Write 3 three facts you already know about Mars.

WHAT YOU KNOW

Kayla Guthrie, Brad Mastin, Adalet Didovic, Hunter Warner

MARS

Second smallest planet in the solar system

The radius of Mars is 2,106 miles

The bright rust color of mars is due to its iron-rich minerals in its regolith – the loose dust and rock covering its surface. The soil of Earth is a kind of regolith, albeit one loaded with organic content

Mars’ atmosphere is 95% Carbon Dioxide, 2% Nitrogen, 1% Argon, .13% Oxygen, .08% Carbon Monoxide. It is 100x thinner

than earths atmosphere.

1.523 AU’s from the sunVallas Mariner is a system of valleys. It is named after the

Mariner 9 probe. It was discovered in 1971 and can go as deep as 6 miles. It runs east to west for roughly 2,500 miles. The valley is 1/5 distance around Mars. It is close to the width of Australia or

the distance from Philadelphia to San Diego.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

2 moons; Phobos and DemiosPhobos revolves around mars every 8 hours and is the closest moon to any planet in the

solar system. Moves 6 feet closer to mars every century. With only a radius of 11 KM, its predicted to collide with mars in 50-60

million years.Demios, is the outermost moon, 15-11-12 KM

in size. Rotates mars every 30 hours

MARS’ MOONS

Mars has the largest volcanoes in the solar system. Including olympus mons, which is 370 miles in diameter. Wide enough to

cover all of New Mexico.

17 miles high

3 times taller than Mount Everest

Vallas Marineris system of valleys named after Marines 9 Probe that discovered it in 1971. It can go as deep as 6 miles, it runs east to west for roughly 25oo miles which is 1/5 of the distance

around Mars and it’s close to the width of Austraillia or the distance from Philidolphia to San Diago.

Vallas Marineris is 5 times deeper than the Grand Canyon and it’s long enough to stretch across the entire contiguous United

States. http://www.cleanvideosearch.com/media/action/yt/watch?videoId=d1coV7XqE1M

hwww.cleanvideosearch.com/media/action/yt/watch?videoId=crsqzZNUXsYttp://

VOLCANOES AND VALLEYS

Curiosity is a car sized robotic rover, it is exploring the gale crater on Mars

Curiosity was launched from Cape Canaveral on November 26, 2011, at 10:02 EST aboard the MSL spacecraft and

successfully landed on Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater on Mars on August 6, 2012, 05:17 UTC. The Bradbury Landing site

was less than 2.4 km (1.5 mi) from the center of the rover's touchdown target after a 563,000,000 km (350,000,000 mi)

journey.

The rover's goals include: investigation of the Martian climate and geology; assessment of whether the selected

field site inside Gale Crater has ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life, including

investigation of the role of water; and planetary habitability studies in preparation for future human exploration

http://www.cleanvideosearch.com/media/action/yt/watch?videoId=a4YqNoLkmxE

http://www.cleanvideosearch.com/media/action/yt/watch?videoId=d1coV7XqE1M

CURIOSITY (ROVER)

Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is a robotic space probe mission to Mars launched by NASA on November 26, 2011, which successfully landed Curiosity, a Mars rover, in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012. The overall objectives include investigating Mars' habitability, studying its climate and

geology, and collecting data for a manned mission to Mars. The rover carries a variety of scientific instruments

designed by an international team.

MSL successfully carried out a more accurate landing than previous spacecraft to Mars, aiming for a small target

landing ellipse of only 7 by 20 km (4.3 by 12 mi), in the Aeolis Palus region of Gale Crater. In the event, MSL

achieved a landing only 2.4 kilometers (1.5 mi) from the center of the target. This location is near the mountain

Aeolis Mons (a.k.a. "Mount Sharp"). The rover mission is set to explore for at least 687 Earth days (1 Martian year) over a

range of 5 by 20 km (3.1 by 12 mi).

Previous successful U.S. Mars rovers include Spirit and Opportunity, and Sojourner from the Mars Pathfinder

mission. Curiosity is about twice as long and five times as heavy as Spirit and Opportunity Mars exploration rover

payloads of earlier U.S. Mars missions, and carries over ten times the mass of scientific instruments

MARS SCIENCE LABORATORY

1.How many AU is mars from the sun?2.What is the radius or mars?

3.How much thinner is Mars’ atmosphere than Earth’s atmosphere?

4.What is the color of Mars?5.How did the curiosity rover land on Mars?

(describe in paragraph)6.What would make a volcano different on

Mars than Earth?

QUIZ (ON YOUR OWN PAPER)