Explore Mars

Student Planet Facts

The Mysterious Red Planet, Mars is actually more butterscotch in color. From science fiction to the Mars Pathfinder mission this barren orb continues to fascinate us. Here are some facts and other places you can find information.
When you are ready, click back to return to the Student Center or click below to explore again.

Mars has the largest canyon in the solar system. It would reach from Los Angeles to Chicago if it was on Earth!

Mars has a very thin atmosphere, mostly carbon dioxide, but dust storms can cover the whole planet for months at a time. About every two years the Earth and Mars come close together. The planet has two moons, Diemos and Phobos.

It would take about 6 months for a spacecraft to get to Mars but the crew would have to wait a year and a half before returning. While there are no current plans for a manned mission to Mars you can see some designs at this NASA website, Mars Mission.

Olympus Mons, a 550 km wide volcano, is the largest volcano in the solar system and covers an area about the size of Arizona. It is 27 km high in contrast to Mt Everest on Earth at 8.85 km. Click on the image or here for a larger image.

There are a number of volcanoes on Mars but none seem to be geologically active. Mars also has large canyons, dust storms, sand dunes, polar ice caps and other features similar to those found on Earth.

Field Trip to Mars, Mars Features on Earth
is a self-guided excursion to view various sites located on or near the central plateau of Washington that correlate to features found on Mars.
Included is a section on volcanoes with a page about Mount St Helens, an active volcano that "blew its top" in 1980. Also included is information on Mars Pathfinder, earthquakes, giant floods, sand dunes, lava flows, dust devils, and geological background material. Click image or here to go to Field Trip to Mars.

Gravity and You
Your weight on Earth is determined by your mass and Earth's mass. Would you weigh more or less on Mars?

Planet Names
Why are the planets named for Roman gods? What is the story or myth about their names? Click image or here for Planet Myths and Lore.

Close Encounter with Mars
Every two years or so the Sun, Earth and Mars line up. This is called an opposition. In 2003 Earth and Mars was really close. Click image or here for Mars Opposition 2003 page. (Hubble ST image)

Missions to Mars
There are three current missions to Mars that you might want to learn more about: The Mars Exploration Rovers, the Mars Global Surveyor and the Mars Odyssey programs.

Robot Geologists
Taking advantage of the close approach of Mars, two rovers were launched and arived on Mars in January, 2004. These Mars Exploration Rovers are now studying our neighbor from opposite sides of the planet.

Mars Global Surveyor
In November 1996, NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory began America's return to Mars after a 20-year absence by launching the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft. Since then Surveyor has returned an unprecedented amount of data regarding Mars' surface features, atmosphere, and magnetic properties. The mapping phase of the mission began in mid-March 1999. During mapping operations, the spacecraft circles Mars once every 118 minutes at an average altitude of 378 kilometers (235 miles).

Mars Odyssey
2001 Mars Odyssey is an orbiter carrying science experiments designed to make global observations of Mars to improve our understanding of the planet's climate and geologic history, including the search for water and evidence of life-sustaining environments. On April 7, 2001, the 2001 Mars Odyssey was launched on a Delta II launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral, Florida. After arriving in orbit in October, 2001, the spacecraft began its science mapping orbit (for 917 Earth days) and serves as a communications relay for U.S. and international landers arriving at Mars in 2003/2004.

New! Click here to find out about "The Professor's Telescope", a new book by Chris Moreau, one of our advisors. Take an adventure with Eric to Saturn!

A portion of the proceeds will help support Kid's Cosmos.

Quick Facts about Mars

Topic

Data

Diameter

6794.4 km

Density

3.94 g/cm³

Mass

6.421 x 10²³ kg

Volume

1.643 x 10¹¹ km³

Temperature Range

-140° C to 20° C

Atmosphere

Mostly Carbon Dioxide

Winds

Up to 100 km/hr

Moons

2

Average Distance from Sun

227,940,000 km

Orbital Period

1 Years, 320 Days, 18.2 Hours

Rotation

1 Days, 0.67 Hours

Tilt

25.19°

Rings

No

Composition

Iron Oxides and Silicates

Magnetic Field

Slight

The external links will take you to another website by opening a new window.
Close the window to return to Kid's Cosmos.

The Nine Planets
NASA Planet Facts
Viking, Pathfinder and other missions
Field Trip to Mars
Top
Back to Student Center

Kid's Cosmos...Expanding Minds Beyond the Limits of the Universe