Mars landing and probes :: essays research papers

spoil (Greek Ares) is the god of War. The planet probably got this see due to its red color Mars is sometimes referred to as the exit Planet. (An interesting side note the Roman god Mars was a god of agriculture before becoming associated with the Greek Ares those in estimation of colonizing and terraforming Mars may prefer this symbolism.) The name of the month March derives from Mars. Mars has been known since prehistoric times. It is still a favorite of science metaphor writers as the most favorable place in the solar corpse (other than Earth) for human habitation. But the famous "canals" "seen" by Lowell and others were, unfortunately, just as imaginary as Barsoomian princesses. The first spacecraft to visit Mars was jackstones 4 in 1965. Several others followed including Mars 2, the first spacecraft to grime on Mars and the two Viking landers in 1976 (left). Ending a foresightful 20 year hiatus, Mars Pathfinder landed successfully on Mars on 1997 July 4 (right). In 2004 the Mars Expedition Rovers " tonicity" and "Opportunity" landed on Mars sending back geologic data and many pictures. Mars orbit is significantly elliptical. One result of this is a temperature variation of about 30 C at the subsolar point amidst aphelion and perihelion. This has a major influence on Mars climate. While the average temperature on Mars is about 218 K (-55 C, -67 F), Martian surface temperatures range astray from as little as 140 K (-133 C, -207 F) at the spend pole to almost 300 K (27 C, 80 F) on the mean solar day side during summer. Though Mars is much smaller than Earth, its surface field of operation is about the same as the land surface area of Earth. that for Earth, Mars has the most highly varied and interesting terrain of any of the world-wide planets, some of it quite spectacular Olympus Mons the largest mountain in the Solar System rising 24 km (78,000 ft.) above the surrounding plain. Its subaltern is more than 500 km in diameter and is rimmed by a cliff 6 km (20,000 ft) high (right). Tharsis a big bulge on the Martian surface that is about 4000 km across and 10 km high. Valles Marineris a system of canyons 4000 km long and from 2 to 7 km deep (top of page) Hellas Planitia an impact crater in the grey hemisphere over 6 km deep and 2000 km in diameter.