Mission to Mars

#8 Week 2

Author

Sigrun Sørumgård
January 10, 2025

Are You Ready to Conquer the Red Planet?

  1. How many moons does Mars have?

  2. Mars is named after the Roman god Mars. What was he the god of?

  3. Mars’s atmosphere has too much of which gas, making it impossible for humans to breathe without a space suit?

  4. Mars is home to the highest mountain in our solar system – a volcano, what is it called?

  5. The first spacecraft to land on Mars were the Viking Landers, which year did it touched down on the surface?

  6. NASA’s Mars Pathfinder successfully demonstrated a new way to safely land on the Red Planet and deliver the first-ever robotic rover, Sojourner, to the Martian surface. In what year did that land?

  7. How many Earth days is a year on Mars?

  8. How long would it take to get to Mars right now?

  9. What is the average temperature on Mars?

  10. Which ancient civilization first documented Mars as a "wandering star"?

The Wonder Wall

  • With a radius of 3,390 kilometers (2,106 miles), Mars is about half the size of Earth.

  • Mars is a terrestrial planet with a hard, rocky surface. Its northern side is dominated by flat plains, while the southern side has ridges and craters. The surface has channels, plains, and canyons that suggest the possibility of past water erosion. The Borealis Basin, the largest crater, covers 40% of the planet’s surface. Valles Marineris is the solar system’s largest canyon. Mars has polar ice caps made of frozen carbon dioxide. Occasionally, winds on Mars are strong enough to create dust storms that cover much of the planet.

  • In 2018, NASA’s Curiosity rover found signs which scientists think mean there once was life on Mars

Yesterday´s Answers

  1. On February 21, 1804

  2. Richard Trevithick

  3. Big Boy

  4. Stockton and Darlington Railway

  5. George Stephenson (and his sons).

  6. Paris - Istanbul

  7. Embark on an unforgettable 21-day train adventure from Lagos, Portugal to Singapore, traversing 18,755 kilometres and 13 countries.

    Portugal - Spain - France - Germany - Poland - Belarus - Russia - Mongolia - China - Laos - Thailand - Malaysia - Singapore

  8. 2004

  9. Pacific Railroad

  10. Top speed has risen from 210 km/h (130 mph) to 320 km/h (200 mph).