NATS 1880 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Olympus Mons, Axial Tilt, Photodisintegration
13 Apr 2018
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Learning outcomes: explain what mars is like today, discuss evidence for water on mars today and in the past, assess whether humans could and should live on mars. The popularity of mars began with w. herschel in the late 18th century. G. schiaparelli"s canali in late 19th c. P. lowell dedicated his life to mapping the martian canali in early 20th c. O. welles" war of the worlds in 1938. Suggestions nasa used popular fascination with mars to. Promote space program into the 1960s and beyond. Pressurized habitats an option for humans and crops. Gravity about 40% and diurnal cycle almost identical to earth"s. Even if temperature above freezing, atmospheric pressure too low to allow liquid to remain in that state. Thus liquid water is unstable on martian surface, freezing and/or evaporating almost immediately. Dust storms arise often, moving large quantities of soil, changing the surface appearance (revealing or covering darker underlying rock).
