Mars
A lot of probes have been to Mars. Two American probes called Viking
landed on Mars in 1976. Viking brought back pictures of Mars showing a very
rocky surface. There were three other spacecraft that went to Mars, they were
Mariner-1965, Mars 2, then last but not least, the Mars Pathfinder July 4, 1997.
The two probes dug in its soil looking for little creatures, but no life was found on Mars until 1996 August 6, when David McKay made a proclamation about a meteorite that was found on Mars,that gave evidence that there is life on Mars.
Pathfinder also landed on Mars. One of the Pathfinder's problems was when they were having trouble communicating with the spacecraft. This happened on Saturday, September 27. After three days of trying to get back in communication,
Earth received a signal from Pathfinder's backup, but it was not clear enough for them to to understand the condition of the lander. All of this was caused by the battery running low.
The distance from Earth to Mars is 122,000,000 miles. Mars does have water because it has ice caps at the poles. Also, Mars Surveyor spacecraft found evidence of water and rivers on Mars. The evidence was the minerals that they found and the data from the surface and the brightness of its surface in photos.
Did you know that Mars is thought to be the most likely planet to live on? People say that because it is very similar to Earth in many different ways like it has Polar ice caps, it even has atmosphere and carbon dioxide in it. Mars is very easy to spot in the night sky because it is very bright and stands out in the sky.
There are some other magnificent places to see. One of the places to see is the Olympus Mons, which is the largest volcano in the entire Solar System. It's about 14 miles in height. Another one is Tharis, which is a giant bulge (or lump) on Mars's surface. It's about 4000 kilometers across and 10 kilometers high. One more great place is Valles Marineris. It's group of canyons that is about 4000 kilometers long and 2 to 7 kilometers deep. Last but not least, Hellas Planitia. It's an impact crater in the southern hemisphere. It's over 6 kilometers deep and 2000 kilometers in diameter.
People call Mars the red planet because the rocks on Mars contain iron and sulfur. When the Viking probes traveled to Mars, they found out out that its whole surface is a reddish-brown color. So now, Mars is known as "The Red Planet."
If we could live on Mars, it would be like Earth except you might live in a biosphere and use air tanks. You could jump really high so if you are only 3 feet high you could slam dunk. You also might find Martians or fossils of them. Then turn them alive somehow. And if we could, we could maybe make floating houses like in "The Jetsons" and we could wear those flying things so we don't have to walk. Or maybe on the polar ice cap, skate. They could have a contest and someone could do 10 axles in one jump just because the gravity is weaker than Earth's.
vision by Sean
I got some of the information from: Nine Planets
Last updated: 1999 February 22
I also got some information from: Rene Kimura, Space Resource Teacher