Planet Mars is also called the Red Planet
or Red World.
Mars is reddish in colour and was named after the god
of war of the ancient Romans. Mars is the only planet whose surface can be seen
in detail from the Earth. Mars is the fourth closest planet to the Sun and the
next planet beyond the Earth.
of Satellites: 2
(Phobos and Deimos)
Rotation Period: 24
hours and 37 minutes
-140 to 20 degrees Celsius (-220 to 60 Fahrenheit)
of Year: About 1
Earth-year and ten and a half months (687 days)
6796 Kms (4223 Miles)
Axial Tilt: 25.19 degrees
Mass: 6.4185 × 1023 kg (0.107 Earths
- about 11% of Earth's mass)
Volume: 1.6318×1011 km3 (0.151 Earths
- about 15% of Earth's volume)
Mars is a terrestrial planet and is the second
smallest planet in the Solar System. It is about half the size of Earth. It has a hard rocky
surface that you could walk on. Mars' surface is dry and much of it is covered
with a reddish dust and rocks. Mars has two permanent polar ice caps. Like Earth
it has seasons. It has the largest dust storms in the solar system.
Borealis Basin (North Polar Basin) in the northern
hemisphere covers 40% of the planet and maybe a giant impact crater.
Martian atmosphere consists of carbon dioxide (95 percent), nitrogen (2.7
percent), argon (1.6 percent), oxygen (0.2 percent) and trace amounts of water
vapor and carbon monoxide.
surface gravity on Mars is only about 38% of the surface gravity on Earth. If
you weigh 100 pounds on Earth then you would weigh only 38 pounds on Mars.
two moons and their names are Deimos and Phobos.
Nasa's Mars Robotic Exploration:
Mars was explored in flybys by Mariner 4, 6 and 7 in the 1960s and by the orbiting Mariner 9 in 1971 before NASA mounted the ambitious Viking mission, which launched two orbiters and two landers to the planet in 1975. The landers found no chemical evidence of life.
Mars Pathfinder landed on the planet on July 4, 1997, delivering a mobile robot rover that explored the immediate vicinity. Mars Global Surveyor is creating the highest-resolution map of the planets surface.
Russia/Soviets Mars Robotic Exploration:
Started in the 1960's with the Mars Program. The last endeavour
by Russia was Mars 96.
Planet Mars Spacecraft:
Viking 1 & 2: Successful
Phobos 1 and 2: Failed Phobos Probes
Mars Observer: Failed Mars Probe
Mars 96: Failed to leave Earths orbit
Mars Global Surveyor:
Mars Express: Currently in orbit
Spirit and Opportunity rovers
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter - launched Aug 2005
Mars Phoenix Lander
- launch in 2007
Science Laboratory - launch
Phobos Grunt - Russian 2011
Maven - 2013
Mangalyaan: first Indian mission - November 2013
Insight - (new) USA Lander 2016
More Facts on
Planet Mars - Did you know?
Mons is the largest volcano in the solar system (550km wide). It is also the
tallest mountain on any planet in the
The average distance from Mars to the Sun is
228 million km or 1.52 AU.
Mars 3 lander (Soviet / Russian) was the first
spacecraft to attain a soft landing in December 2, 1971.
How big would the sun look from Mars? The Sun
appears about half the size on Mars.
Mariner 4 (USA) was the first successful flyby of
planet Mars. It returned the first pictures of the Martian surface. It also
captured the first images of another planet ever returned from deep space.
Mars: The Inside Story of the Red Planet by
Heather Couper and Nigel Henbest
Book of Mars by Joseph M. Boyce
Science, Imagination, and the Birth of a World by
Picture from Bringing
Life to Mars
Planet Mars Links
comments or suggestions on Planet Mars, then click on