The most epic sites on Mars that humans should visit
Published on Feb 11, 2019
Mars contains some of the greatest attractions in the solar system. Here's stunning footage of those attractions like Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano which is three times as tall as Mount Everest. And Valles Marines, a canyon as long as the entire contiguous United States.
Following is a transcript of the video:
Imagine you could vacation on Mars. At first glance, Mars appears very different from Earth, but if you take a closer look, you'll discover that the Red Planet isn't all that different from our own.
Our first stop, the North Pole. This ice cap is bigger than Texas, and is mostly covered in water ice and solid carbon dioxide, aka dry ice.
Heading south, we'll visit Kasei Valles. It's a vast system of chasms five times longer and 10 times wider than the Grand Canyon, and scientists think it formed in a similar way. Billions of years ago, Mars was warmer, and covered with liquid water, which likely carved out valleys like this one.
Mawrth Vallis is another valley close by, but it looks very different from our previous spot, thanks to its multicolored layers of clay. These deposits probably formed over millennia as Mars shifted towards a colder, drier climate, and they could provide clues to the history of liquid water and possible ancient life on Mars.
The next stop is another place that may have been teeming with life long ago, Bacquerel Crater. It's filled with rocks made of sulfate similar to ones on Earth that form after water evaporates, which has led scientists to suspect that this crater may once have been a massive lake over 160 kilometers wide.
Next stop, Iani Chaos. Now, this is one type of terrain you won't find anywhere on Earth. It's a maze of rugged cliffs and pillar-like hills called mesas that extend for 200 kilometers, and since there is nothing like it on Earth, scientists aren't exactly sure how these unique features formed.
Its larger neighbor, Hydraotes Chaos, probably formed in a similar mysterious way. It stretches 350 kilometers, the same distance as New York City to Boston.
West of Hydraotes, we find one Mars's greatest attractions, Valles Marineris. It's the largest canyon in the solar system, running the length of New York to Los Angeles, and plunging four times as deep as the Grand Canyon.
Following the canyon's main channel north, we reach Hebes Chasma. It's tiny compared to Valles Marineris, but it's worth the trek for a glimpse of the chasma's prominent mesa.
And no trip to Mars would be complete without a visit to Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano in the solar system. It covers a region the size of Arizona. It's three times as tall as Mount Everest, and can comfortably fit all the volcanoes in Hawaii.
Moving south, we'll see Promethei Planum. It's a plane near the South Pole, covered in a sheet of ice nearly one and a half times as thick as the East Antarctic Ice Sheet.
Next, we'll swing around to Rabe Crater. It's covered in giant sand dunes 150 to 200 meters high, almost as tall as the Golden Gate Bridge.
Nearing the end of our tour is one of the oldest regions of Mars that dates back to at least 3.9 billion years ago, Neukum Crater. Scientists think this crater formed from a powerful impact early in Mars's history. In fact, you can still see pockmarks left by the crash.
The last crater on our tour is formally named Galle Crater, but many call it Happy Face Crater for obvious reasons.
Finally, we've reached our last stop, the South Pole. In 2018, scientists found evidence of a liquid lake beneath the ice, which could be filled with saltwater.
But while that's a promising discovery, we still have much to learn about this fascinating world, like whether life once existed in those ancient lakes, or if it still exists today, possibly somewhere underground. But perhaps the biggest question of all, could human life survive here? Maybe in the future, you won't have to imagine your Martian vacation.
Dreaming of the red planet | Alyssa Carson | TEDxBucharest
Published on Feb 21, 2019
Alyssa is a 17-year-old with a passion for the Red Planet. Here she talks about how this passion blossomed when she was just a little child and how, in fifteen years, it will be her home: “Some of you might call it the Red Planet. Some of you might call it Mars. I call it Home”. She explains what it takes to become an astronaut and the journey that awaits her. MARS ONE Ambassador.
“Stonebriggs” in the Glen Torridon area on Mars
Published on Mar 30, 2019
NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission: Curiosity rover is exploring Glen Torridon, a clay area on the lower slopes of Mount Sharpe. In March 2019, Curiosity imaged a zone with round and smooth clasts, nicknamed Stonebriggs. The rounded pebbles could have been shaped by ancient water flow. The raw images were acquired with Curiosity’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on 24 March 2019.
What kind of government will exist on Mars? | Michael Shermer
May 6, 2020
The colonization of Mars is a real possibility for the not-too-distant future. A big question that author Michael Shermer and others are considering is how what we know about government on Earth will shape the politics of a new planet.
Favored by Elon Musk, Shermer shoots down the suggestion of a direct democracy because he says that historically it does not work. Direct democracy can lead to a "mob mentality" where hysterics overtake logic, leading to witch hunts and other bad consequences.
Shermer explains why he thinks the government on Mars will, in many ways, mirror what we know as a representative democracy. There will be constitutional republic and a Bill of Rights that determines what people can and can't do.
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MICHAEL SHERMER:
Dr. Michael Shermer is the Founding Publisher of Skeptic magazine, a monthly columnist for Scientific American, and Presidential Fellow at Chapman University.
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TRANSCRIPT:
MICHAEL SHERMER: So governing Mars. Are there any lessons for the Red planet that we can take there from the Blue planet? I think there are. So I included this chapter in my book because in the section on government and economics and classical liberalism and political philosophy I think we have an opportunity here that we're about to colonize Mars. This is stunning that we can even contemplate doing this. And maybe it'll never happen, but let's say it does because it's a very realistic possibility either through Elon Musk or through a government program like NASA. This is possible. So we should start thinking now about, well, what are we going to take there? And I don't just mean what kind of food and records and books. I mean what kind of government are we going to set up there. Now it's possible that future Martians will think of something completely new that we've never thought of and they'll try some experiments and they'll come up with something great and we can important from the Red planet lessons for our own planet. That's possible. That's a sci-fi scenario that people have considered.
But I think it's not just let's abandon everything we've done on Earth because it was a failure. It's not a failure. I think there are certain things, experiments we've run that work better than others. In general democracies work better than autocracies. Free markets, even though regulated, free markets work better than command economies like in the Soviet Union, North Korea, and China before 1980's. I think those are some big global lessons that are obvious. And then more specific things like again granting people free thought and free speech. No censorship. That's a hard earned lesson. When you look at the history of free speech going back thousands of years, what we take for granted today like I can think and say anything I want and go on the internet and create my own blog and just rip into the government or to rip religion or whatever. That is really new and unusual in most centuries prior to this one. You'd be hung, burned at the stake, jailed for saying these things, thinking those things.
So those kinds of lessons I think we should take with us. I tweeted just for fun at Elon Musk and he tweeted back to my astonishment because he likes to think about these sorts of issues. What kind of government? He said well direct democracy. Okay, our founding fathers considered that. There was evidence even then that it doesn't work and lots of evidence since then that it doesn't work. The reason is because direct democracy is something like a mob mentality that is let's just do whatever the majority says. Well, the problem is you get mobs of people hysterical about something and the majority says burn women at the stake because we think they're cavorting with demons in the middle of the night and that's the cause of crop failures and pandemics and disasters. No, that's a crazy idea. That's a wrong idea and the mob got it wrong. There's this business about the wisdom of crowds...
Why we're sending a helicopter to Mars
May 17, 2020
When NASA launches its next Mars rover this summer, it will have a very special cargo on board: A helicopter. NASA's Ingenuity aims to be the first robot to take flight on another planet. Here's why it's such a big deal.
6 NASA technologies to get humans to Mars
Jul 20, 2020
NASA is advancing many technologies to send astronauts to Mars as early as the 2030s. Here are six things we are working on right now to make future human missions to the Red Planet possible.
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