Slide 1
Martian Mysteries
• Is there any life on Mars right now?
• Was there ever life on Mars?
• Can humans live on Mars?
• How would YOU find the answers?
NOTES:
Ask the students what kind of questions they have about Mars, telling them that you hope to get
to all of their questions in the presentation. Next, ask them what questions they think people in
the past would have had. Finally, ask them what questions they think people will have in the
future. After you have some responses, reveal the questions on the list here. The question
somewhat in chronological order, the same order we’ll follow in the presentation. Did they come
up with all of the questions on the list? Did they come up with some that aren’t on the list?
Lastly, ask them how they would go about finding the answers to their current questions about
Mars. (Telescopes, rovers, send humans, etc.)
Slide 2
Scientists have been trying to
answer these questions by
sending space probes to Mars.
Enjoy these 3-D photos from
Mars missions.
NOTES:
Ask the students what the picture is. Ask them which planet is Earth, then which is Mars. The Sun is at
left (duh).
Before we go on talking about looking for life, we should stop for a minute to ask, “What does a planet
need in order to support life?” One ingredient we know of is WATER. Without water, we don’t think
there could be any life at all. So before searching for life we should first try to find places where there’s
water. For example, we know that the planet Mercury is too close to the Sun--it’s too hot, so there can be
no water there. There’s a special zone, called the “Goldilocks Zone”, where it’s not too hot, not too cold,
so perhaps water can exist. Earth sits right in the middle of this zone (“just right”), and Mars and Venus
are both on the edges, where scientists think it’s just a little too cold, or a little too hot. If there’s any
water on Mars now, it must be frozen, because Mars is so cold. [PRESENTER’S NOTE: When Mars is
warm enough, any liquid water doesn’t last very long on Mars, because it quickly evaporates in the
presence low atmospheric pressure.] But 2 billion years ago, the Sun was actually a little hotter than it is
now--would you guess that Mars was warmer than it is now, or cooler? Would the “Goldilocks Zone”
have moved, so that Mars would have been closer to the middle? [Yes, and therefore it’s possible that
LIQUID water existed in Mars’ distant past!]
SLIDE DESCRIPTION:
This is an artists conception that documents where in the Solar System the “Goldilocks Zone” falls. It
should be noted that the planets are never lined up in this way in nature. Their fictional formation is
simply to illustrate the concept, although the diameters are drawn to scale (not the spacing!).
Slide 3
Mars Pathfinder
3D
© Don Davis
Mars Arrival: 1997
Mission: Surface Exploration
The following is information for the presenter. Only spend a few seconds (~15) on each spacecraft slide.
Find one element that you find to be interesting and tell the audience about it
[Mars Pathfinder landed a single vehicle with a microrover (Sojourner) and several instruments on the
surface of Mars in 1997. Sojourner's mobility provides the capability of covering an area over hundreds of
square meters on Mars. Pathfinder will be investigating the surface of Mars with three additional science
instruments (a stereoscopic imager with spectral filters on an extendible mast (IMP)), an Alpha Proton XRay Spectrometer (APXS), and an Atmospheric Structure Instrument/Meteorology package (ASI/MET).
These insturments will allow investigations of the geology, the magnetic and mechanical properties of the
soil as well as the magnetic properties of the dust, a variety of atmospheric investigations and rotational
and orbital dynamics of Mars.
The name Sojourner was chosen for the Mars Pathfinder rover after a year-long, worldwide competition
in which students up to 18 years old were invited to select a heroine and submit an essay about her
historical accomplishments.
Valerie Ambroise, 12, of Bridgeport, CT, submitted the winning essay about Sojourner Truth, an AfricanAmerican reformist who lived during the Civil War era. An abolitionist and champion of women's rights,
Sojourner Truth, whose legal name was Isabella Van Wagener, made it her mission to "travel up and
down the land," advocating the rights of all people to be free and the rights of women to participate fully
in society. The name Sojourner was selected because it means "traveler.”]
Slide 4
3D
NOTES:
3D image of the Sojourner Rover from cameras on the Pathfinder lander. What parts do you see
on the rover? What were they used for?
Antenna: (tall thin upright piece) communication with the lander, which in turn communicated
with Earth.
Solar panels: (black on top) charge batteries for scientific activities, moving, and communicating.
Wheels: special system designed to move about on Mars.
Slide 5
M.E.R. Rovers
3D
© Corby Waste
Mars Arrival: 2004
Mission: Was Mars Once Capable of Life?
The following is information for the presenter. Only spend a few seconds (~15) on each spacecraft slide.
Find one element that you find to be interesting and tell the audience about it.
[Mars Exploration Rover Project will deliver two mobile laboratories to the surface of Mars for robotic
geological fieldwork, including the examination of rocks and soils that may reveal a history of past water
activity.
The twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, can recognize and maneuver around small obstacles on their way
to target rocks selected by scientists from images sent by the rovers. They will conduct unprecedented
studies of Mars geology, such as the first microscopic observations of rock samples. They will provide
"ground truth" characterization of the landing vicinities that will help to calibrate observations from
instruments that view the planet from above on Mars orbiters. NASAselected the sites to be explored,
Gusev Crater (Spirit) and Meridiani Planum (Opportunity), from 155 potential locations as the two
offering the best combination of safe landing potential and scientific appeal in assessing whether liquid
water on Mars has ever made environments conducive to life.
[Rover dimensions: 1.5 meter (4.9 feet) high by 2.3 meters (7.5 feet) wide by 1.6 meter (5.2 feet) long
Weight: 1,062 kilograms (2,341 pounds)
Power: Solar panel and lithium-ion battery system providing 140 watts on Mars surface
Science instruments: Panoramic cameras, miniature thermal emission spectrometer, Mössbauer
spectrometer, alpha particle X-ray spectrometer, microscopic imager, rock abrasion tool, magnet arrays.
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html]
Slide 6
Mars Express
3D
© Corby Waste
Mars Arrival: 2003
Mission: Map Mars, Find Evidence of Water
The following is information for the presenter. Only spend a few seconds (~15) on each spacecraft slide.
Find one element that you find to be interesting and tell the audience about it.
[The Mars Express mission has photographed Mars in unprecedented detail and has found evidence for
water ice on the Martian surface. One of the instruments aboard Mars Express is the High Resolution
Stereo Camera. It is designed to take color, 3D images of the Martian surface with a resolution of ~6
feet!
Mars Express is Europe’s first mission to Mars. (European Space Agency, ESA)
Launch date: 2 June 2003, Arrival at Mars: December 2003, Spacecraft bus dimensions: 1.5 x 1.8 x 1.4
m
Electrical power: This is provided by the spacecraft's solar panels which were deployed shortly after
launch. When Mars is at its maximum distance from the Sun (aphelion), the solar panels are still be
capable of delivering 650 Watts which is more than enough to meet the mission's maximum requirement
of 500 Watts, equivalent to just five ordinary 100 Watt light bulbs!
Communications: The circular dish attached to one face of the spacecraft bus is a 1.6-metre diameter
high-gain antenna for receiving and transmitting radio signals when the spacecraft is a long way from
Earth.
The Mars Express Orbiter will:
* image the entire surface at high resolution (10 meters/pixel) and selected areas at super resolution (2
meters/pixel) (Remember, a meter is about 3 feet);
* produce a map of the mineral composition of the surface at 100 meter resolution;
* map the composition of the atmosphere and determine its global circulation;
* determine the structure of the sub-surface to a depth of a few kilometers;
* determine the effect of the atmosphere on the surface;
* determine the interaction of the atmosphere with the solar wind.
The large antenna is the MARSIS Sub-Surface Sounding Radar and Altimeter. The instrument's 40-meter
long antenna will map the sub-surface structure of Mars to a depth of a few kilometers.
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/]
Slide 7
Mars Reconnaissance 3D
Orbiter
© Corby Waste
Mars Arrival: 2006
Mission: Detailed Observations, Find Landing Sites for
Astronauts
The following is information for the presenter. Only spend a few seconds (~15) on
each spacecraft slide. Find one element that you find to be interesting and tell the
audience about it
[After a seven-month cruise to Mars and six months of aerobraking to reach its
science orbit, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will seek to find out about the history
of water on Mars with its science instruments. They will zoom in for extreme
close-up photography of the martian surface, analyze minerals, look for subsurface
water, trace how much dust and water are distributed in the atmosphere, and
monitor daily global weather.
These studies will help determine if there are deposits of minerals that form in
water over long periods of time, detect any shorelines of ancient seas and lakes,
and analyze deposits placed in layers over time by flowing water. It will also be
able to tell if the underground martian ice discovered by the Mars Odyssey orbiter
is the top layer of a deep ice deposit or whether it is a shallow layer in equilibrium
with the current atmosphere and its seasonal cycle of water vapor.
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/]
Slide 8
Phoenix
3D
© Corby Waste
Mars Arrival: 2008
Mission: Explore the North Pole
[The Phoenix Mars Mission is scheduled for launch in August 2007 Phoenix is
specifically designed to measure volatiles (especially water) and complex organic
molecules in the arctic plains of Mars, where the Mars Odyssey orbiter has
discovered evidence of ice-rich soil very near the surface.
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/overview/
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/future/phoenix.html]
Slide 9
View from a rover
3D
NOTES:
What do you see in this image? This is a panoramic image split into two pieces. (Tracks,
communication antenna for talking to Mars Global Surveyor or Earth, corner of a solar panel,
rocks, dirt…) Unlike the Pathfinder mission, there are no instruments back at the landing sites of
the MER rovers. The MER rovers carry all of the tools they need: solar panels for charging
batteries, a communications antenna, many cameras, a rock abrasion tool for drilling away rock
surfaces, a “sniffer” for testing the composition of rocks and soil, etc.
Lead into next slide: While the MER rovers are adventuring and doing science experiments, they
also observe its surroundings. For example, they has observed all kinds of rock and soil, sun rises
and sets, and weather!
SLIDE DISCRIPTION:
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its navigation camera to take the images
combined into this view of the rover's surroundings on Opportunity's 387th Martian day, or sol
(Feb. 24, 2005). Opportunity had driven about 73 meters (240 feet) and reached the eastern edge
of a small crater dubbed "Naturaliste," seen in the right(bottom) foreground.
Slide 10
The Twin Peaks
3D
NOTES:
Starting with the Sojourner Rover, we have 3D images of Mars! Scientists like to have 3D
images because it gives us a clearer picture of what the terrain is like. In order to create a 3D
image, two pictures are required from cameras separated by a couple of inches. Humans see in
three dimensions because we have two eyes slightly separated from each other. Try closing your
right eye. Can you still see the image in 3D? What else do you notice when you close your right
eye? Look at the “3D” in the upper right corner of the slide. What’s missing? Why? The blue
plastic of your glasses lets only the bluish light through, so the red “D” disappears! What do you
think will happen if you close your left eye? (Have the kids make a prediction before they
actually try!)
SLIDE DISCRIPTION:
This image was taken by the Pathfinder lander. The Twin Peaks are approximately one mile from
the lander.
Slide 11
Olympus Mons
3D
SCRIPT:
Two images of Olympus Mons. The image on the right is a 3D close up of the central caldera.
Ask the students if they can match where the right image fits in with the left image. The left
image is a Viking image of the huge volcano. (Lead into the next slide - Viking)
Martian Volcanoes - Essentials:
Mars has the largest known volcanoes in the solar system. They are on a area of Mars known as
the Tharsis Bulge. The largest is Olympus Mons- it is bigger than the state of Washington! It is
27 km high (~17 mi) which is 3X the height of Mount Everest. These are shield volcanoes of the
type in Hawaii-built up by layer upon layer of lava.
Extras:
-Martian volcanoes are big because Mars has no plate tectonics. Hot spots just sit in one place
and allow lava to pile up on itself. On Earth, a plate moves across a hot spot creating a chain of
volcanoes (like Hawaiian islands).
-Olympus Mons is as big as a volcano can get on Mars. If any more lava was piled on top of it,
the entire mountain would sink into the ground a little bit so that it settled to the height it had
before.
Slide 12
Mars Express
3D
Water-ice in
a Martian
crater. The
ice may be
200 m or
656 ft deep.
NOTES:
New mysteries: why is there water ice (white patch) inside this crater?
The robotic Mars Express spacecraft took the above image in early February, 2005. The ice
pocket was found in a 35-kilometer wide crater that resides 70 degrees north of the Martian
equator. There, sunlight is blocked by the 300-meter tall crater wall from vaporizing the waterice on the crater floor into the thin Martian atmosphere. The ice pocket may be as deep as 200
meters thick. Frost can be seen around the inner edge on the upper right part of the crater, while
part of the lower left crater wall is bathed in sunlight. The existence of water-ice pockets inside
craters near the Martian North Pole, like that pictured give clues not only about surface
conditions in the Martian past but also possible places where future water-based astronauts
might do well to land.
SLIDE DISCRIPTION:
This image, taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA’s Mars Express
spacecraft, shows a patch of water ice sitting on the floor of an unnamed crater near the Martian
north pole.
Slide 13
Tithonium Chasma
3D
© Corby Waste
Tithonium Chasma, Valles Marineris.
Eastern Tithonium Chasma is one branch of the vast Valles Marineris canyon complex. Tithonium is 50
kilometers wide and over 6 kilometers deep in this area. In comparison, the Grand Canyon, one of the
most impressive canyons on Earth, is only approximately 30 kilometers wide and 2 kilometers deep.
These canyons show many of the canyon-forming processes in detail. Landslides have enlarged the
canyon walls and created debris deposits on canyon floors. Flowing groundwater has created numerous
side canyons, and a thick layered deposit, eroded by winds, has formed in the center of the canyon. These
canyons probably formed within the last 3 billion years.
The Valles Marineris canyon complex is a large rift in the martian crust. The canyons were initiated by
extensional fracturing during the uplift of the Tharsis plateau. Landslides, groundwater flow, and erosion
subsequently widened the canyons. The canyons were then partially filled by layered sediments, which
may be lake sediments. These sediments have been eroded by winds into sculpted deposits. Limited
volcanic or hydrothermal activity may have formed bright and dark deposits on the floors of some
canyons.
Imaging from the Viking 1 Orbiter and Lunar and Planetary Institute
Slide 14
“Berries”
3D
Scientists
nicknamed these
pebbles
“berries.” They
are hematite, a
mineral that also
forms on Earth.
It forms in water,
and is evidence
that Mars had
large bodies of
standing water.
NOTES:
While roaming close to its landing site in Meridiani Planum, the Opportunity rover found these
strange spherical pebbles scattered in the soil. The scientists nicknamed them “blueberries”, of
“berries” since they looked like berries in the soil. Scientists used a special instrument called a
spectrometer to determine that the “berries” were made from an iron bearing mineral called
Hematite. Hematite forms on Earth as well and scientists know that it usually forms in liquid
water, in a way similar to the way rock candy forms in water. This adds more evidence to the
theory that Mars once had large bodies of standing water.
[Note that the berries aren’t spherical because of erosion (like river rocks are). Not all “berries”
have a spherical shape but the spherical shape is is an artifact of how these berries form in
water. These berries are known as concretions, which occurs when minerals precipitate around
a nucleus and slowly build up more material.
Current knowledge leaves us with some intriguing questions: Could Mars have been more compatible
with early life than Earth? Could ancient life have survived underground for the past 4 billion years?
Could that life have hitched a ride on a Meteor and seeded life on Earth?
SLIDE DISCRIPTION:
“Berries” as seen by Opportunity. The image of a blueberry is given for scale.
Slide 15
For more information on space
science happening at Montana
State University visit
solar.physics.montana.edu/spot/
NOTES:
Ask the students what the picture is. Ask them which planet is Earth, then which is Mars. The Sun is at
left (duh).
Before we go on talking about looking for life, we should stop for a minute to ask, “What does a planet
need in order to support life?” One ingredient we know of is WATER. Without water, we don’t think
there could be any life at all. So before searching for life we should first try to find places where there’s
water. For example, we know that the planet Mercury is too close to the Sun--it’s too hot, so there can be
no water there. There’s a special zone, called the “Goldilocks Zone”, where it’s not too hot, not too cold,
so perhaps water can exist. Earth sits right in the middle of this zone (“just right”), and Mars and Venus
are both on the edges, where scientists think it’s just a little too cold, or a little too hot. If there’s any
water on Mars now, it must be frozen, because Mars is so cold. [PRESENTER’S NOTE: When Mars is
warm enough, any liquid water doesn’t last very long on Mars, because it quickly evaporates in the
presence low atmospheric pressure.] But 2 billion years ago, the Sun was actually a little hotter than it is
now--would you guess that Mars was warmer than it is now, or cooler? Would the “Goldilocks Zone”
have moved, so that Mars would have been closer to the middle? [Yes, and therefore it’s possible that
LIQUID water existed in Mars’ distant past!]
SLIDE DESCRIPTION:
This is an artists conception that documents where in the Solar System the “Goldilocks Zone” falls. It
should be noted that the planets are never lined up in this way in nature. Their fictional formation is
simply to illustrate the concept, although the diameters are drawn to scale (not the spacing!).
Slide 16
Brought to you by
Montana Space Grant Consortium
Montana State University
National Aeronautics and Space Administration