The Red Planet

MISSION STATEMENT:

The goal of the Mars Exploration Program is to explore Mars and to provide a continuous flow of scientific information and discovery through a carefully selected series of robotic orbiters, landers and mobile laboratories interconnected by a high-bandwidth Mars/Earth communications network.

Data:

Todays weather – High: -28’C Low: -79’C ; Sunrise: 6:09 AM, Sunset: 5:56 PM ; Season: Spring.

One year on Earth is equal to 365 days, but one year on mars is equal to 687 days. Higest mountain on Earth is MAUNA KEA (6.34 miles aprox.) and higest mountain on Mars is Olympus Mons (16 miles aprox).

We know a lot about Mars from data collected by telescopes and spacecraft as well as by examining meteorites that have come from Mars. Most of the meteorites from Mars are igneous rocks known as basalt. The oldest Mars meteorite is ALH84001, which is 4.1 billion years old. It is a rock type known as an orthopyroxenite. It also has minerals that formed by reactions between the original material and water that formed 3.9 billion years ago. The oldest known minerals from Mars are 4.4 billion-year-old zircons from a  2.1 billion-year-old meteorite (NWA 7034) found in Northwest and its pairings, which are analogous to the ancient Jack Hills zircons on Earth. The youngest known rocks from Mars are basaltic meteorites, rocks known as shergottites, the youngest of which are about 180 million years old.

Rocks and Minerals

On Mars and in meteorites from Mars, we see a variety of rock types: igneous basalt, sedimentary sandstone, mudstone, impactites, evaporites. These rocks are composed of minerals such as olivine, pyroxene, amphiboles, feldspar, carbonates, sulfates (jarosite, gypsum), silica, phyllosilicates, phosphates, and iron oxides (hematite).

Surface Features

We also see a variety of familiar landforms, like wind-formed dunes. Other kinds of sedimentary deposits are present as well, known by names such as Transverse Aeolian Ridges (or TARs) and Polar Layered Deposits (PLDs). One of the more intriguing features found on Mars is known as Recurring Slope Lineae (RSL). These features appear and fade in gullies and crater walls as the seasons and temperatures change on Mars. One theory suggests the dark streaks may be made by very salty, liquid water seeping to the surface and quickly evaporating.

Some familiar places on Earth are often used by scientists as analogs for the kinds of environments that exist on Mars. Examples include Iceland (the basalt rocks in Iceland contain more iron, like the basalts on Mars do, and Iceland has volcanoes that erupt into glaciers), Antarctica (which, like Mars is very cold and dry), the Atacama Desert in Chile (where it is very dry with similar rocks), Arizona (which has basaltic volcanism on eroded, stratified rock sequences), and Hawaii (made up of large basaltic shield volcanoes like Olympus Mons on Mars).

Mars and Earth

Geologically, Mars and Earth share a lot of common traits, and they are both known as terrestrial (or rocky) planets. The majority of the rocks at the surface of both planets are of the igneous variety, known as basalt (although on Earth most of this makes up the ocean floor). The layers that make up both planets are also similar: Like Earth, Mars has an atmosphere, crust, mantle, and a core. The rocky layers are similar in composition. In fact, all of the rocks and  all of the minerals identified on Mars to date are also found on Earth. Like Earth, Mars has four seasons and weather. Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos.

Of course, there are a lot of ways that the two planets are different too.

Mars is smaller, has no active plate tectonics and no currently active global magnetic field. Liquid water is generally not stable on Mars, so there currently are no standing bodies of water (rivers, lakes or seas) and the atmosphere is very thin and composed mostly of carbon dioxide. Mars has more craters still scarring its surface than Earth (where, because of plate tectonics and weathering, lots of the surface is changed over time).

Martian Moons

Mars has two small moons: Phobos and Deimos. Phobos (fear) and Deimos (panic) were named after the horses that pulled the chariot of the Greek war god Ares, the counterpart to the Roman war god Mars. Both Phobos and Deimos were discovered in 1877 by American astronomer Asaph Hall. The moons appear to have surface materials similar to many asteroids in the outer asteroid belt, which leads most scientists to believe that Phobos and Deimos are captured asteroids.

Facts

Mars is no place for the faint-hearted. Arid, rocky, cold and apparently lifeless, the Red Planet offers few hospitalities. Fans of extreme sports can rejoice, however, for the Red Planet will challenge even the hardiest souls among us. Home to the largest volcano in the solar system, the deepest canyon and crazy weather and temperature patterns, Mars looms as the ultimate lonely planet destination.

Mars in the Night Sky

Like all the planets in our solar system, Earth and Mars orbit the sun. But Earth is closer to the sun, and therefore races along its orbit more quickly. Earth makes two trips around the sun in about the same amount of time that Mars takes to make one trip. So sometimes the two planets are on opposite sides of the sun, very far apart, and other times, Earth catches up with its neighbor and passes relatively close to it.

-NASA

•