Mars: Extreme Planet

Travelers of the Future, Beware! Mars is no place for the faint-hearted. Arid, rocky, cold and apparently lifeless, the Red Planet offers few hospitalities. Fans of extreme sports can rejoice, however, for the Red Planet will challenge even the hardiest souls among us. Home to the largest volcano in the solar system, the deepest canyon and crazy weather and temperature patterns, Mars looms as the ultimate lonely planet destination.
If you dream of going, here's what to expect:
Mars Quick Facts: Learn about the similarities and differences between Mars and Earth, and about the two small moons that orbit Mars.
"Mars" here on Earth: If you want to know what it might be like to spend time in the Martian environment, visit the Haughton-Mars Project, which tested prototype Mars astronaut suits on July 26, 2000 and August 3, 2000. The Haughton impact crater is in the Canadian high arctic, and has a rocky polar desert setting somewhat like Mars--though, of course, nothing on Earth comes close to the extreme conditions on the red planet.
Other places on Earth that can help us understand Mars include:
Death Valley, California, where Ubehebe crater and "Mars Hill" have geologic features similar to those on Mars
Mono Lake, California, which is a 700,000-year-old evaporative lake that compares to Gusev Crater, a basin on Mars where water once was likely
Channeled Scabland in Washington, where catastrophic floods swept through the land much like what happened long ago in the Ares Vallis flood plain where Mars Pathfinder landed
Permafrost in Siberia, Alaska and Antarctica, where subsurface water-ice and small life forms exist
Volcanoes in Hawaii, which are like those on Mars, though much smaller

PHOBOS AND DEIMOS(moons of Mars)
Mars has two small moons: Phobos and Deimos. Phobos (fear) and Deimos (panic) were named after the horses that pulled the chariot of the Greek war god Ares, the counterpart to the Roman war god Mars. Both Phobos and Deimos were discovered in 1877 by American astronomer Asaph Hall. The moons appear to have surface materials similar to many asteroids in the outer asteroid belt, which leads most scientists to believe that Phobos and Deimos are captured asteroids.

Pop Culture Mars
In a time when only the moon and the stars lit up the night sky, fear and foreboding rose whenever a blood-red dot looped its way across an otherwise still sky. Mars, the Red Planet, was a familiar and yet suspicious omen, a symbol for war and aggression for thousands of years.


Mars has remained in the human imagination, and not even the rise of science and technology has interrupted our wary fascination with this neighboring world. Telescopes in the 1880s revealed strange markings on Mars which convinced masses of people that Mars had canals built by an alien race. Were these Martians warlike and should we fear an invasion?
Radio convinced us "yes" when a 1938 broadcast of "War of the Worlds" scared millions of listeners into believing that tentacled creatures had landed on Earth in their war machines. Today, we know that there is no intelligent civilization on Mars, and our imagination turns to our own possibilities on the planet.


The danger of Mars still lurks in our conscience, for Mars today is a hostile world, blanketed in toxic soil and zapped with radiation. And yet, we are on a quest to conquer our fears and make peace with this planet. We begin to brave the hardships because Mars is the only planet on which humans could one day settle, making it a place of hope as well as trepidation.