This is the Mission to Mars Academy, which contains three short lessons about the history of Mars, about its similarity to Earth and about its potential for life. Our history lesson begins some 3.5 billion years ago and ends with present-day exploration.
#1: Earth and Mars Start Similarly
Fairly certain that water once flowed over the surface of Mars as it did and does over that of Earth, scientists are intrigued by the many shared aspects of terrestrial and Martian history.
#2: Earth and Mars Develop Differently
Though the two planets might well have shared similar beginnings, Mars and Earth no longer share traits like liquid water; in this second part of the history lesson, the question becomes more clearly one about the possibility of past life on the Red Planet.
#3: Searching for Life on Mars
Important questions about landing site, launch date and instruments will dominate your mission planning during the simulation. At this point, you do not need answers to all of these issues; this section will give you a short primer about where scientists search for life.
Since the Academy contains only a few starting points, we also have a List of Pages--an index of all of the educational pages on our site--and the Summaries of Pages--a list that includes brief descriptions of each of these pages. Both lists are categorized for easier reference.
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Mission to Mars. An educational site created for the ThinkQuest contest.