A Trip Around Mars

Lead in:

(1)What do you know about Mars?(2)Do you think there was/is life on Mars?(3)Martians are from Mars; do you know what life forms on other planets might be called?(4)Are you interested in the secrets Mars holds?(5)Would you like to go to Mars one day?(6)Why are scientists so interested in Mars?(7)Do you think it’s possible that one day, many people will live on Mars?(8)What do you think of the idea often described by scientists that life started on Mars and moved to Earth, which means we are Martians?(9)What would you like to know about Mars?(10)Why is Mars red?

Mars Kahoot

Nasa engineers are about to initiate a manoeuvre that is their least favourite activity in space: they will attempt to land a robot spaceship on Mars. The latest Mars probe, InSight, is intended to analyse seismic activity on the red planet by drilling under its surface. It is hoped InSight will help scientists understand the early evolution of Mars and other planets in the solar system. The landing process will take about seven minutes but is highly complicated and risky. The spacecraft must be slowed from 12,000mph to 5mph for successful touchdown.

Landing a robot on Mars

below the surface

voyage through space

make a successful landing

absorb heat

deploy

nail-biting

go perfectly

throw a curveball


After landing...

 The InSight lander took the picture using a camera mounted on its robotic arm. Photograph: Reuters

This is the view across Elysium Planitia, the vast lava plain near the equator of Mars, where Nasa’s InSight lander _______ down after a hair-raising ________ on Monday. The probe ________ the image of the desolate landscape as the dust thrown up by its arrival was still _________ around it.

Over the ________ days, InSight will take more photos of the ________ site and send them back to Earth, where scientists will use them to decide where the probe should _______  its instruments.

The lander’s seismometer will be an ear to the ground that listens for “marsquakes”, which ________  through the planet when slabs of underground rock _______ and slip. Another instrument will _________ into the ground and take the temperature of the red planet.

settling      fracture      burrow     coming        landing          descent         snapped           

touched           place            shudder 

After landing


 The planet Mars boasts the most dramatic landscapes in our solar system. Kevin Fong embarks on a grand tour around the planet with scientists, artists and writers who know its special places intimately- through their probes, roving robots and imaginations.

As we roam Mars' beauty spots, Kevin explores why the Red planet grips so many. Beyond its alien topographic grandeur, Mars inspires the bigger questions: are we alone in the cosmos, and what is the longer term destiny of humanity? Was there more than one life genesis? Will humans ever live on more than one planet?

Listen:

A Trip Around Mars



00:00 - 2:40

What's the name of the NASA rover currently exploring the terrain of Mars?


guided ___
m____ landscapes
a____ beauty
e______ fascination
st_______ landscapes
u_______ martian
a____ and well
bitterest of a______ temperatures
m______ fraction


2:40-7:41







(1971)





Olympus Mons

Compared with Mount Everest? Colorado?

How steep is the slope?


Kim Stanley Robinson




Chris Bonington


How high are the cliffs?

What are Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars?

Why are geographical features on Mars so large?

How big is this?



8:46-9:30

1. What did the early fly-bys indicate?
2. What did Marina 9 show?
3. What did Viking find?

11:20-16:30




Where was this painting painted?
Which landscape of Mars is depicted?
Why are the astronauts in blue suits?






What's the Northern Hemisphere of Mars like?








17:30-24:04



How did Valles Marineris form?

How did The Grand Canyon form?

Where in the Valles Marineris did Robinson situate one of his fictional cities?

What can be found in the eastern part of Valles Marineris?




Iani Chaos

A Tolkienesque landscape

How are chasmata possibly formed?

What is there in the north?


What came out of the Chaos regions?


An arm of Ares Valles

How was it formed? How long did it take to form?

Could there have been oceans on Mars?


24:00-26:00

What is Pascal's theory of water on Mars?




More pictures