39. The Red Planet-Mars

in his satiric novel, Gulliver's Travels, described two fictional moons of Mars, which are tiny and one lies so close to the planet that its orbital period is about 8 hours

Jonathan Swift

exploration of Mars has a large financial cost, with over half of all spacecraft destined for Mars failing before completing their missions. This phenomenon is known as the?

Mar's curse

became the first spacecraft to successfully orbit another planet on 1971 November 14

Mariner 9

discovered dried-up river beds

Mariner 9

launched November 26, 2011. landed in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012. OBjectives include investigating Mars' habitability, studying its climate and geology, and collecting data for possible future manned missions to Mars. twice as long an 5x heavier as spirit or opportunity. carries 10x the mass of scientific instruments

Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity)

an extinct volcano the size of the state of Georgia

Olympus Mons

orbits Mars in about 8 hours

Phobos

Mar's moons

Phobos and Deimos

probably asteroids captured by Mars' gravitational field

Phobos and Deimos, Mar's moons

Giovanni Schiaparelli in Italy reported seeing canali ("channels") on Mars, which he believed to be natural features, but Percival Lowell misinterpreted his intent, and believed that:

Schiaparelli had observed artificially constructed canals in Mars

the "Mars rovers"

Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity, and Perservance

4000-mile long canyon

Valles Marineris

became first probe to make a soft landing on the Martian surface.

Viking I

can we easily see surface features on Mars with ground-based telescopes?

Yes

seasonal temperature variations cause sublimation and deposition at CO2 at opposite ice caps, the resultant winds cause?

dust storms which uncover dark bedrock in some areas and bury it in others

no large scale vegetation on Mars, and ice caps are almost entirely _________

frozen CO2

On mars, we see dried-up river beds, which suggest that Mars?

must have had surface water in the past

mimic the grow and decay of vegetation: When spring comes to a Martian hemisphere, the polar ice cap diminishes; and dark ("green") areas appear

seasonal variation

why is there such a large failure rate for Mars?

the complexity and large number of variables involved in an interplanetary journey