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.

Planetary Uncertainty Principle

Moffet Field (SPX) Jun 22, 2004 - To terraform a planet is to change its environment, making it livable for humans and other Earth-based life forms. Most life on Earth could not survive on Mars today. Even the hardiest bacteria would soon shrivel and die from the high radiation exposure, extreme cold, or other martian hazard. If humans want to maintain a long-term presence on Mars, building cities and establishing civilizations, terraforming would be one way to make that possible.

Jun 22, 2004

Naming Mars: You’re In Charge

Moffet Field CA - Jun 21, 2004 - Less than two weeks after Spirit landed on Mars, rover engineers and scientists were already planning Spirit's itinerary on the surface. Go To That Crater And Turn Right read the headline of a January 13 press release. Needless to say, generically referring to features as that crater, this rock, or these hills could quickly become confusing.

Jun 21, 2004

Walking Naked on the Red Planet. Great Terraforming Debate: Part IV

Moffet Field CA (SPX) Jun 21, 2004 - Donna Shirley: Let's say that we've decided to go to Mars, we're going to terraform Mars, we're going to terraform it so people can live on it. What kind of people are going to go to Mars? Greg, you had people going to Mars (in your book). Could you talk about them?

Jun 21, 2004

Questions: The Martian Future. Great Terraforming Debate: Part VII

Moffet Field CA (SPX) Jun 21, 2004 - Q: One of the main criticisms of astrobiology as a science is that our sample size is one - life on Earth. So, I've been hearing you guys talk about the merits of Mars, if it has life, and well if it doesn't we might as well bulldoze the thing. But Mars is our only negative control, so maybe there's some merit in a lifeless Mars. I'm wondering what you guys think about that.

Jun 21, 2004

The United Nations Of Mars. Great Terraforming Debate: Part V

Moffet Field CA (SPX) Jun 21, 2004 - Donna Shirley: If we want to do something massive, like terraform Mars or even go to Mars with a lot of people, is it going to have to be an international endeavor? If so, how do you do that? Is it going to be all U.S., is it going to be like the Star Trek universe, where it's all humanity? What's that going to look like?

Jun 21, 2004

Earth Has Blueberries Like Mars

Salt Lake City UT - Jun 17, 2004 - Even before marble-shaped pebbles nicknamed blueberries were discovered on Mars by the Opportunity rover, University of Utah geologists studied similar rocks in Utah's national parks and predicted such stones would be found on the Red Planet.

Jun 17, 2004

Should We Terraform? Great Terraforming Debate: Part III

Moffet Field CA (SPX) Jun 17, 2004 - At the Astrobiology Science Conference on March 30, scientists and science fiction writers faced off in front of a packed audience to debate the promise and pitfalls of terraforming Mars. In part 3 of this 7-part series, David Grinspoon says we have an ethical imperative to bring a dead planet to life.

Jun 17, 2004

Spirit Finds Its Pot Of Gold

Some of the first things the scientists noticed about the Columbia geology were small round nodules that looked very similar to the hematite "blueberries" previously found on Mars.

Jun 17, 2004

Giving Mars Back its Heartbeat. Great Terraforming Debate: Part I

Moffet Field CA (SPX) Jun 16, 2004 - At the Astrobiology Science Conference on March 30, scientists and science fiction writers faced off in front of a packed audience to debate the promise and pitfalls of terraforming Mars. In part 1 of this 7-part series, Christopher McKay advocates making Mars habitable for Martians.

Jun 16, 2004

Looking For Martian Life. Great Terraforming Debate: Part II

Moffet Field CA (SPX) Jun 16, 2004 - At the Astrobiology Science Conference on March 30, scientists and science fiction writers faced off in front of a packed audience to debate the promise and pitfalls of terraforming Mars. In part 2 of this 7-part series, John Rummel predicts that in our search for life on Mars, we probably won't find cows.

Jun 16, 2004

Mars Rovers Going the Extra Mile

Pasadena CA (JPL) Jun 16, 2004 - NASA's Mars rovers are delighting scientists with their extra credit assignments. Both rovers successfully completed their primary three-month missions in April.

Jun 16, 2004

Spirit Surpasses Three Kilometer Mark

Pasadena (JPL) Jun 11, 2004 - During sols 148 through 151, Spirit advanced significantly closer to the Columbia Hills and now sits only 220 meters (722 feet) from its first target at the base, a location informally named Spur B.

Jun 11, 2004

Evidence Of Flooding At Mangala Valles

Paris (ESA) Jun 10, 2004 - This images of fluvial surface features at Mangala Valles on Mars were obtained by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board the ESA Mars Express spacecraft.

Jun 10, 2004

Key To Predicting Martian Volcanos May Be Locked In Tiny Bubbles

Blacksburg VA (SPX) Jun 09, 2004 - By summer 2005, researchers in the Fluids Research Laboratory at Virginia Tech will be able to look for evidence of water on Mars by examining submicroscopic bubbles in martian meteorites, determine whether fluids and silicate melts trapped in volcanic rock can help predict future eruptions, and locate buried mineral deposits using data from surface rocks.

Jun 9, 2004

Mars Rovers Continue Unique Exploration of Mars

Pasadene (JPL) Jun 09, 2004 - NASA's Mars Opportunity rover began its latest adventure today inside the martian crater informally called Endurance. Opportunity will roll in with all six wheels, then back out to the rim to check traction by looking at its own track marks.

Jun 9, 2004

Fleshing Out Martian Proteins

Moffet Field CA (SPX) Jun 08, 2004 - Imagine having a modern biology lab on another planet. Then imagine putting that lab on a tiny silicon chip. That portable concept - when applied to detecting the building blocks of life, amino acids - is being investigated for future Mars missions.

Jun 8, 2004