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- Antipodes 0 - Communications and the AoudaX
- Antipodes 1 - Rover command
- Antipodes 2 - Biological sampling at MDRS
- Antipodes 3 - Soldering at Dachstein
----Welcome to Mars!
Whilst the martian environment is considered 'most similar to Earth's' when compared to other planets in our Solar System, it really doesn't do justice to the weird and wonderful nature of the martian environment! Both Mars and Earth are 'terrestrial' planets, so called because you're able to wander around on them, like the Apollo astronauts did on the lunar surface 30 years ago. You would feel a little lighter on Mars than you're used to here on Earth though - because it's much smaller than the earth about half as wide and only about 1/8th of the Earth's mass.
The red planet's characteristic hue comes from huge amounts of rusty (iron oxide) dust strewn across its surface, which is mostly composed of silicate rocks and other metals. However the dry, dusty Mars that our minds conjure pictures of when we imagine it, is a relatively new phase in Mars' life (compared to its current age of around 4 and a half billion years!). We believe, because of strange, wavelike patters on the Martian surface that is was once much hotter and wetter than it is now. Currently, Mars' surface temperatures sit between about -90 and -10 degrees Celsius, far to cold for anything to be 'wet' as any water would instantly freeze at those temperatures. This begs the obvious question: What happened to Mars that so drastically changed its atmosphere? (and importantly, could the same thing happen to Earth?)
Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Texas A&M/Cornell
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