Surface of Mars-Lab

Introduction

During this lab, we studied the visible surface of Mars to determine some of its qualities and what may have caused (or is currently causing) these features.

Procedure

For this lab, we used several different maps of Mars, as well as infrared and elevation maps. We also used Google Mars (https://www.google.com/mars/) and pictures provided by the instructor.

Observations

A.    Percival Lowell was a businessman and astronomer who died 100 years ago in 1916. This is what Percival Lowell recorded that he saw on the surface of Mars when he looked through his telescope:

Compare Percival Lowell’s drawings to one of the best images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope in 2003:

Percival Lowell thought he was seeing evidence of advanced intelligent people on Mars, as evidenced by vast canals spanning the planet.

1.     Why would Percival think he saw canals? Hint: think about our own civilization more than 100 years ago. What were the dominant modes of transportation?

·       He could have thought that he saw canals because they are a common human structure. His view was not very clear in the first place, and his mind was bound to make inferences like we humans do.

2.     What was Percival seeing instead?

·       He was likely seeing some of the color differences on the surface of the planet, due to differing compositional makeup on the surface of Mars.

B.    Here are typical sets of images that can be obtained with Mars from telescopes on the ground (with digital cameras and careful observing practices):

1.     What are the main features that you can identify from the images taken from surface of the Earth? What might be they caused by or produced by? Can you see anything that resembles craters, mountains or seas?

·       From these images I first notice that the composition of Mars seems to be varied. I say this because of the shifts in color on the surface. I also notice what seems to be a cap of white near the top of Mars at its axis. This could be ice. Though I don’t see large and visible mountains or craters, the darker parts of Mars could be mistaken for a sea in some of these images.

2.     How are these ground-based images similar to the Hubble Space Telescope image? How are they different? Why might our views of Mars be changing? Are they more detailed or less detailed?

·       They are similar because they both show versions of the same, rounded, reddish planet. The image from the Hubble space telescope is much more detailed because it does not need to look through the earth’s atmosphere and there is less distortion. Our views of Mars are changing to be much more detailed because we can see the surface more accurately than ever before and we have sent robots to probe the surface as well.

3.     Does Mars have a lot of visible craters like the moon at Mercury? What does this mean?

·       Mars does not appear to have a multitude of craters like the Moon or Mercury. This could likely be due to one of two things. Either Mars is a younger planet that the Mercury and our Moon, or it has a thicker atmosphere than these planets, preventing most impacts from damaging the surface severely.

4.     The “S”-shaped sequence of Mars-shaped images clearly show Mars appearing to change in size. They were taken over several months. What is going on?

·       This is an example of Mars undergoing retrograde motion. This is where the Earth and Mars come closer together (thus the size change) and the Earth passes Mars in its orbit (thus the “S” curve)

C.    Here are two more images taken months apart with the Hubble Space Telescope:

Looking at these two images, you can still identify changes in the color of the surface of Mars.

1.     What are the main features that you can identify in these images?

·       You can see different colors, indicating different surface compositions. This could also indicate different elevations. In addition, it looks like either ice or clouds gathered at the poles of Mars.

2.     How are these two images similar and different?

·       In the second image, the surface colors appear more muted and the planet appears to be covered in some kind of fog.

3.     What is going on here?

·       This appears to be a planet-wide dust storm covering the surface of Mars and clouding the atmosphere.

D.    We first landed on Mars in the 1970s with the Viking missions, and have sent rovers to Mars for the past 20 years since July 4th, 1997, starting with the Mars Pathfinder mission. We have also sent a series of orbiters, including the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft that operated until its batteries failed in 2006. Currently there are a total of seven spacecraft either orbiting (MAVEN, Odyssey, Express, and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) or roving the surface of (Curiosity, Spirit, Opportunity) Mars today. Use the images below. Google Mars shows a false-color relief (elevation) map of the surface of Mars, revealing many details about the planet.

1.     What do the four highest features on Mars appear to be? What could that mean?

·       The four highest points on the surface of Mars appear to be Arsia Mons, Pavonis Mons, Ascraeus Mons, and Olympus Mons. This means that, at one time, Mars had at least some volcanic activity.

2.     In the elevation map of the planet, what is the most noticeable difference between the Northern and Southern hemispheres of Mars? What might this mean?

·       There is a strike difference between the northern and southern hemisphere of Mars. The northern hemisphere appears to be at a much lower elevation, and also appears to be younger (less evidence of cratering).

3.     Which hemisphere appears to have most of the impact craters?

·       The southern hemisphere definitely appears to be covered in far more impact craters than the northern hemisphere.

4.     What appears to be the largest impact crater on Mars?

·       Hellas Planitia appears as if it could be a rather giant impact crater. However, it is not nearly as close to round as every other crater seen on the surface of Mars. Though it is an unusual feature, being of such low elevation in an area of almost entirely high elevation it was very possibly formed by something other than an impact. If Hellas Planitia is not an impact crater then, I would say that Argyre Planitia appears to be the largest impact crater on the surface of Mars.

5.     Find the landing sites for the US Viking I and II spacecraft, which touched down on July 20th and September 3rd of 1976 (40 years ago). What type of terrain did they land in? What do you think were the reasons for choosing these particular areas? From the elevation map, were they high or low elevation regions on the surface?

·       The Viking 1 and 2 appear to have both landed in areas that are of a low elevation in the northern hemisphere. These would have been reasonable landing site because it looks to be relatively flat and free of cratering.

6.     Find the landing site of the US Mars Pathfinder, Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity spacecraft. What type of terrain did they land in? What could have been the reasons for choosing these areas?

·       Each of these rovers seem to have landed in areas of relatively low elevation. That being said, they gradually work their way up from Pathfinder to Curiosity. Each of these rovers appear to have landed in relatively flat areas, but near other interesting features of the land that they could explore. Each rover lands at a gradually higher altitude, and all in different areas of the planet to get a wide variety of surface samples.

7.     The Soviet Mars 3 spacecraft was the first soft landing on December 2nd, 1971 at the Ptolemaeus Crater on Mars. Find it on your maps. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_3 After 14.5 seconds, transmission from the surface stopped. It may have fallen over, or there was a dust storm raging on Mars at the time that could have fried the electronics. Give a reasonable explanation for why it may have fallen over.

·       Because it landed near a crater, there are a lot of possibilities concerning the state of the planet’s surface. This could have been a part of the planet’s surface that was rocky and unstable or slanted. If this was the case, it would not have been implausible that the rover would simply fall over after an unsteady landing on an unstable surface.

E.    With the Google Mars map views (elevation, visible and infrared):

1.     Search for the landing sites of the Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit and Opportunity). They landed at Gusev Crater and Meridiani Terra.

2.     Zoom in on each landing site and describe each site as to the features present and their elevations. Suggest reasons why these particular places might have been chosen.

·       Spirit: there appears to be flat ground in the center of the crater where the spirit rover landed, but it is also near several impact craters that it could explore and collect samples from.

·       Opportunity: The opportunity Rover has similar surroundings to that of the Spirit rover. The main difference is that Opportunity did not land in the center of a crater, so there is not the possibility of the rover being stuck in the crater once it lands.

3.     Look at each landing site in the visible and infrared and determine whether you can see things in one wavelength of light that you cannot see in the other. Describe your findings.

·       In infrared, the surface appears to be more detailed. The differences in color (possibly caused by differences in composition) are much more stark and stand out more.

4.     Search for Niger Valles using the Google Mars search tool. Increase the magnification and follow Niger Valles by eye from its high elevation beginning to its low elevation end. What seems to have been going on here? Describe your findings.

·       The Niger Valles appears to be a channel carved out by water over years of it flowing on the surface of Mars.

F.    NASA spacecraft continue to explore MARS today. See

http://science.nasa.gov/missions/. If you were planning the next mission to Mars, what

would its goals be?

·       I would want to land a rover in Hellas Planitia. It is a very interesting feature that looks as if it could be the result of an impact crater, or something else entirely (such as the presence of a liquid ocean on the surface of Mars). The goals of my mission would be to discover exactly how this area was formed, and what remains on the surface from this formation.

Conclusion

Throughout this lab we studied the surface of Mars. We made observations about the composition, elevation, planetary motion, and history of surface features on Mars. Mars has a history of volcanic activity. It also has surface features indicating that there may have once been a vast ocean or liquid water flowing on the planet.