Mars and its Future. On November 28, 1964, the Mariner 4 spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. After 7 ½ months of flight, Mariner 4 reached the surface of mars and took the first pictures of the Martian planet. Since then we have launched more than 40 spacecrafts to mars, from orbiters that fly by the atmosphere to landers that have been on the surface of Mars (“10 things to know about mars”) . Today we still continue to progressively learn and to explore the famous red planet. Mars is the same age as Earth. The whole solar system and everything in it was formed the same time, about 4.56 billion years ago. One of the greatest scientific questions is if there's life on Mars. Since scientists know that Earth and Mars both experienced similar weather conditions in early history, and life eventually happened on Earth. Therefore life may have begun on Mars too. The big question is if life did start their, then how did it die out? Maybe there is still life on Mars, and it’s buried underground where conditions may be less hostile. The only way to answers all these questions is to explore Mars. Scientist call comparisons between Earth and Mars analogs. Scientists say that even though, the two planets are mostly different when it comes to the atmosphere, temperature, size, and the geologic processes on the two planets. Surprisingly there are similarities between the two planets, also. An example is, on Mars there are volcanoes, channels, and basins that have been impacted just like the ones that are here on Earth. Since there are similarities scientists can study a certain part of the geologic features on Earth to learn about or even the same features that are on Mars (“Just the FAQs”). Mars orbits around 1.5 times faster from the sun than Earth. Here on Earth it takes about 365 days to orbit around the sun. This is how every year is determined. Mars orbits the sun in about 687 Earth days, roughly 1.9 Earth years. A day on Mars is 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35 seconds (“Just the FAQ’s”). A bit longer than Earth’s 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4.1 seconds. Also, Mars would weigh 1/3 as much as Earth (“Dunbar”).
Mars present day is a very cold, dry place with lots of sand and rocks. Scientists, and astronomers have learned with improving telescopes that came during the 20th century that Mars is indeed a dusty, and dry planet that is way colder than Antarctica and drier than the Sahara desert ("WHITE MARS: THE STORY OF THE RED PLANET WITHOUT WATER"). Mars has land features that look almost identical to Earth, such as valleys, volcanoes, and canyons. Although the land features are almost the same, humans still could not live in the environment today. Earth and Mars both share an angle of axial tilt. Mars is axis is tilted at 25 degrees, where Earth is only tilted 23.5 degrees. This also gives Mars seasons similar to Earth. Since Mars’s year is about twice as long, their seasons are also a little longer than over here. The average temperature on the surface of Mars is -81 degrees Fahrenheit, at the equator, and drops about 100 degrees every the night, making the average temperature -170 degrees Fahrenheit during the night time. To compare that to Earth, the lowest temperature ever recorded was -130 degrees Fahrenheit in July, 1983, at Vostok, Antarctica (Smith, “Mars”).
Towering at sixteen miles high, the largest known volcano in the solar system is Olympus Mons. This titanic size volcano on Mars is about four times the height of the largest volcano here on Earth, Mauna Loa. This active volcano, Mauna Loa is located on the Hawaiian Islands. Also Olympus Mons is about three times as high as Mount Everest, which is Earth’s highest mountain rising 8,848 meters above sea level. Valles Marineris is sometimes called the Grand Canyon of Mars. Except the Valles Marineris as about four times deeper, and ten times longer than the Grand Canyon. The Valles Marineris is 4.3 miles deep and 2,500 miles long (Smith, “Mars”).
Mars is covered with impact craters. These craters can help scientists find the geologic history of the planet. Since older surfaces of the planet will have more impact craters than a younger surfaces, scientists can come to a reason that the age of wide range regions on Mars’ surface (Smith, “Mars”). Scientists can do this by studying the distribution of impact craters.
When Mars is viewed from space it appears red. Due to the red hematite, which is a type of iron oxide, are in the rocks and soil on the surface. If a person would look up at the sky from the surface of mars they would not see a blue or even a cloudy gray sky, unlike Earth. That person would really see a bright, pinkish color sky. This is because the red dust is blowing through the winds on Mars. Since Mars has a thin atmosphere, winds can blow up to 62 miles per hour.
Mars has a really thin atmosphere. The atmosphere is mostly composed of 95% of carbon dioxide with a little of argon, making it not breathable for humans. Although Earth’s atmosphere is mostly 77% nitrogen and 21% of oxygen. Mars has a 1% less atmospheric pressure than Earth. Therefore humans will need a pressurized space suit in order to stay alive. A person would need to go up to an altitude of near 130,000 feet on Earth’s atmosphere to get air as thin as the surface of Mars. Also Mars’ atmosphere lacks a protective ozone layer that allows as much of the Sun’s dangerous radiation to get to the surface of the planet (Smith, “Mars”).
Mars is the fourth planet from the sun. To the sun from Mars is a long trip of 142 million miles away (“10 things to know about mars”). The closest distance from Earth to Mars was about 35 million miles away, on August 27, 2003. The two planets probably won't be that close to each other until the year 2287. The furthest ever they were apart was near 250 million miles. An example of the sun, Mars, and Earth’s size, let’s say that if the sun was as tall as a regular size door, Earth would be about the size of a nickel, and Mars would only be the size as an aspirin tablet. If a person was on a spacecraft at Mars talking on a radio command back to a person on Earth there, would be a three minute delay for a response, and sometimes up to a 22 minute delay. Even the opposite way back, when a person from Earth was speaking on a radio command to a spacecraft on Mars (“10 things to know about mars”)
Earth’s diameter is roughly two times more than Mars’. Although, Mars’s surface area is about the same as all the land areas on this planet. The gravity on Mars is only 38% as strong as on Earth. For an example; if a person weighs 100 pounds on here on Earth, then that person would weigh only 38 pounds on Mars (“Just the FAQs”). Also if a person would jump one meter high on Earth, then on Mars that person would be able to jump almost nine feet. Mars has two small moons named Phobos and Deimos. These two moons were discovered by an American astronomer named Asaph Hall III, in 1877. The night Hall found the two Martian moons he was so frustrated for searching for a moon that he almost gave up. But that Angelina, his wife, urged him on, during that August night in 1877. Hall discovered Deimos the next night, and a several nights later he found Phobos (2013. NASA). The moons got their names from the mythological sons of Ares, the Greek counterpart of the Roman God, Mars. Phobos means panic or fear, meanwhile Deimos means flight; like running away from a terrible defeat.
Deimos is the smaller of Mars’s two moons. Deimos is a lot farther away from the planet, at a distance of 14,573 miles. If a person was on Mars looking at Deimos, they would only see a small dot of light in the sky. Passing the sky from east to west, Deimos takes about 30 hours for each orbit. On the surface of the moon is covered with 330 feet of thick powdery dust. Also, tips of giant boulders show sticking out of the dust. This moon is covered with tons of dust from billions of years’ meteorite impacts that destroyed both Moons’ surface (Dunbar).
Scientists have discussed of using one of the planets moons as a base, so astronauts could observe the red planet, and try to launch robots to the surface of Mars (2013. NASA). Like Earth’s moon, on mars Deimos and Phobos always present the same face towards their planet. Both the moons are very lumpy, heavily- cratered and covered in loose rocks and dust everywhere. Mars’ moons are one of a few moons that are the smallest in the solar system. Scientists believe that Mars’ two moons were actually just passing asteroids that got pulled into orbit a billion of years ago, since neither of the moons have a spherical shape (Cobb).
Phobos is the larger of the two by a small amount. Also, Phobos is only the size of half a full moon of Earth. Phobos passes twice a day, from east to west. Phobos is so close to Mars that it is not visible from any of the poles. Only orbiting 3,700 miles above Mars’ surface (2013. NASA). Even moving closer, and closer every day, and is predicted to hit Mars within the next 50-100 million years. It spirals closer 1.8 meters every century. If Phobos does not crash into Mars then it will break up and form a ring around the planet. No moon orbits closer to its own planet than Phobos. So close that if there was a person standing on Phobos, facing Mars, the planet would take up a large portion of the sky. Phobos only has about 1/1000th of gravitational pull as Earth. For an example, a 150 pound person would only weigh around 68 grams on Phobos. The driest moon in the solar system may be Phobos, surviving a huge impact from a massive asteroid that fractured the Moon’s interior (2013. NASA).
NASA Administrator, Charles Bolden says, “NASA’s Mars Exploration Program keeps bringing us closer to determining whether the Red Planet could harbor life in some form” (Dunbar). Then Bolden continues to say, “And it reaffirms Mars as an important future destination for human exploration” (Dunbar). On Mars during the late spring, and through the summer have dark, finger like features that extend all the way down slopes. “The best explanation for these observations so far is the flow of briny water,” (Dunbar) Alfred McEwen says. The principal investigator for the orbiter’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment at the University of Arizona is McEwen. These results found on the slopes are the newest thing that scientists have come to finding evidence of liquid water on the surface of Mars. However, water that is frozen was recently found near middle to high-latitude regions on the surface. Droplets of Brine have been appearing on struts of the Phoenix Mars Lander. If the evidence of brine continues to recur, this could be the first Martian location with water that is known (Dunbar).
Liquid water does not exist on Mars’s surface as of today. The Mars Global Surveyor, Odyssey, and the Exploration Rover missions all provide evidence that water once did flow into canyons and carried onto the shallow lakes a billion of years ago (Smith, “Water on Mars”). Maybe even an enormous ocean may have existed at one point, some scientists believe. Another clue for past liquid water on Mars is steep-walled trenches created by erosion called gullies. Gullies are usually formed on poorly cemented sediments where heavy rainstorms remove vegetation. Also, deposits of salt are associated with liquid water. In the 1970s, Viking lander instruments have analyzed portions of Martian soil and found 10 to 20 percent salts. When water evaporates from seas or lakes, white deposits of salts were left behind (Smith, “Water on Mars”).
The question is what caused the water to disappear is still a mystery. Many scientists believe that the change of climate over the billions of years may have caused this. Then, the water gradually got lost in its atmosphere. There is almost with certainty that a large amount of the water is still trapped beneath the surface, maybe as ice water or liquid deep underground.
In 2002, the Mars Odyssey show images of huge amounts of subsurface ice water near the northern arctic plain. There may be hidden reservoirs of liquid water deep underground, and occasionally burst out onto the surface like a type of flash floods. On Earth, there are plenty of locations where liquid water and ice exist in below freezing conditions. A sub glacial lake in Antarctica is an example, called Lake Vostok. This also occurs on Mars, when deep enough below the surface temperatures and pressure is hot enough to support liquid water. Mars missions, current and previous, have sent back a couple of images that show proof of features such as gullies, flood plains, and dry riverbeds. All of these are reasons that liquid water did exist at one point of time on Mars. Hundreds of valley and channel networks suggest that that Mars was once livable, like Earth. Some of the channels look like they might have been carved by a rainfall and others show a result of terrible flooding (Smith, “Water on Mars”). One theory suggests another theory on the outburst of flood channels. Nick Hoffman is a Senior Researcher of active structural geology at La Trobe University near Melbourne. Hoffman’s theory suggests that the outburst flood channels, which is the strongest evidence for water on Mars, have been formed by cold, dry eruptions of dust, and rocks, fueled by exploding liquid carbon dioxide ("WHITE MARS: THE STORY OF THE RED PLANET WITHOUT WATER"). Hoffman’s theory states that his theory believes the outburst flood channels were not formed by liquid water. Hoffman stated, “In all the excitement about water on Mars, scientist have largely ignored the planet’s another volatile—carbon dioxide” ("WHITE MARS: THE STORY OF THE RED PLANET WITHOUT WATER").
Mariner 4 was the first spacecraft to fly near Mars. Mariner 4 passed within 6,118 miles of Mars. A year later, Mariner 4 sent back the first pictures of the planet’s surface. In 1969, Mariner 6 and Mariner 7 showed us proof that Mars has a cold environment. United States the launched Viking 1 and Viking 2 to analyze the soil on Mars for life. Viking 1 landed on the northern plains, where it was rounded with rocks with a flat surface. Showing red dust everywhere and, the sky was pink, with temperatures in the 80s, and -207 degrees Fahrenheit during the night. When Viking 2 landed two months later near the North Pole, it was flat with a few small hills; with the same temperatures Viking 1 had (Dunbar). Yet again both space crafts showed negative results for life. The big question is why we don’t see liquid carbon dioxide on Mars. Since on Earth has water ice at the poles plus water vapor in the atmosphere, then there is water on the majority of Earth’s surface. Mars has polar caps of solid carbon dioxide and an atmosphere of carbon dioxide. Why isn’t their liquid carbon dioxide on the surface? The solution is carbon dioxide is 5,000 times more explosive than water. The pressure of the atmosphere is not high enough for liquid carbon dioxide to stay stable. Carbon dioxide will explosively vaporize and explode like a volcano, if it makes it around the surface (“WHITE MARS: THE STORY OF THE RED PLANET WITHOUT WATER”).
On January 2, 2004, at 8:45 PM, an incredible day made history. The first time anything touched the surface on Mars. Mars exploration Rover Spirit hit the ground. It was a dramatic night at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, on January 3, 2004. It was finally the moment NASA scientists have been waiting for six months, watching Spirit descend into the Mars atmosphere. Spirit has to reduce its speed from 12,000 mph to a complete stop. Spirit released reversal rockets and a parachute. 12 days later, Spirit sent back the first color images of the planet. On January 24, 2004, Spirits twin landed on the opposite side of the planet, named Opportunity. Strong evidence was found on March 2, 2004, that the spot where Opportunity was stationed was soaked with water in the past (Dunbar).
November 18, 2013, at 1:28 p.m. est., MAVEN was launched at Cape Canaveral, Florida, Air Force Base. The trip to Mars is going to take 10 months, and then maven will orbit around Mars for five weeks. MAVEN means, Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, and it is the first mission that is completely devoted to understanding Mars’ atmosphere. MAVEN will help determine the part of atmospheric gas to space plays in changing the climate on Mars through time. The closest MAVEN will orbit around Mars is 93 miles to 3,728 miles above the surface (“About”)
There are already future plans set to launch in 2020. One example would be proposing a rover mission for a long term effort of robotic exploration of Mars. This will gather more information that addresses the challenges for future humans on Mars (“2020 Mission Plans”). To keep the budget low for these missions and on future ones as low as possible, the rover is going to be based on NASA’s winning Mars Science Laboratory mission. NASA will also keep their investments capable through the investments from NASA’s Space Technology Program, Operations Mission Directorate, Human Exploration, and the contributions that NASA receives from international partners.
There are several obstacles to sending astronauts to Mars. One is supplying astronauts enough food and water for a ten month trip to Mars, and then ten months back to Earth. This isn’t impossible, but extremely difficult. Next, the question would be what the astronauts will do when they do reach Mars. Several Plans will be tested with the next few decades. Former President George W. Bush has already announced a plan to get astronauts to Mars. On January 14, 2004, the president would send astronauts to Mars in the year 2030. George W. Bush has opened quit a few opportunities for the space program. If a human mission to Mars does happen, it will mark a huge new chapter in space exploration. With a lot of research and exploring, maybe one day Mars could be a home for humans in the future (Cobb).