Welcome to the future—and to Candor Chasma Base Station!

• Fictional research outpost on Mars

• Set in the year 2047

DMNS/Rick Wicker

People haven’t really landed on Mars, but someday they might.

This exhibit shows

• What the Martian surface looks like

• What it might be like to live and work on Mars

• Simulations of experiments as if performed on Mars

DMNS/Rick Wicker

Candor Chasma (KAN-dor KAZ-ma) is a real place on Mars.

• Near the Martian equator

• Side canyon of Valles Marineris—the Martian “Grand Canyon”

• Reconstructed from Mars Global Surveyor satellite data

Mars Global Surveyor/NASA

Mars has layered cliffs and outcrops, but we don’t know how they formed.

• Windblown dust?

• Liquid water?

• Volcanic ash?

• Some other process?

DMNS/Rick Wicker

Check out the robotic rover to the left of the diorama, where you can analyze some “Mars rocks.”

STAY AWHILE!

• Dust storms

• Extreme cold

• Low gravity

• Thin, unbreathable atmosphere

If people lived and worked on Mars, they’d need structures that protect them from harsh conditions.

DMNS/Rick Wicker

• Coldest: -220º F (-140º C)

• Warmest: 40º F (4º C)

Air temperatures on Mars are very cold, with extreme variation.

Michael Carroll

• If you weigh 100 pounds on Earth, you’d only weigh 38 pounds on Mars.

• But your body’s mass would be the same on Mars as it is on Earth.

Gravity on Mars is 3/8 of Earth’s gravity.

NASA

The Martian atmosphere isn’t much like Earth’s.

• Atmospheric pressure on Mars is about .5% (half of 1%) of Earth’s.

• 95% Carbon Dioxide with traces of Nitrogen and Argon.

• Sky color ranges from yellowish-green to peach to butterscotch (depending on dust, time of day, location, and season).

DMNS/Rick Wicker

Try your hand at some experiments at the Experiment Bar behind you.

HANG AROUND A LITTLE LONGER!

Mars has two tiny, irregularly-shaped moons. Can you spot them in the sky?

Phobos

12 x 14 x 17 miles(18.6 x 22.2 x 26.6 km.)

Deimos

7 x 8 x 9 miles (10.8 x 12.4 x 15.0 km.)

NASA/Lee Krystek

A Martian day lasts 24.6 hours.

Phil James (Univ. Toledo), Steve Lee (CU), and NASA

• It takes 24.6 hours for Mars to rotate completely on its axis.

A Martian year is 687 days long.

Illustration by Medialab, ESA 2001

• It takes Mars nearly twice as long as Earth to go all the way around the Sun.

Maybe you’ll get to see an “astronaut” doing simulated experiments in the diorama.

STICK AROUND!