About Mars
Getting To Know Mars
- Mars has a very thin atmosphere, mostly carbon dioxide, but dust storms at times blanket the planet for months. At half the Earth’s diameter, Mars’ gravity is roughly one third of Earth’s.
- About every two years the Earth and Mars come close together and Mars appears to us as a highly visible red “star”, the reason why this planetary object has long been acclaimed.
- Two small moons, Diemos and Phobos, orbit Mars.
- A number of volcanoes pock the Martian landscape; but none are active.
- Not a place where you would want to hold an aerobics class, Mars’ thin atmosphere is 95% carbon dioxide, 3% nitrogen, 1.5% argon with only trace amounts of water.
- The Martian landscape is dominated by impact craters from crashing meteors and wind storms are the pre-eminent weather feature.
- A year on Mars equals 687 Earth days.
- At maximum Mars is 250 million miles from Earth and at minimum, what astronomers call favorable opposition, only 35 million miles from our view. This is the best time to dust off your telescopes for a closer look.
Directions: Once you have left Earth’s atmosphere, get a fix on Mars and steady as you go for the next 50 or so million miles. Tip! Leave when Mars’ orbit takes our cousin closest to Earth. Whatever your propulsion system is; bring sandwiches. NASA’s fastest time is about six months.
