How long is the flight to Mars? How many satellites does he have? 10 answers to questions about the Red Planet
Miscellaneous / / June 23, 2022
Time to find out how long it takes to get there and what the weather will be like when you land.
How long is the flight to Mars?
Movement of Mars and Earth around the Sun. The line shows the distance between the planets. The photos in circles above are the view of Mars from Earth at the moment of approach. Image: Peter Kovalik / CBC
It depends on when you started your journey. Mars and Earth revolve in elliptical orbits around the Sun. Due to the fact that their distance from the common luminary, and hence the speed of movement in orbits, is different, the distance between the planets either decreases or increases over time.
The smallest distanceDistance to Mars: How far away is the Red Planet? /Space.com between the Earth and the Red Planet was recorded in August 2003 - it was approximately 56 million kilometers. According to NASA, the next time such a convergence will occur only in 2237.
Mars is the furthest away from Earth at 401 million km, when the Sun is exactly between the two planets. The average distance is usually 225 million km.
When Mars comes close to Earth, which happens every 26 months, this is called opposition or opposition. And this is the optimal time to launch missions to the Red Planet.
So in order to guessDistance to Mars: How far away is the Red Planet? /Space.com moment to load on a spacecraft, it is not necessary to wait two hundred years, the launch window opens approximately once every two years.
According to the calculations of physics professor Craig Patten from the University of California at San Diego, it is possible to get to Mars get thereHow long does it take to get to Mars? /Space.com an average of nine months, or about 270 days, assuming fuel economy is needed. It will take about another nine months to return from Mars.
But in general, if you spend more fuel on acceleration and braking, then you can drive faster. For example, the Curiosity rover flewHow long does it take to get to Mars? /Space.com to Mars in 254 days, Perseverance in 204, and Mariner-7 in just 128 days.
Which country was the first to reach Mars?
Manned launches to Mars humanity has yet to accomplish - Elon Musk is just working on it. But robotic exploration of the Red Planet began in the 60s of the XX century.
Between 1960 and 1969 the Soviet Union launchedJ. S. Kargel. Mars - A Warmer, Wetter Planet nine probes that were supposed to fly to Mars. But almost all of them failed - some could not even take off, others did not reach Martian orbit. The launch was successful apparatus Mars 3 in 1971. He was able to work on the Red Planet for 14 seconds, transmitting scientific information and a fragment of the first ever photograph of the surface.
So the USSR, despite all the roughness of its missions, was the first to land a robot on Mars.
USA in 1964 launchedR. Godwin. Mars: The NASA Mission Reports two probes to Mars: Mariner-3 and Mariner-4. The first failed to leave the Earth's orbit - the fairing jammed. But the second flew safely to Mars in 1965.
The first American spacecraft to successfully enter a stable orbit around Mars was Mariner-9 in 1969. And Viking-1 and Viking-2 successfully landed on the surface of the planet in 1975 - four years later Soviet "Mars-3". But they were able to transmit much more scientific data.
Now the sandy expanses of Mars furrowL. Crumpler. Missions to Mars: A New Era of Rover and Spacecraft Discovery on the Red Planet NASA's Curiosity and Perseverance rovers, and China's Zhùróng. In the sky above the Red Planet, the American copter Ingenuity flies, and its bowels are drilled by the autonomous seismic station NASA InSight.
Mars is currently the only known science planet full of robots.
Are there mountains on Mars?
There is, and earthlings can only dream of such. In 1976, the Viking-1 orbiter photographedN. F. Comins. Discovering the Essential Universe Mount Olympus is the highest peak not only on Mars, but in general in the solar system. This is an extinct volcano with a height of more than 21.9 km, it is two and a half times surpassesN. F. Comins. Discovering the Essential Universe terrestrial Everest.
In addition to Olympus, on Mars there are many more hefty mountains, and all of them are of volcanic origin, such as Mount Ascre (18 km high), Elysium (16 km) and Mount Pavlina (14 km).
Why is Mars red?
If it comes to that, on closer inspection it is not red at all, but rather yellowish-brown with an admixture of golden, brown, tan and even green.
But from space Mars really looks redD. C. Catling. The nature of coarse‑grained crystalline hematite and its implications for the early environment of Mars / Icarus. The fact is that the uppermost thin layer of its surface contains oxidized iron. In addition, a lot of dust hovers in the planet's atmosphere, consisting of particles of red iron ore - hematite, enriched with titanium.
That is, Mars has a reddish tint literally due to the fact that it is rusty.
Another questionD. C. Catling. The nature of coarse‑grained crystalline hematite and its implications for the early environment of Mars / Icaruswhere there is so much rust on a planet without oxygen. Most likely, this means that there used to be water on Mars containing oxygen atoms. Or iron oxidizedv. Chevrier. Iron weathering products in a CO2 + (H2O or H2O2) atmosphere: Implications for weathering processes on the surface of Mars / Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta due to other substances - hydrogen peroxide, carbon dioxide or sulfur dioxide, which in the Martian air enough. These scientists have yet to figure it out.
How many satellites does Mars have?
Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos. Their names in Greek mean "Fear" and "Horror" respectively. These are the names of the sons of the Greek god of war Ares, later renamed Mars by the Romans.
The satellites are two smallK. S. Coles. The Atlas of Mars: Mapping Its Geography and Geology irregularly shaped celestial bodies that look more like asteroids than a normal self-respecting satellite like ours Moon. Phobos is larger, it is 26 km in diameter, Deimos is only 15 km.
From point of view astronomyK. S. Coles. The Atlas of Mars: Mapping Its Geography and Geology, Phobos and Deimos are very boring objects, there are no curious geological formations or other “sights” on them. It is only interesting how Mars acquired them. Either these are asteroids attracted by the Red Planet, or Mars used to have a large Moon, which for some reason fell into two pieces.
curiousK. S. Coles. The Atlas of Mars: Mapping Its Geography and Geologythat the writer Jonathan Swift, in his book The Adventures of Gulliver, told how astronomers of the flying island of Laputa, two small satellites were discovered near Mars, even before they were discovered in reality. And Stanislav Lem in his "Star Diaries of Iyon the Quiet" explained this by the fact that Swift met time Traveler.
How long is a day and a year on Mars?
Days on Mars and Earth have a similar durationTechnical Notes on Mars Solar Time / NASA. A Martian day is called a "sol" and lasts 24 hours 39 minutes and 35.244 Earth seconds.
But the year on the Red Planet is much longer than on Earth, because Mars is farther from the Sun. A Martian year is equal to 686.98 Earth days, or 668.5991 sols.
What is the weather like on Mars?
Because of the reddish hue and sand of Mars, many people associate it with the deserts of Earth, drawing an image in their head like Dunes Frank Herbert - a hot, arid planet with powerful sandstorms. But this is completely wrong.
Mars is very coldR. M. haberle. The Atmosphere and Climate of Mars planet with a rarefied atmosphere of carbon dioxide. The temperature on the planet ranges from -125 °C at the poles to +20 °C in the summer heat at the equator. The average temperature on the Red Planet is -63°C.
The mighty dust storms that Ridley Scott showed us in the movie "Martian”, are impossible in reality - the atmosphere is too thin and weak to create such vortices. The worst storm on Mars seemR. M. haberle. The Atmosphere and Climate of Mars earthlings with a light breeze.
But gravityR. M. haberle. The Atmosphere and Climate of Mars there is less than earth. If on Earth you weigh 75 kg, then on Mars this figure would be just over 28 kg. Due to weak gravity, storms carry more dust, causing damage to rovers that are powered by solar panels - their solar cells are constantly covered with sand.
What are martian channels?
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, astronomers noticedb. M. Stableford. Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia on Mars, a network of so-called channels - long lines in the equatorial regions of the planet. They were first described by the Italian scientist Giovanni Schiaparelli in 1877. Then these observations were explained by the fact that Mars has civilizationcreating irrigation systems.
However, by the beginning of the 20th century, astronomical equipment improvedb. M. Stableford. Science Fact and Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia, and new research has shown that the channels are nothing more than an optical illusion.
Modern satellites have mapped Mars with the highest accuracy, and now science knows for sure that there are no canals, rivers and, unfortunately, even streams on the Red Planet.
What color is the sky on Mars?
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Martian sky at sunset. The picture was taken by the Curiosity rover in February 2013. Image: NASA
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Martian sky at sunset. The picture was taken by the Spirit rover in May 2005. Image: NASA
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Martian sky at sunset. The picture was taken during the Mars Pathfinder mission in June 1999. Image: NASA
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Martian sky at noon. The picture was taken during the Mars Pathfinder mission in June 1999. Image: NASA
In the movies, the Martian sky is constantly depicted as light red, but in reality it is not. Yes, at sunset and at dawn it has a pinkish-red tint, but as Sun set or rise, air acquiresR. M. haberle. The Atmosphere and Climate of Mars more and more blue.
And at the height of the day, the sky has a yellow-brown hue. From time to time the sky on Mars also turns into violetA Violet Martian Sky / NASA due to the scattering of light by very small particles of water ice in clouds.
Is there water on Mars?
There is. Truth, frozenM. H. carr. The Surface of Mars condition. The entire hydrosphere of Mars is concentrated in the form of two caps at the north and south poles. planets. So far, NASA scientists have not been able to find liquid water, although there are indirect signs that, perhaps, somewhere deep in the soil and rocks, it still exists.
In the past, in the so-called HesperianM. H. carr. The Surface of Mars period, 3.5-2.5 billion years ago - Mars definitely had water. Its entire northern plain was occupied by a salty ocean of irregular shape, and in temperate latitudes there were many lakes and rivers. But then, when the planet's atmosphere was blown away by the solar wind, the ocean evaporated.
This is what happens when you forget to grow your normal magnetic field and gain planetary mass.
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