Welcome to

Mission to Mars is an interactive educational site that shares information about our exploration of that planet and gives you a perspective on what is involved with the design of a mission. The central attraction here is the interactive mission simulation, which puts you in control of design and execution of a mission with a probe landing on the Red Planet.

If you want to do a mission.... Start off by creating an account (free, of course!).
If you just want to look around.... Visit the Mars Academy and its informational pages
If you're a teacher.... You might want to get aquainted with the Teachers Guide.
If you've already made an account.... Simply log in and resume your voyage.

We hope you enjoy our other features, which are listed and described on this page, and get involved with the interactive mission simulation. Please give us feedback after you've tested out the site.

[ Mars Academy | Create an Account | Log In | Feedback | Other Sites | Credits | Discussion Forum ]

Other Attractions:
Mars Map
Teachers Guide
Site Map

The Mars Academy contains several pages with important information about Mars history and exploration. If you are interested in actually building your own mission, you should create an account, because you will be required to read the Academy pages before starting your design. If you are just looking around at Mission to Mars, then you can use the Mars Academy as a starting point.

There are many other informational pages on the Mission to Mars site. Once you have explored the Academy, you can check out the list of all the informational pages--or the version with short summaries--and continue your exploration.

Enter the Mars Academy...
View the List of Pages...
View the Summaries of Pages...
Search the List of Pages...

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Mission to Mars offers you the opportunity to assemble and manage your own simulated mission to the Red Planet. Since you'll be tracked along the way to make the experience truly interactive, you'll first need to come up with an ID and password; for Internet shoppers among you, we assure you that creating an account here is absolutely free. You will move immediately into the Mars Academy to get some basic knowledge and then get started on your mission! If you think you'll want to do the mission simulation at any time here at Mission to Mars, then this is the place to start.

Create an account...

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Whether you would like to commend or condemn, please give us feedback about the Mission to Mars site. We have a short feedback form that asks you to rate certain aspects of the site and that allows for your comments. It also has an email address if you prefer to send a message.

Give us some feedback...

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The Internet has many excellent sites dealing with space exploration. Mission to Mars is certainly not an exhaustive resource, but we hope that we have stimulated an interest in exploring other resources. These links represent our favorite web sites, ones that should help you continue your learning.

Look at some other Internet sites...

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If you are looking for help as you conduct your mission or would like to give some after you've finished one, then the Discussion Forum offers you a place to communicate. Here you can also look at the latest breaking news in Mars exploration or exchange theories of life on Mars. Also, don't miss the List of Missions--each one is like a miniature discussion area, in which you can communicate with the mission's manager and read others' press releases.

Visit the Discussion Forum...

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Mission to Mars was designed especially with class participation in mind. We have some further tips in our Guide to help you use the site with your students; we hope this site can be used effectively no matter what your situation with curriculum or technology.

Visit our Teachers Guide...

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There are many Mars Atlases available on the Internet, and our Mars Map does not claim to be a catalogue of features; instead, its purpose is to help in the selection of a landing site for the interactive mission simulation. With images extracted by Mission to Mars from the collections of images from NASA's Viking probes, the Map is also, we hope, an interesting and easy-to-use excursion.

Explore our Mars Map...

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Mission to Mars was created by a team of three students for the ThinkQuest contest, which invites students to create educational sites. Site design and programming were the realm of Andrew Holbrook; scientific content was prepared by Kismet Kerley and Elizabeth Shelly. The team was coached by Geoff Holt, Duncan Teague and Lisa DuFur.

If you would like to provide comments, please fill out our feedback form. We can also be reached by email at tq1997-11147@advanced.org.

Since we hope that this site will continue to develop, we've started a small site history.

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