Questions mark the beginning of every space science journey. So if you've
ever wondered why, where, what, who or how — click the "Ask A Question"
button below to find out from the Athena Mission scientists. Read on
to discover what other kids have found out!
1) Why does Mars appear to have more rocks than Earth?
The Earth is covered 70% by ocean water, and the land surfaces have a fair
amount of plants and tree cover. Mars has neither oceans or vegetation,
although it does have polar caps.
For the three landing sites we have explored (Viking 1, Viking 2, and
Pathfinder), the area fraction of the surface covered by rocks ranges from 5
to 20%. For all of Mars, averaged over a few tens of kilometers, a rough
estimate of the range in rock abundance is 1 to 30%, with an average of
about 5%. The Viking 2 site is rockier than 95% of the surface of Mars.
The rock abundance of the Viking 1 site is more typical of Mars.
There is a lot of land on the earth that is just as rocky as the rockiest
places on Mars, but there is also a lot of land on Earth that has fewer rocks,
due to the breakdown of rocks into organic soil.
To learn more about Earth soils click here.
2) Was Olympus Mons ever smaller?
Yes. All volcanoes start out small and grow larger as magma eruptions build
up deposits of volcanic rock on the surface. Volcan Paricutin is a famous
example on Earth of a volcano that was born out of a Mexican corn field in
1943. We do not know the age of Olympus Mons, but it was probably started
out small, a few hundred million to possibly a billion years ago!
3) Why does everything on Mars weigh less than on Earth?
The weight of an object on the Earth is the force on that object caused by
gravitational attraction of the Earth on the object. Because Mars has less
mass and is smaller than the earth, the gravitational attraction force for
objects on the planet's surface is smaller on Mars, so the same object
weighs less on Mars than on Earth.
4) If you had a life span of 1000 years, which planets would you explore?
I'd explore the volcanic histories of Mars, the Moon, and Mercury.
5) What made you really want to be a scientist?
Geologic field work and laboratory study of rocks. What really interested
me was collecting volcanic rocks in the field, studying the surrounding
terrain, examining thin slices of the rocks in a microscope to see fine-scale
textures and identify minerals, and relating that to how the rocks formed
and the volcano's geologic history. I also liked being able to use math,
physics, and chemistry to understand how the rocks formed.
6) How were the volcanos and craters formed on Mars?
The volcanoes formed when magma (melted rock) from inside Mars erupted at the
surface. The large volcanoes were formed by a series of many eruptions at the
same place. Some of the tops of the volcanoes have what are called volcanic
craters, which are depressions formed by withdrawal of underlying magma.
The impact craters on Mars were formed by impacts of asteroids and comets
hitting Mars.
7) Why should we fund the missions to Mars?
So that we can all participate in a great adventure exploring this frontier.
We have a lot to learn about how Mars evolved as a planet. A better
understanding of Mars will help us find out new things about how the Earth
evolved and how the Earth is changing today. What we learn by designing
and carrying out missions to Mars will provide new ideas and newly-inspired
kids who become scientists and engineers to help solve problems we face
on planet Earth.
8) Is the rover going to look for life on Mars?
The rovers were designed to look for clues to past environments on Mars and
geologic processes that involved water. From this, we can make inferences
as to how favorable those past environments on Mars would have been for life.
9) What is the size of Mars compared to Earth?
The diameter of Mars is a little bit bigger than half that of Earth's.
The land area on Mars is almost identical to the land area on Earth, because 70% of the surface area of the Earth is covered by water.
The mass of Mars is 11% of Earth's mass.
