Comparing Mars to Earth Sabir S, Jamie A Mr. Hoogendoorn 9th grade April 20, 2007

The most interesting result(s) from the Part 1 Activity (Features near Olympus Mons) We found craters, lava flows ,lava tubes, and channels We found these features by comparing them to the pictures in the student guide It was difficult to identify the features because we didn’t know what the images were.

Part 2 Activity (with the HiRise Data)

Results from the Part 2 Activity (with the HiRise Data) We found these interesting results: ridges of sand dunes. and also dust devil tracks. We found these results by: comparing these pictures of Mars to deserts in the South western U.S.A. We used these methods to get that result: We zoomed in as close as we could on the E-1 image We identified these features: because we know about dust devils and washes (dry channels) here in Tucson Arizona

More Results from the Part 2 Activity (with the HiRise Data) We compared the features on Mars to what we know on earth. We came to that conclusion because we thought Mars looked just like the deserts on earth.

Judging from the shadows, the sand dunes seem to be very high. We had to determine what direction the sun was shining from in the HiRise images

Next Steps Our region of Mars would not be a good place to land because: it has big sand dunes, there are steep slopes and there is dust blowing around. We would like to know more about the stability of the dunes if we could choose a landing site because we would some day love to fly there. For selecting a landing site, we need a flat landing area that is not battered by high winds and dust storms. Our science goal for sending a mission like this to Mars would be to check for levels of solar radiation on Mars. Could life exist on Mars with those levels of radiation?

More Features

Once our landing vehicle landed, it would have a large solar umbrella open up to check for solar particles and radiation levels.