[Music]
squeaks and I love exploring we go
exploring in our neighborhood and we see
what we can discover in nature around
the fort and sometimes we pretend we're
exploring in outer space
oh what's that squeaks do you think we
should go to Mars okay let's do that
next and maybe someday people will go to
Mars in real life too since the for you
and I were born people have loved to
talk about rocketing into space and
exploring Mars there are eight planets
moving around the Sun including Earth
and Mars is our neighbor the next planet
after earth in the solar system and it's
the friendliest neighbor we have in many
ways Mars is actually a lot like Earth
the length of a day on Mars is just over
24 hours very close to how long a day is
on earth it also has seasons like Earth
which not all planets do but Mars is
also very different from Earth in some
ways which is why it would be so hard
for people to visit one big problem is
that there isn't enough air on Mars to
breathe without a spacesuit Mars is also
very cold and dry since it's much
farther from the Sun it's so cold most
of the time that its water is almost all
frozen into ice and it's buried beneath
the surface of the planet another
problem is that even though Mars is our
neighbor it's still a long way from
Earth Mars goes around the Sun a little
slower than Earth which means the
planets usually don't line up
sometimes earth can be on one side of
the Sun while Mars is all the way on the
opposite side so if we wanted to take a
trip to Mars first we'd have to wait
until the planets got close together and
that only happens about once every two
years but even then it would take seven
whole months to get there that's a long
time for astronauts to be traveling
through space and scientists are still
figuring out how to keep them healthy
while they're floating in space for so
long once we got to Mars we would need
to eat and breathe just like we do on
earth but since we can't breathe the air
and there are no plants or animals to
eat we'd have to bring our own air and
food or figure out how to make them out
of Mars soil and ice hmm maybe we'd be
better off not going to Mars and
all that energy into making the earth a
better place to live or before we send
human explorers over we can keep
learning about Mars and figure out
whether it's possible to live there
we've been studying Mars for a long time
because even though humans haven't
visited yet we have sent machines to
explore for us starting more than 50
years ago spaceships without people on
them have flown by the planet to study
it and special types of robots have even
landed on it no not robot rat squeaks
they're a special kind of robot designed
to land on Mars and explore it
call the rover we've got two Rovers
still exploring Mars right now named
opportunity and curiosity to explore
Mars the Rovers use a special design
called the rocker-bogie system isn't
that a great name I know squeaks I like
saying it to rocker-bogie system with
this system the Mars rovers have six
wheels and each wheel has its own motor
powering it that helps the rover climb
over rocks and steep hills and to keep
its body level so it doesn't tip over or
get damaged
this way the rover's can keep exploring
and keep sending information back to us
on earth the next Rover to Mars is set
to leave Earth in 2020 just a couple of
years from now and in the meantime we're
planning to launch a lander this year
that's kind of like a rover except it
can't move around after it lands so it
studies the planet while staying put
some scientists are also trying to send
people to Mars eventually but it's going
to take a lot of work and a lot of time
before we're ready to do that probably
more than 10 or even 20 years at the
very least it's much easier to send
robots to Mars than it is to send humans
since robots don't have to breathe or
eat but robots work very slowly and they
can't do that many scientific tests by
themselves even though it would be a lot
of work there's so much more that we
could discover if we could send people
to explore and who knows if the first
astronauts to explore Mars take off in
20 years maybe you'll be on that first
flight I guess it's gonna be a while
before we can explore Mars squeaks but
there's still so much more to explore
right here on earth do you think we
should send people to Mars what do you
like to go there yourself ask a grown-up
to help you
a comment down below or send us an email
to kids at scishow comm thanks and we'll
see you next time here at the fort
[Music]