When the first human beings finally reach Mars, what might their arrival be like? Here is one plan...
Their ship will swing into orbit to dock with a cargo ship loaded with equipment and supplies that will have arrived a year earlier. The cargo ship will hold the Mars lander, which will be ready to take three of the eight crew members to the planet's surface. The lander's aerobrake, a curved disk the size of a small skating rink, will slow the ship's entry through the thin Martian atmosphere and will then be jettisoned as retrorockets softly deposit the vessel on Mars.
Despite the strangeness of it all and the stresses of their long, weightless journey, the voyagers will have little time to get used to Mars's gravity, which, although only one-third Earth's, will make them feel suddenly leaden. They will unload their living quarters, their scientific and communications equipment, and their rover from the lander and begin to set up camp.
Then will come the exploring. The rover will probably be slow, and there will be a lot of ground to cover. The explorable landmass of Mars is just about the same as Earth's because, even though Mars is a smaller world, most of Earth's surface is under water. As one scientist has put it, the whole experience might be a little like landing in the Mojave desert in a hi-tech Winnebago and setting off to explore seven continents at five miles per hour!
