Education: Mars
Mars is our next frontier. Let’s learn more about what could become humankind’s future home
IMAGINE it’s the year 2030. After a journey of nearly seven months and more than 55 million kilometres, you’ve arrived at your new home. It’s the Red Planet, Mars – named after the Roman god of war. You already know the facts . . .
LIFE ON MARS
S Mars is the fourth planet from the sun and the second smallest in our solar system. S Mars is also known as the Red Planet because the soil contains high levels of oxidised (rusted) iron, making it appear red in colour. S There’s very little oxygen on Mars. The planet’s atmosphere is thin and consists mostly of carbon dioxide (CO2). S Nights are extremely cold with temperatures as low as -125°C at the poles. Much like Earth, Mars also has seasons and, depending on whether it’s summer or winter, temperatures at its equator can range between 20°C by day and -73°C at night. S Each day is 37 minutes longer than our 24-hour days. One year on Mars is equal to about 687 days on Earth – so almost two years! Mars travels around the sun at a speed of about 24km/sec. S The surface of Mars is inhospitable – stony, empty and desert-like. There are red sand dunes and many dust storms occur, each of which can last weeks or even months. Mars has a diameter of 6 793km at its equator and from pole to pole it’s 6 752km. S Though Mars is about half the size of Earth, its land mass is equal to ours because much of our planet is covered in ocean. S Mars has two moons and its sunset is blue. The two moons, Phobos and Deimos, have many craters and are both small. Phobos has a diameter of 22,2km and Deimos’ diameter is 12,4km. S Everything is more extreme on Mars.
The great rift in its surface is called the Valles Marineris (Mariner Valley). It’s about 8km deep and stretches for 3 000km. Compared to this, the Grand Canyon is only 1,8km deep and 800km long.
Mars also has several of the highest mountain peaks found in our solar system. There are many volcanoes on Mars but the largest and best known is Olympus Mons – it makes Mount Everest look like a hill.
Olympus Mons is 624km wide at its base and reaches 25km into the sky. It’s so wide you wouldn’t know you’re on a volcano if you were standing at its peak. I’M HOMESICK! Imagine you’re a member of the Mars One team sent to the Red Planet in 2030 to start a new colony. You’d never be able to call Earth home again! It would be a one-way ticket.
After that first spacecraft full of astronauts, the aim is for more people to join the team every two years. They’d spend the rest of their lives on Mars and build a new life
Everest there. Bas Lansdorp, a cofounder of the Mars One project, says the possibility of establishing a colony on a new planet is the most exciting venture the human race has embarked on in centuries. “It will help create a new generation of heroes,” he says.
A number of probes have been sent to Mars and have established that the planet most probably had liquid water long ago and was much warmer than it is now. There are clear indications of ice at the poles – so clear it can even be seen with telescopes from Earth.
Scientists believe there’s a lot of ice just beneath the surface – so much of it that, should the ice at its southern pole melt, it would cover the entire planet in about 11m of water.
Unfortunately Mars’ atmosphere is too thin for liquid water to exist on the surface for long. And though there are signs of ancient floods, the only remaining indication of water is ice and thin clouds.
MARS IN HISTORY
Humans have been fascinated by the Red Planet for centuries. As early as 1609, Italian scientist and inventor Galileo Galilei pointed one of the first telescopes at Mars. In 1877 the Italian astronomer and science historian Giovanni Schiaparelli tried to draw a map of Mars. He identified lines that were thought to be canals, and are still known as the Mars canals. Because straight lines don’t occur naturally, his discovery made people wonder if there were alien beings on Mars. Many people have associated the Red Planet with aliens that wish to conquer Earth. Even today there are people who believe life originated on Mars and not on Earth. Professor Steven Benner of the Westheimer Institute of Science and Technology in Florida in the US says conditions on Earth weren’t favourable for the development of life three billion years ago. The planet’s atmosphere didn’t have much oxygen and didn’t contain the chemical elements molybdenum and boron, essential for life to exist. Tests on a meteorite from Mars have shown that it would have had enough boron at the time. Though Benner’s theories don’t enjoy much support in the scientific community, his lectures have had more than three million hits on Google!
Why on earth would anyone want to emigrate to Mars? The 202 586 people from 140 countries who applied to become part of the Mars One expedition might be able to answer this question best!