Mars The Red Planet

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Mars - The Red Planet
Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Mars the Red Planet

• Known to Babylonians 3,600 years ago as Star
  that Wandered
• The Greeks referred to it as Ares the god of
  War
• Romans called it Mars

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Location
Mars
Image Courtesy of NASA
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Basic Facts

• Distance from Sun 1.52 times as far as Earth
• Time to Orbit the Sun 26 Earth months
• Atmosphere Mostly carbon dioxide
• Martian Day 24.7 hours
• Temperature on the planets surface hardly rises
  above freezing point

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Earth and Mars Comparison
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Earth and Mars Comparison
Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Mars Surface Features

• Surface Color Red
• Features
• Impact Craters
• Largest volcano in the solar system(Olympus
  Mons)
• Largest Canyon in the Solar System(Valles
  Marineris)
• Ancient river channels
• Lava Rocks
• Dust Reddish from volcanic rock

Valles Marineris
Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Mars Atmosphere

• Unbreathable
• Thin
• Dusty, makes the sky pinkish, lots of dust storms
• Surface Pressure 1/150th of Earths (only 5.6
  millibars)
• Composition 95 CO2, 3 N, 1.5 Ar, 0.1 O2,
  0.03 H2O

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Moons of Mars

• Mars has two tiny moons named Deimos (Panic)
  Phobos (Fear)
• The moons are irregular and very small in size
• Phobos 27x22x18 km
• Deimos 15x12x10 km
• The moons are probably asteroids captured by Mars

Deimos
Phobos
Image Courtesy of NASA
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Is there Water on Mars?

• Water is the key to life as we know it
• The north and south poles of Mars are covered
  with thick ice or frost
• Some astronomers about 100 years ago thought
  there were canals on Mars dug by intelligent
  civilization
• Space probes to date have not found any traces of
  canals on Mars

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Previous Mission to Mars

• Viking 1 and 2 in 1976
• First pictures of Martian surface

Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Previous Mission to Mars

• Pathfinder in 1997
• Roving vehicle Sojourner to explore Martian
  surface

Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Current Missions

• Mars Global Surveyor
• Accomplishes all the tasks of its mission
• And still going

Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Odyssey

• Discovered subsurface water ice near poles
• Track changes of polar ice, clouds and dust
  storms
• Generated maps of radiation and minerals

Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Mars Rovers

• Spirit
• Landed January 3, 2004
• Opportunity
• Landed January 24, 2004

Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

• Launch date 2005
• SHARAD
• Shallow Radar Instrument
• Penetrate ground and search for water at depths
  greater than 3 feet.
• CRISM
• Spectrometer
• Find recent traces of water

Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

• Launch date 2005
• CTX
• Contex Camera
• Wide area views
• HiRISE
• High Resolution Camera
• In depth study of areas where water once flowed

Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Future Mission
Phoenix - 2008
Mars Science Laboratory - 2009
K9 Rover
Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Mars Websites

• http//mars.jpl.nasa.gov/classroom
• http//mars.jpl.nasa.gov
• http//marsed.asu.edu
• http//msip.asu.edu
• http//marsbound.asu.edu