The purpose of this lesson is to introduce students to the planet Mars. This lesson will begin by discussing the location and size of Mars relative to Earth, as well as introduce many interesting facts about this red planet. Next, the history of Martian exploration is reviewed and students discover why scientists are so interested in studying this mysterious planet. The lesson concludes with students learning about future plans to visit Mars.

In this interactive activity from NOVA, learn about the sophisticated scientific instruments on two identical robotic rovers that have explored Mars Spirit and Opportunity.

The year is 2032 and your class has successfully achieved a manned mission to Mars! After several explorations of the Red Planet, one question is still being debated: "Is there life on Mars?" The class is challenged with the task of establishing criteria to help look for signs of life. Student explorers conduct a scientific experiment in which they evaluate three "Martian" soil samples and determine if any contain life.

This Web site, created to complement the Hall of Meteorites, looks at these fallen rocks and what they tell scientists about the formation of stars and planets.

In 2001, the Mars Odyssey spacecraft discovered significant amounts of water ice buried in the high latitude regions of Mars. This exciting discovery, based upon data from the Mars Gamma Ray Spectrometer, helped motivate the development of the Mars Phoenix Lander mission, which will arrive in the Martian arctic in 2008 to investigate this buried water ice. The product includes five classroom activities related to the discovery of water ice. These field-tested activities involve both guided and open inquiry activities using real data to investigate and learn about processes occurring on Mars. Each lesson includes a teacher guide and student guide. In addition, some of the lessons are accompanied by PowerPoint presentations and one extension activity utilizes an educational Flash animation.

This is one of a series of visualizations showing false-colored renderings of the Martian topography measured by MOLA in the vicinity of the Mars Polar Lander landing site. Blue tones represent elevations of less than 2 kilometers, while reddish tones are greater than about 2.8 kilometers, relative to the mean equatorial height of Mars. The elevation of the landing site is about 2.4 km, midway into the polar layered terrain. The 400 meters (1-4 mile) resolution of the MOLA data gives a smoothed but vertically exaggerated view of the topography. At this scale it is impossible to ascertain the actual roughness at the landers destination, forcing project directors to make their best guesses based on available data.

This is one of a series of visualizations showing false-colored renderings of the Martian topography measured by MOLA in the vicinity of the Mars Polar Lander landing site. Blue tones represent elevations of less than 2 kilometers, while reddish tones are greater than about 2.8 kilometers, relative to the mean equatorial height of Mars. The elevation of the landing site is about 2.4 km, midway into the polar layered terrain. The 400 meters (1-4 mile) resolution of the MOLA data gives a smoothed but vertically exaggerated view of the topography. At this scale it is impossible to ascertain the actual roughness at the landers destination, forcing project directors to make their best guesses based on available data.

Have you ever wondered why it takes such a long period of time for NASA to build space exploration equipment? What is involved in manufacturing and building a rover for the Red Planet? During this lesson, students will discover the journey that a Mars rover embarks upon after being designed by engineers and before being prepared for launch. Students will investigate the fabrication techniques, tolerance concepts, assembly and field-testing associated with a Mars exploratory rover.

This is one of a series of visualizations showing false-colored renderings of the Martian topography measured by MOLA in the vicinity of the Mars Polar Lander landing site. Blue tones represent elevations of less than 2 kilometers, while reddish tones are greater than about 2.8 kilometers, relative to the mean equatorial height of Mars. The elevation of the landing site is about 2.4 km, midway into the polar layered terrain. The 400 meters (1-4 mile) resolution of the MOLA data gives a smoothed but vertically exaggerated view of the topography. At this scale it is impossible to ascertain the actual roughness at the landers destination, forcing project directors to make their best guesses based on available data.

Mars possesses no significant intrinsic magnetic field. The absence of magnetic protection allows the supersonic solar wind flow to directly interact with the Martian ionosphere (an almost fully ionized region of the Mars upper atmosphere). When the velocity of the solar wind increases, the Martian ionosphere is compressed and the ionopause (a boundary layer between the ionosphere and the solar wind) is displaced to lower altitudes. The ions of planetary origin such as O+ and O2+ escape from the upper atmosphere of Mars due to solar wind induced scavenging processes. Many more planetary ions are scavenged when the solar wind velocity increases because a much larger part of the planetary atmosphere is exposed to the solar wind as the ionopause is pushed inwards towards the planetary surface. There are some indications that the solar wind flow, as well as the Suns x-ray and extreme ultraviolet radiation, were much more intense early in solar system history. It is thought that some 3.5 billion years ago, these extreme interplanetary conditions may have caused a much larger rate of water loss from the Martian atmosphere. We estimate that the solar wind scavenging pictured here under the extreme conditions in the early solar system would have caused the loss of a 10 meter global equivalent ocean layer from Mars over the last 3.5 billion years. This loss is less than one tenth of the 156 m global equivalent ocean layer estimated to have existed on early Mars using the Mars Global Surveyor observations. Arrows represent the flow of the ions of planetary origin. The colors represent the density of the Martian ionosphere, with red as high and blue as low.

The Mars Global Surveyor, built by Lockheed Martin and launched by NASA, orbits our nearest planetary neighbor on a mission to map the surface of Mars and catalog scientific data . The Surveyor spacecraft left Cape Canaveral, Florida aboard a Delta-7925

The ability to see Earth from space has forever changed our view of the planet. We are now able to look at the Earth as a whole, and observe how its atmosphere, oceans, land masses, and life interact as global systems. Earths atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere are dynamic, changing on timescales of days, minutes, or even seconds. Monitoring the Earth in near real time allows us to get an up to date picture of conditions on our planet. More SVS visualizations for the Earth Today exhibit can be found in animation ids 328 and 1401.

The ability to see Earth from space has forever changed our view of the planet. We are now able to look at the Earth as a whole, and observe how its atmosphere, oceans, land masses, and life interact as global systems. Earths atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere are dynamic, changing on timescales of days, minutes, or even seconds. Monitoring the Earth in near real time allows us to get an up to date picture of conditions on our planet. More SVS visualizations for the Earth Today exhibit are in animation ids 1401 and 1402.

The ability to see Earth from space has forever changed our view of the planet. We are now able to look at the Earth as a whole, and observe how its atmosphere, oceans, land masses, and life interact as global systems. Earths atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere are dynamic, changing on timescales of days, minutes, or even seconds. Monitoring the Earth in near real time allows us to get an up to date picture of conditions on our planet. More SVS visualizations for the Earth Today exhibit can be found in animation ids 328 and 1402.

A poster that shows a visual comparison of Mars and Earth. The back contains panels that go into detail on Mars science and explorations. It contains eleven lessons and resources for teachers.

Students act as Mars exploratory rover engineers. They evaluate rover equipment options and determine what parts fit in a provided NASA budget. With a given parts list, teams use these constraints to design for their rover. The students build and display their edible rover at a concluding design review.

The purpose of this activity is to recreate the classic egg-drop experiment with an analogy to the Mars rover landing. The concept of terminal velocity will be introduced, and students will perform several velocity calculations. Also, students will have to design and build their lander within a pre-determined budget to help reinforce a real-world design scenario.

By offering teachers five distinct activities that do not depend on one another, "Exploring Mars" is perfect for teachers wanting short, focused activities. The design of this module enables teachers to do one, some, or all of the activities to give their students a powerful introduction to Mars, planets, astronomy, and space exploration. Examine the list below to learn about the individual activities.

This educator guide provides information and activities related to meteorites and their origins. Topics include sources and collection of meteorites, meteorite mineralogy and classification, famous meteorite falls, and others.