Welcome to Mars!
You have reached stop #5 on Plymouth PTA’s Mission: Planet Exploration, a driving tour of the solar system designed to scale based on a 6-foot sun at Plymouth Elementary School! Click on Mission: Planet Exploration for more info, including a map to all 8 planets.
Image Credit: NASA
the red planet
You have probably heard of Mars referred to as “The Red Planet.” This is because of rusty iron in the ground there. It is a cold, desert world that has seasons, polar ice caps, volcanoes, canyons, and weather, just like we do on Earth. It has a very thin atmosphere made of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and argon, and it has a little bit of water in icy dirt and thin clouds. This makes scientists wonder if Mars could have had living things in the past and whether it could support life now or in the future.
Mars is the only planet where we've sent rovers, and in fact, NASA just launched the Perseverance rover to Mars on July 30, 2020. Some of the things Perseverance will do on Mars is search for signs of ancient life, gather samples of rocks and soils, and test a method of making oxygen on Mars. Perseverance is also carrying a small helicopter (named Ingenuity) that will test powered flight in the thin Martian air. If you haven’t yet, you can learn more about the Mars helicopter from this past week’s Dragon Adventures.
If you’re curious what it looks like on the surface of Mars, check out this pretty cool picture taken in 2014 by a previous Mars rover (named Curiosity) looking back at its own tire tracks!
More kid-friendly facts about Mars can be found at the NASA Science Space Place.
More in-depth information about Mars can be found at NASA Science Solar System Exploration.