MARS THE RED PLANET

THE PLANET WHERE

EVERYTHING IS
HAPPENING

Although appearing red the Red Planet is not actually red. From a distance it looks this colour but up
close it appears a light grey sort of colour. This is because of Iron Oxide or the more commonly known
name of rust. What happens is there are lots of rocks on the surface on the surface of mars. When left
out, they oxidize, like a bike or car left outside for a long time, then it gets a red rusty colour. On mars
the dust on these rocks goes up into the atmosphere. With so many rocks, it turns the whole
atmosphere into this rusty colour. If you were to go there however, you would be able to see the
surface and the true colour of mars.

Luckily when you visit mars, you won't need to worry much about sleeping. The day on mars (sol) is only
39 minutes longer than a normal Earth day. This is simply because it rotates more slowly. Don't expect a
birthday too often though. A year on mars takes up 1.88 Earth years which means by the time that
you're 50 on Earth, you'll be a meagre 26 on mars! This is due mainly to the fact that it is further from
the sun taking longer to complete a revolution. "What if it travels faster?" you may ask. Mars is slightly
slower than Earth travelling at 24.077 km/sec whereas Earth travels at 29.77 km/sec.

You'll want to bring lots of coats to mars. It has an average toasty temperature of 55 C. Though if
you're lucky, you'll get a normal Earth like temperature of 20 C. The reason this happens is that it is
further away from the Sun and it has a thinner atmosphere not keeping as much heat as it could with a
thicker atmosphere. The weather isn't going to be changing much though and when it does it is quite
predictable. Though the Phoenix lander did record snow falling from clouds resting at 4.5km from the
surface. You may have thought that you could have a break from the constant clouds of the Earth. Well
clouds can still form on mars. They form from fine pieces of dust and can be found at up to 100km above
the surface. These clouds are very faint though and can only be seen when the sun reflects light on them
in the night sky. Speaking of clouds, you may imagine a nice blue sky to be found up above your head.
Unfortunately, that is not the case. The reason our sky is blue is Rayleigh scattering. This means that due
to the things in our atmosphere mainly the blue of the spectrum comes through. However, on mars, the
atmosphere is very different. So when you look up, you will see the beauty of stars and planets dotted
around the night sky.

The environment on mars is obviously very different than on Earth, but it does have an atmosphere.
Unfortunately, humans are unable to breathe this air. This is because it consists of:

Carbon Dioxide 96%

Argon 2.1%

Nitrogen 1.9%

Oxygen 0.145%

Carbon Monoxide 0.0557%

Compared to the Earth atmosphere of:

Nitrogen 78%

Oxygen 21%

Argon 0.9%

Carbon Dioxide 0.037%

Are bodies need a lot more oxygen than available on mars to make our organs work and bloodstream.
So unfortunately, without the proper equipment, you will not be able to breathe. But luckily on your
holiday to mars, well have all of this ready for you to use.

When getting around on the surface of the red planet, youll be using our standard issue buggies! These
are specially designed for use on this planet rather than your traditional cars.

The gravity on mars is just under a third of the strength as on Earth. Therefore you will be able to jump
nearly three times as high! This means you will also feel lighter. Unfortunately, this means that running
and walking will be slower as you wont be on the ground as long as you would be on Earth. But at least
you can jump. This can be a problem for buggies on the moon though. If it goes to fast over a bump,
then it will go in the air and therefore cant turn or brake. Not good if its heading head first into one of
our five star hotels!

Seasons wise, Mars is very similar to Earth. It has a Winter, Summer, Autumn and Spring. The cause of
thse seasons
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

http://www.universetoday.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/

nasa.gov