ASTRO 115 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Robotic Spacecraft, Martian Canal, Martian Soil
Document Summary
Pathfinder (1997: present mars, look like some deserts or volcanic plains on earth, thin atmosphere, surface temperature well below freezing, atmospheric pressure <1% than that on surface of earth. Air too thin for human to survive outside for more than a few minutes without pressurized space suit: air: contains traces of o, cannot breathe. So cold that any liquid water would immediately freeze into ice: if temperature rises above freezing, air pressure is still so low. Liquid will quickly evaporate: to summarize: liquid water is unstable on mars today, martian seasons and winds, mars"s axis tilt very similar to earth"s (at 25 , differs from earth seasons because: Martian year nearly twice as long as earth year: seasons last twice as long. Seasons are affected by the ellipticity of its orbit: closer to sun during southern hemisphere summer and farther from.
