Earth’s
neighbor, Mars has been getting a lot of attention lately. NASA launched a
rover called Curiosity last year. As of this very second that you are reading
this it is currently on Mars and exploring the sandy surface. Previously,
before Curiosity even got to Mars there were three other rovers that were there
before it. The very first one was called Sojourner (part of the Mars Pathfinder), which landed on Mars
in the late 90s. It was the smallest of the rovers sent to mars. Then NASA sent
too rovers to Mars at the same time. One called Spirit, the other Opportunity.
These two landed on the surface of Mars in mid 2000. In total, four rovers have
been sent to Mars by the United States. However, what do people know of Mars as
of right now?
Some generic facts about Mars is that it’s known for being the fourth planet in our solar system. It is also
acknowledged as the red planet because of its reddish glow. One year on mars is
about twice as long as it is here on Earth, 322 days longer to be exact. Mars
is smaller than the Earth but twice as large as Earth’s moon.
What most people don’t know about
Mars is that it has an axis tilt of about 25 degrees. Earth’s tilt is around 23
degrees. So this means that Mars is able to have seasonal changes in its
atmosphere just like Earth (NASA 4). However, Mars’ atmosphere isn’t nearly as strong as
Earth and so it’s not able to block out most of the radiation from the sun.
Now why can’t we live on Mars? It
seems to have a lot of characteristics as our home planet, but there seems to
be only sands and rocks there. Well, what you have to think about too is that
it’s so far away. It takes about 9 months to travel there and 9 months is a
long time to do nothing but wait in space. We would need a way to create a
bubble where air can be stored. We would need fertile soil in order to make
food or even to raise animals. With the technology that we have it’s still just
too risky to try and live there. Scientists have always talking about
inhabiting Mars but as of right now it’s just not possible. However, there is
always a possibility it could happen. That is why we have rovers exploring the
planet so we can increase our knowledge about Mars and prepare for future
expeditions.
My reasoning is
done for now.
This is BE#5
Signing out…
I learned stuff I didn't know about Mars and this blog was good.
ReplyDeleteYour blog topic is very interesting. How did you become so interested in Mars if I may ask? It is the kind of topic that does not get the importance it deserves. I could not imagine traveling 9 months just to get to space but I definitely admire those who have the capability to do so. Once, again your blog is incredibly attention grabbing. Have a great evening -JMedina
ReplyDeleteWhat I think really works about this post is that you not only describe Mars exploration through rovers, you move to Mars itself and then a quick discussion about what could happen if we were to colonize. Keep going in that direction. That is fascinating content and here is where you can really do some analysis. Based on your very good knowledge and research thus far, how much money and time would it take to get a colony going? What do you envision would make it work? What could it look like? Who would be there as far as plants and food and oxygen?
ReplyDeleteMaybe keep going!