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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.

Scientists Await First Call From Beagle

London - Dec 26, 2003 - Early Christmas morning GMT time, the Beagle 2 spacecraft reached the surface of Mars at the end of a 250 million mile (400 million km), six-month trek to the Red Planet. Although the first attempt to use NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter to communicate with the lander three hours later was unsuccessful, scientists and engineers are still awaiting the best Christmas present possible - the first faint signal to tell them that Beagle 2 has become only the fourth spacecraft to make a successful landing on Mars.

Dec 26, 2003

Mars Express And Beagle 2 In Final Prep For Mars Arrival

Paris - Dec 25, 2003 - At 09:30 CET today [0830 UTC], the Mars Express orbiter was 200,000 kilometres from Mars and 156,000,000 kilometres from Earth. The orbiter is on its final planned course for Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI).

Dec 25, 2003

The Secret Of The 25-Hour Day

Pasadena - Dec 23, 2003 - Steven Squyres, the principal investigator for the science instruments aboard the Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers, juggles his commitments to the four space missions he is actively involved in, as well as to his teaching and advising duties, with an energetic ease that makes some wonder if he has found the secret to a 25-hour day.

Dec 23, 2003

Aurora Charts Plan For Europe On Mars By 2033

Paris - Dec 22, 2003 - Now that Mars Express has successfully released Beagle 2 on its way to Mars the next step in Europe's exciting journey to Mars will be completed on Christmas Day, with the arrival of ESA's Mars Express orbiter, and the delivery of the Beagle 2 lander to the planet's dusty plains.

Dec 22, 2003

Cornell Hopes To Spin A Few Spokes with Rover Wheelies

Pasadena - Dec 22, 2003 - After the twin Mars Exploration Rovers bounce onto the red planet and begin touring the Martian terrain in January, onboard spectrometers and cameras will gather data and images --- and the rovers' wheels will dig holes.

Dec 22, 2003

Mars Express Slews Back From Collision To Insertion

Paris - Dec 22, 2003 - On Saturday at 11:50 CET [1050 UTC], flight controllers at the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt confirmed the success of a crucial repointing manoeuvre, setting Mars Express on its final course for Mars Orbit Insertion.

Dec 22, 2003

Martian Science Set To Get Abrasive

Pasadena - Dec 22, 2003 - Facelifts can sag. Botox is temporary. But modern science has a new way to return youth to weathered faces: the rock abrasion tool (RAT). If your dermatologist hasn't heard of it, ask your local Mars scientist.

Dec 22, 2003

Post Kitty Hawk Momentum Shifts to Mars

Los Angeles - Dec 22, 2003 - Human Mars exploration advocates emerged as the winners this week from the decision by President Bush to defer any decision about America's next major goal in space into 2004.

Dec 22, 2003

Beagle 2 Separation Command Sent: Confirmation at 1100 GMT

London (AFP) Dec 19, 2003 - Europe's mission to search for life on Mars cleared a vital hurdle on Friday as its unmanned orbiter ejected a probe that should land on the Red Planet on Christmas Day.

Dec 19, 2003

An Odyssey Of Mars Science: Part 8

Sacramento - Dec 18, 2003 - But, again, we simply don't know yet. Indeed -- since Mars' ancient surface is vastly better preserved than Earth's -- one of the major goals of Mars exploration is to find preserved traces of the very complex organic compounds that must have represented intermediate steps in the first evolution of life on Earth, since on Earth itself all this invaluable evidence has long since been destroyed by tectonic crustal recycling (continental drift), broken down by Earth's huge supply of liquid water, or simply eaten up by the life forms that came after.

Dec 18, 2003

Speedera To Stream European Space Agency’s Mars Express Christmas Landing

Santa Clara - Dec 18, 2003 - Speedera Networks, a leading global provider of on-demand distributed application and content delivery services, and Capcave, an Internet systems integrator based in the Netherlands, today announced that the two organizations are working directly with the European Space Agency (ESA) to provide live streaming of the Mars Express probe scheduled to arrive on Mars at Christmas.

Dec 18, 2003

Take A Christmas Break On Mars This Year

Huntsville - Dec 18, 2003 - It's wintertime in the northern hemisphere of Mars, and a flying saucer is about to land. Back on Earth where it comes from, the craft is known as the Beagle 2, sent to Mars by the European Space Agency in search of life. More accurately, the Beagle 2 will be looking for chemical traces of life--telltale signs that life once existed, or perhaps, exists right now on the red planet.

Dec 18, 2003

Beagle 2 Landing Site In 3D

London - Dec 17, 2003 - As the time for Beagle 2 separation approaches a 3D representation of the landing site is available for download. Keyhole is a revolutionary software product that enables computer users to interact with a 3D model of a planet directly on the own PC.

Dec 17, 2003

Beagle 2 Points The Way For UK In Space

London - Dec 17, 2003 - Science Minister Lord Sainsbury unveiled Tuesday the Government's new three-year space strategy, citing the Beagle 2 Mars lander as a benchmark for the UK's ambitions in space. Unveiled as the British-built lander prepares for the final stages of its journey to the Red Planet, the UK Space Strategy sets out three objectives. They are:

Dec 17, 2003

NY Times Misrepresents Mars Missions Radiation Danger

Pasadena - Dec 14, 2003 - In an article appearing on page 1 of the science section of the New York Times December 9, Times reporter Mathew Wald grossly misrepresented the danger posed by cosmic radiation to astronauts on a human Mars mission.

Dec 14, 2003

Tones Break Silence During Mars Exploration Rover Landings

Pasadena - Dec 14, 2003 - On the phone, tones can signal a connection. On paper, they can add shape and dimension. On Mars, they can do both. This is why members of the Mars Exploration Rover Entry Descent and Landing team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory will be on the lookout for a series of tones during the mission's landings in January 2004.

Dec 14, 2003