Will humans ever travel to Mars? It will be soon, if the Mars Society has anything to say about it. What would it be like to
stand on the surface of Mars? I believe that, in my lifetime, humans will visit the Red Planet. Find out what NASA has
planned and take a virtual tour of the Mars Habitat. And here is an updated version of what a martian base might look like.
Elon Musk has a plan to establish a permanent human presence on Mars. Here is a five minute version and here is the complete
presentation, more than an hour long.
There is a already a relatively easy way to get to Mars. I have done it myself.
Mars has a radius of 3396 km, which is
approximately one half that of Earth. This gives
the planet about the same surface area as the land
area of Earth.
Mars rotates in 24 hours 37 minutes at the sidereal rate,
referenced to the stars. Its synodic day, from noon to
noon, is 24 hours 39 minutes. This is very near Earth’s
rate of rotation. The day on the surface of Mars would
seem very familiar to an earthling.
Mars orbits the Sun at an average distance of 5.2
A.U. and takes 1.87 years to complete one
revolution. Because of its axial tilt, it has seasons,
just as Earth. But each of its seasons is about
twice as long.
The atmosphere of Mars consists of 96%
carbon dioxide. The remaining 3% is mostly nitrogen.
The pressure at the surface varies from from 4.0 to 8.7
mb (depending on season). We occasionally see clouds
in Mars' thin atmosphere.
Since it lacks an appreciable iron core, Mars has
no self-generated magnetic field. This results in
radiation levels at the surface that would be
harmful for human beings.
Foolish Earthling! Mars has no rings!
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