Over the years, there have been a grand total of 23 Mars orbiter missions conducted by 7 different
space agencies. Along their way, these orbiters captured some simply breathe taking images of
Mars surface from its skies, allowing cosmic cartographers to map out the geography of
Earth s stellar sibling. But what are the most intriguing of these pictures? And where will
mankind take its first steps on the dusty red planet? Stay tuned as we delve into these real
images to find out more, here, on Elderfox. Nothing is more prominent amongst Mars landscape
than Olympus Mons, seen here from the Viking 1 orbiter. This gigantic volcano is the largest
of its kind in the solar system, standing at an astounding height of 21 km, or 72,000 feet. To put
that into perspective, the summit of Olympus Mons is roughly twice the height of a modern airliner s
cruising altitude, or around two and a half times taller than the highest summit here on Earth,
Mount Everest. What s even more spectacular is the sheer size of the volcano.
Olympus Mons covers an area of about 300,000 kilometers squared, or 120,000 square miles,
which is approximately the size of Italy. When superimposed over France,
the staggering scale of this sleeping monster can be truly visualised.
We now go from the heights of Olympus Mons down to the canyons of Valles Marineris. This system
of canyons, named after the Mariner 9 orbiter, is another compelling feature standing out from
the Martian terrain. Seen here in a mosaic of images taken by Viking 1, the canyons
can be viewed in all their glory. At more than 4,000 km long, 200 km wide and up to 7 km deep,
Valles Marineris is one of the largest canyon systems in the Solar System,
surpassed in length only by the rift valleys under our oceans here on Earth. End-to-end,
the system stretches over a length longer than the width of the continental United States,
and reaches a depth of almost four times that of the Grand Canyon.
This eerie image was captured by the Viking 1 orbiter in 1976, and contains what has since
been coined the Face on Mars . Located in a hilly region of the planet known as Cydonia,
the apparent face became a pop culture curiosity when it was first published,
sparking people s imagination about possible Martian life. However, NASA dismissed the image
as a "trick of light and shadow", a hypothesis which has since been confirmed as more detailed
images have been captured of the region. Here, the same hill can be seen in an image captured by the
more advanced cameras of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Anticlimactically, the face can no longer
be seen and the story of the Face on Mars is nowadays just one for the history books.
This image taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a chance capture of a phenomenal
natural event. Can you spot it? Here s a closer image. This is the first time
an avalanche has been photographed off of our planet. Such geological events are
theorised to be the cause of geologic patterns known as slope streaks.
The ice caps of Mars have been piquing the interest of astronomers since they were first
discovered in 1672. Since the 1960 s we have known that the seasonal caps are composed of carbon
dioxide ice that condenses out of the atmosphere as temperatures plummet during the Martian winter.
However, modern astronomers are most interested in what happens during the
spring and summer as the ice thaws. In 2002, the Mars Odyssey Orbiter detected
large amounts of Hydrogen in the Martian atmosphere, a sign that there must be water
ice lying within a meter of the planet's surface. This changed the direction of NASA
s main strategy for future Mars exploration to; quote, follow the water , and in 2007 the Phoenix
lander was sent to Mars to confirm Odyssey s findings. Phoenix did exactly this in 2008,
with water ice being discovered close to Mars North pole under the thawing carbon dioxide ice.
Further to this, in September 2020, the European Space Agency s Mars Express spacecraft discovered
several large underground lakes of liquid saltwater close to the planet s South pole. The
presence of liquid water is vital for biological growth, so this particular discovery will be of
interest to researchers studying the potential for life elsewhere in the Solar System.
On July 30th 2020, the Perseverance Rover lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It s
destination, Mars. More specifically, Perseverance was destined for the Jezero Crater, a large impact
crater thought to have once been flooded with liquid water. The crater contains a fan delta
deposit rich in clay, where Perseverance may find signs of ancient Martian life, fossilised within
the clay. When Perseverance landed on Mars on February 18th 2021 it began the scientific leg of
its mission, but only time will tell the results of the rover s ground breaking experiments.
So, where will Mankind take its first steps on our dusty red neighbour? The short answer;
we currently don t know; but don t let that fool you, as we do have a few ideas. There are 3 basic
criteria for picking a manned landing site; a spot that has a reliable source of water,
a spot that s of scientific intrigue, and, most importantly, a spot that s safe to land at.
The current leading theory is that landing close to one of Mars poles during the summer is the most
suitable option. Water ice has been discovered on the surface on and around Mars polar regions,
there is scientific data to collect from drilling into said ice to gather samples, and,
for Mars North pole in particular, the surface is relatively flat, making the North pole a prime
location for a safe and successful manned mission. Additionally, Mars Northern summer has almost
six months of continuous daylight, allowing for direct Mars-to-Earth communications, without the
need to rely on an orbiter to relay messages. With all this in mind, a site close to the Korolev
Crater may be desirable for a first landing location. It meets all of the aforementioned
criteria, and may well be on NASA s radar for a manned mission as soon as the mid 2030 s.
It s not just humans who want to inhabit the red planet though. There are many rovers currently
there, some active and some retired, who all have a story to tell. The spirit rover travelled
around the surface of Mars for over 6 years and unfortunately became trapped in a sand dune,
leading to its ultimate demise. Click here to see the full story of the Spirit rover on Mars.
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