Technology
MARS 2020
Using robots to secure our spot on the red planet
FAST FACTS:
DAY LENGTH: 24.6 hours
DISTANCE BETWEEN MARS AND THE SUN: 228 million kilometres
NAMED AFTER: The Roman god of war
DIAMETER: 6,791km (around half the size of Earth)
LENGTH OF A YEAR: 687 Earth days
AVERAGE TEMPERATURE: -62.7°C
SPEED: 86,676km/h
MOONSCRUST
MANTLE
OUTER CORE
Scientists aren’t yet
sure if Mars’s core is
LIQUID or SOLID.PHOBOSDEIMOSIf you weigh 45KG
on EARTH, you’d
weigh just 13.6KG
on MARS!ROBOTS ON MARS
Robots are amazing – they can do many things that are too hazardous
for humans to do themselves. Like explore Mars so that we can,
hopefully, settle there one day. That is the mission for Mars 2020 –
NASA’s space robot will be scouting the planet, assessing the potential
for human habitation and looking for signs of previous life. Its four
goals are:
Looking for habitability – is the planet capable of supporting life?
Seeking biosignatures – searching for signs of previous life.
Caching samples – collecting rock and soil samples and storing
them on Mars for future missions to analyse.
Preparing for humans – testing oxygen production from^
the atmosphere.
[Source: NASA]
ATMOSPHERE OF
MARS IS MADE UP OF:≥ 1% Other95% Carbon dioxide
≥ 2% Argon
≥ 2% NitrogenIT WON’T BE THE FIRST...
Since humans first started exploring space, they
have been fascinated with looking for life on
other planets. In fact, as far back as 1971, NASA
has been eyeing Mars. Mariner 9 became the
first spacecraft to orbit another planet in
November of that year when it took photos to
map over 70% of the red planet’s surface.There is VERY LITTLE GRAVITY
on MARS – in fact, only around
0.375% of EARTH’S GRAVITY!
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