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

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

Location Mars Image Courtesy of NASA

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 planet’s surface hardly rises above freezing point

Earth and Mars Comparison Radius 6378 km 3397 km Density 5515 kg/m3 3933 kg/m3 Gravity 9.8 m/s2 3.72 m/s2 Year 365.25 days 686.98 days Eccentricity 0.017 0.094 Day 24 hours 24 hr 39 min Obliquity 23.45º 25.19º

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

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

Mars Atmosphere Unbreathable Thin Dusty, makes the sky pinkish, lots of dust storms Surface Pressure: 1/150th of Earth’s (only 5.6 millibars) Composition: 95% CO2, 3% N, 1.5% Ar, 0.1% O2, 0.03% H2O

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

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 NASA, just yesterday, announced the discovery of salty surface water

Previous Mission to Mars Viking 1 and 2 in 1976 First pictures of Martian surface Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

Previous Mission to Mars Pathfinder in 1997 Roving vehicle – Sojourner to explore Martian surface Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

Current Missions Mars Global Surveyor Accomplishes all the tasks of its mission And still going Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

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

Mars Rovers Curiosity Spirit Opportunity Landed January 3, 2004 Landed August 6, 2012 Image Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

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

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

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

Mars Websites http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/classroom http://marsed.asu.edu http://msip.asu.edu http://marsbound.asu.edu