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9.6.11 The following document was updated on 12-30-88 and contains 24319 characters. NERGAL + ARES = MARS "S fhada an gladeth bho lochodha" Gaelic quotation found on a 12th century tombstone, translation: "And they shall behold a far-off land" NERGAL + ARES = MARS To the ancient observers of the night sky there were, among the thousands of fixed points of light, six objects that moved. Five were brighter versions of the fixed points of light and were given the title PLANETS, from the Greek word "to wander". The sixth object was the moon. One of the five wandering objects had a distinctive bloody color to it and for this reason it was given the name of one war god or another. To the Sumerians, who were probably the first civilization to record astronomical phenomena, this object was called NERGAL. To the Greeks who came along centuries later it was called ARES; and to the Romans who borrowed from the Greeks, it was called MARS. To all it was a planet that cast a light considered evil. Its symbol consists of a shield and a spear. In time it was given temples, statues, epic poems, and even a day of the week. The third day of the week in the Roman calendar was referred to as Mars Day. Other peoples used variations of this word. For example the Germanic tribes referred to this day as "Tiw" or "Tiw's Day", which in English became "Tuesday". Mars and the other planets were thought to cast controlling light upon the Earth, and it was important to know where each object was in the sky. Exact measurements were kept and predictions made out of the data. The study of these positions and the predictions made out of the data was called Astrology, the science of the stars. Over the centuries of observing the red planet, very little real information was added prior to the invention of the telescope. It was noted that Mars, as well as Jupiter and Saturn, moved back and forth among the stars in sort of a looping pattern. But this phenomena was not understood and only added to the mystery. Mars refused to follow a predictable pattern! Mars also had one other strange thing about itself: it varied its brightness from year to year. The first real breakthrough in understanding Mars came from the insight of Nicholas Copernicus, whose book (published in 1543) established a pattern to planetary motion and placed Mars as the fourth planet from the sun. Around the end of the 16th century, Tycho Brahe tackled the problem of Mars and its strange motion. He made the most accurate measurement prior to the invention of the telescope of the apparent motion of Mars. Yet he offered no conclusions as to why it behaved this way. This answer was to come from his assistant, Johannes Kepler. Kepler studied Brahe's data and added to it his own observations for years before coming up with the explanation. Planetary motion was the result of the path each object took as it moved around the Sun. This path was not a perfect circle as was believed, but an ellipse. Those were exciting times in Europe. The lives of these three men make for interesting, fascinating reading, for each was unique and, to say the least, colorful. The next breakthrough came with the invention of the telescope. To Galileo, whose telescope was too weak to reveal much, Mars wasn't very exciting. At best it was a small reddish/orange colored disc devoid of features. He did, however, conclude that Copernicus was correct in his scheme of things, and that Mars was, indeed, the fourth planet from the Sun. This conclusion was based on the fact that Mars was outside the Earth's orbit and always presented a full disc. An object that orbits the Sun like Mercury inside the Earth's orbit goes through phases just like the moon does. The first real map of Mars was made in 1659 by a brewmaster turned astronomer named Huygens. He used a large awkward instrument, and with it was able to draw features on his maps. By observing the motion of these features, he was able to determine the rotational period of Mars of 24.5 hours, a figure that is quite close to the exact figure. By the end of the 18th century, the English astronomer Herschel (discoverer of the 7th planet) found that Mars had ice caps at the poles. This, along with its rotational period, made people think that Mars was but a small version of Earth. The dark areas observed were assumed to be seas or land masses, and the thinking was that Mars, like Earth, was alive! Yet almost a century would elapse before the next discoveries were made. The year was 1877, a big year for Martian discoveries. That year Mars made one of its closer approaches, and astronomers world wide turned their attention and instruments toward it. Two men stood out in their observations. Giovanni Schiaparelli, an Italian who drew the best maps to date, and Asaph Hall, an American who discovered that Mars had two moons. Here again are two people whose lives make for interesting reading. It was Schiaparelli who gave us the idea that Mars had canals, and it was Hall who showed how patient one must be to make discoveries. Once the idea of Martian canals was circulated, almost everyone was seeing them, and Mars was assumed for sure to support not only life, BUT intelligent life! Mars became the passion of a wealthy Boston amateur astronomer named Percival Lowell. Lowell eventually moved his passion to Arizona with its clearer skies where he built an observatory devoted to the study of Mars. It is somewhat ironic to note that much of what he discovered there and published would later be proven incorrect. Yet there was to be a spinoff from all this: it was his organization that would later pursue and eventually find the 9th planet. This planet was to be named Pluto, whose first two letters are in remembrance of Percival Lowell. Other Martian discoveries had to await new tools. By 1900 the spectroscope led astronomers to conclude that Mars had a thin atmosphere. By 1930 heat sensitive instruments allowed us to take Mars' temperature. There were times, during the summer days near the equator, that readings of 60 or 70 degrees F were found. But the Martian nights and the winters had readings that were well below zero. All this could prove tough to life as we know it. The question of Martian life still remained a challenge to people, and the only way to answer it was to go there. This had to wait until the space age. MARTIAN FACTS Rotation period: 24 hours 37 minutes Length of year: 687 Earth days 668.6 Mars days Orbit: Perihelion Mars Earth 128,000,000 91,200,000 (miles) Aphelion 154,400,000 94,300,000 The orbit of Mars is more elliptical than any other of the inner planets except Mercury. It differs by more than 26 million miles from its closest approach to the sun to its farthest. If Venus were this elliptical, its orbit would cross Earth's. Axis tilt: 25.2 degrees Name: Roman god of war Surface gravity: .38 that of Earth's Atmosphere of Mars: CO2 95% N2 2.7% Ar 1.6% CO .6% O2 .15% H2O .03% Atmosphere of Earth: N2 78.1% O2 20.9% H2O varies from .05% to 2% Ar .9% CO2 .03% Martian air pressure at the surface is .007 that of Earth. This is like being l00,000 feet above sea level. Diameter: Mars 4,222 miles Earth 7,926 miles The highest point on the surface of Mars is the top of Olympus Mons, a volcanic feature more than 78,000 feet from top to bottom. Moons: 2 Phobos: means "Fear" discovered by Asaph Hall on 8/12/1877 Size: 17X14X12 miles, irregular shape, resembles an old very dark potato. An object with a velocity of 15 mph will go into orbit around Phobos. Deimos: means "Terror" discovered by Asaph Hall on 8/17/1877 size: 10X7.5X6 miles, also shaped like an old spud. The orbital velocity for Deimos is 7 mph MARS ONE ACTIVITY 1 It is early in the 21st century. The exploration of Mars has begun in earnest. It has been decided to establish an outpost on Mars similar to the one set up on the moon a few years earlier. This base was in turn modeled after the bases set up in Antarctica in the 20th century. Imagine setting up the first Martian base. Objective: Students will function as a committee and map out the first base on Mars. Materials: Poster sized paper Overhead transparency material Marking materials for both surfaces listed above Imagination Procedure: Establish groups of students into small committees of 4 to 6 students each. Explain that their goal is to lay out the first base on Mars. This base is to function as an exploratory outpost and will be staffed with a population of between 25 and 40 individuals. Each building must be named, and labeled as to its function and number of personnel responsible for that building's function. For example the communications building might be called MARSCOM which is short for Mars Communication Center. It is staffed with 3 personnel, plus equipment which consists of a 3 meter steerable antenna, 1000 watt transmitter, and three (2 for backup) computers for image and data storage and processing. Each person works an 8 hour shift, thus covering a full day. The overhead transparency can be used to present the final layout of the base to the class as a whole, or the final version can be simply displayed on the bulletin board. The advantage of the overhead is that it allows the students to develop verbal communication skills. Problems to consider: What to do with waste materials Landing area for transport vehicles Emergency facilities Recreation facilities Variation: Some students may want to make their Martian base in model form with cardboard or papier mache structures. Remember the red soil. To finish the project, design flag and crew patch for your base. TOUR MARS The year is......, well you fill in the blank. It's rather hard to be specific with the future. Sometime in the future, Mars will be accessible, and there will be people traveling there. Imagine how a travel agency might promote a trip to the Red planet. Objective: To illustrate some aspect of the uniqueness of Mars through art. Materials: Poster sized paper Colored markers Pencils Imagination Procedure: Design a poster to sell people on the idea of perhaps taking a job on Mars, similar to the sort of posters that promote the military as a job possibility. Discuss the sort of occupations that will most likely be needed to set up and maintain an outpost on Mars. For assistance, visit a travel agency and look at the sort of posters that are used to sell the idea of taking a vacation to some exotic place. When you look at the landforms of Mars, you will see that there are no shortages of exotic places there. Note how few words are utilized in selling an idea in travel posters. Variation: Design a vacation poster to Mars. Concentrate on the unusual landforms. Post the finished product. COMMUNICATION ON MARS We are now used to being able to communicate instantly with anyone on the face of the Earth. This is because our messages travel at the speed of light, and at that speed (186,000 miles per second) no place on Earth is distant enough to notice the delay. The astronauts on the moon experienced some slight delays, but not enough to cause any problems. However a trip to Mars presents a whole new problem, as the distance messages have to travel increases, and the time required for these communications increases. For instance, a spacecraft one million miles out, in route towards Mars sends a voice message back to Earth. This message would take about 5 seconds just to reach here, then you have a reaction time to that message and another 5 second delay to reach the spacecraft. This adds up to more than ten seconds. To illustrate this problem, set up a conversation between two people with a ten second delay. This can be done in several ways, perhaps using written messages having to be passed to another person. The problem increases as the distance increases. When the spacecraft reaches five and a half million miles from Earth there would be a delay of a full minute. At this point, communication becomes somewhat awkward. To illustrate this problem try doing a question and answer session. For a spacecraft on the surface of Mars or in orbit around Mars the delay is much longer. Depending on the relationship of the two planets to each other there can be as long a delay as 30 to 40 minutes involved. Try a setup that uses this sort of delay and see if you can maintain continuity of conversation. Because of the increased delay people will be facing a new dilemma: how to maintain communication and trains of thought. Have the students discuss some of the problems which could develop out of this situation, and come up with options for dealing with those problems. To get a better understanding of the delays involved prepare a table showing the min. expected time delay for a given distance. To calculate time delay, divide the distance by 186,000. Then figure in the listening and reacting time factors for the message and add to this the first figure you derived by dividing the speed of light factor. Example Table: Distance in Miles Time Delay Time Delay Round Trip (In millions) One Way 1 5.38 sec. 11+seconds 5 26.8 sec 54+seconds Complete this table by going in increments of 1 million miles up to 10 million, then use 5 million increments up to 50 million and finish off in 10 million increments till you reach 120 million miles. SPACE AGE EXPLORATION TABLE Mission Date RESULTS Mariner 4-U.S. 7/65 Returns 20 photographs, shows no canals! Mariner 9-U.S. 11/71 Goes into orbit around Mars, Produces first good maps, Discovers volcanic features and an extensive canyon system. Mars 2-USSR 11/27/71 Lands on surface but returns no data Mars 3-USSR 12/2/71 Lands on surface, transmits for 20 sec, no usable data, is thought to have fallen over. Viking 1-U.S. 6/19/76 Achieves Martian orbit 7/20/76 Lands on surface, begins transmitting data Viking 2-U.S. 9/3/76 Lands on surface, begins transmitting data Phobos 1-USSR 7/7/88 Launched towards Mars Loss of contact with spacecraft mid Sept. Phobos 2-USSR 7/12/88 Launched toward Mars. 1/29/89 Arrival at Mars PROJECT STAMPS From time to time each country's postal system issues special commemorative stamps to pay tribute to some event or person. The collection of these special stamps is one of the most popular of hobbies. Since the space age began, hundreds of stamps have been issued to commemorate various space related events. The following exercise uses the subject of Mars to commemorate. Objective: Using art to teach science! Have the students design a commemorative stamp to illustrate some aspect of the history of exploring the red planet. Materials: Paper 8 1/2 by 11, white Colored pens or pencils Imagination Procedure: Research out the exploration of Mars from the early pre-telescope days to the modern spaceage era. Design a commemorative postage stamp to illustrate some important period or person. Students can even go back to the days that astrologers watched the movements of Mars. For assistance, take a look at present day commemorative issues by the Postal Service. Don't forget to make the outline unique to postage stamps and above all don't forget the value of the postage. i.e. 10 cents or 30 cents. Variation: Turn really creative minds loose on the idea of commemorating some event of the future in the exploration of Mars. Another variation could be to illustrate some unique aspect of Mars. Research out the Martian landforms for examples. Share the results--post them. (no pun intended) The People of Mars Over the years certain people have added to our knowledge of the planet Mars. Each is unique in his own right, and each lived in unique times, not always conducive to the art of exploration. The following is a short list of people who contributed much to our understanding of Mars. Each is a valid subject for a report, which in turn helps to develop library skills as well as written skills. However, to be a complete report, do not just present the person, look at the conditions of the time, for without that element, each person is just a name! The report should include the following items: Time of the person, date of birth & death. General history of the time period. i.e. political climate, quality of life, or what was America like at that time. What sort of tools were available to the astronomer at that time? Unusual personal traits, each person has some unusual quirks by our present day standards--find them! Here are some interesting tidbits about the explorers of Mars. Tycho Brahe had a metal nose. He built an observatory in one of the worst possible places-why? Kepler-his assistant had all sorts of family problems. For starters his mother was arrested for witchcraft, which tells you something about the political climate he lived in. Galileo didn't do much for Mars, but he did a great deal for the science of Astronomy. Christiaan Huygens had a lot to do with clocks and beer, not to mention making the first map of Mars to show any features. What kind of telescope did he use? Why can't you buy one like it today? Giovanni Cassini's name is associated with another planet, but he helped figure out the length of a Martian day. William Herschel made thousands of discoveries, yet he wasn't even an astronomer at first and couldn't buy a telescope, so he made his own and they were the best in the world at that time! Johann Schroter added much to the knowledge of Mars yet he did more for the study of asteroids. Giovanni Schiaparelli began the controversy of Martian Canals! Rev. W.R. Dawes made his observations from America during the conflict of the Civil War! Percival Lowell showed what you can do with a hobby if you have a lot of money. William H. Pickering was one of the last great observers with the eye, prior to photographic studies. Asaph Hall discovered the Martian moons, thanks to the persistence of his wife!! Eugene Antoniadi made maps of both Mars and Mercury, thought to be the Best!! (till spacecraft flew by each object and wiped out most of his features) AREOLOGY The study of rocks here on Earth is called Geology. It comes from the Greek word "geo", which refers to Earth. But Mars is another world, so the study of Martian rocks should take on the Greek reference to the fourth planet, Ares. Thus the term Aerology is suggested, meaning the study of rocks on the fourth planet. Time: Early in the 21 century. Imagine you are doing a survey of what appears to be an ancient river bed when you come across it...the remains of some ancient life form! Here at last is evidence that life once held a tiny foothold on this planet. Now you must write up your report to Headquarters. Using the form below, you try not to leave out any details. Remember this is a major scientific discovery! *** *** *** **** **** **** *** UNUSUAL PHENOMENA SURVEY REPORT 9-0457 ( all other forms obsolete) NAME:___________________________________ TITLE or RANK:__________________________ Weather conditions:_________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Assignment:_________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Describe event in full:_____________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Illustrations: Options: The newspapers back on Earth have learned of your discovery. If you were a reporter, how would you write this up for your readers.? There is an old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words, so be sure to include a sketch of the find as well as of the location where it was found. Name the find. Is it a plant or an animal? Study how things are given scientific names. Usually two latin names are involved. FIRST FLIGHT Right now there are people thinking about Mars--thinking of going there and returning to Earth. The logical step would be to return soil and rock samples first using rovers. But history has a habit of not being very logical. It is almost certain that the first person to set foot on Mars is already in the classroom, and has already learned to read. What will that first flight be like? At the moment it is anyone's guess. Problem: Design the first human mission to Mars. Objective: Students will function collectively as a committee to plan the first flight to Mars. It is suggested that you limit the number of students per committee to 4 or 5. Problems to solve: For the sake of this activity, assume that the transportation part of the problem has been solved. Students will have to come up with the number of personal assigned to the flight. Remember each person will have to be fed! It is likely that this mission will take close to three years. The trip out will take approximately 180 days. Once the crew arrives on station at Mars, assume the Earth is out of alignment and will not be in position for a return window for at least one year. Once this window opens, a return flight will take 180 plus days. Students will have to establish the crew. Consider: 1. Skills of each member. To save on numbers it might be best to have each member adept at several skills. 2. Sex of each member. Do you want an all male crew or an all female crew or mixed? 3. Military or civilian crew, or a mixed crew? Be sure to consider diet. Calculate the amount of food one person would consume for three years of a balanced diet. For comparison make out a menu for one year and price this at the local supermarket. Add to this one-year menu the weight of the food, and you'll see another part of the problem to solve. Weight is a critical factor to consider in payloads. (Of course one year's figures, to be accurate for this flight, will have to be multiplied by three.) Another problem to deal with is isolation. What will crew members do to retain not only sanity but a sharp mind to deal with the problems they will face? To complete this first mission consider the option of perhaps an international effort. The finished project must also have a crew patch and mission name. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ralph Winrich is a NASA Aerospace Education Specialist at the Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. If you would like a printed copy of NERGAL, leave a note when you log off NASA Spacelink and your request will be forwarded to Ralph.