If You Could Stand on Mars
Explanation:
If you could stand on
Mars - what would you see? Viking 1 robot
landers answered this question in 1976 with pictures like the one shown
above. The dark rocks, red soil, and green-tinged sky grace this
rendition of a normal
Martian afternoon. At the bottom corners of the picture are portions of
Viking spacecraft. The red color of the rocks is caused by an abundance of
iron in the soil. The
Martian surface is covered by rocks,
huge craters,
fantastic canyons, and
gigantic volcanoes that dwarf any on
Earth. No life has been found, but some
speculate that since not all spacecraft reaching
Mars from
Earth had been fully
decontaminated, Earth born
microbes might
live there now.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
