Mars: The Haunting Red Planet

Mars has long haunted mankind with its red glow and tantalizing proximity. Humans have known about Mars since before recorded history and almost all cultures named it after their gods of war because of its blood red color. Mars boasts a volcano so large that it peeks into space and a canyon so long that it looks like a scar on the planet even from Earth. Oh yea… and we’ll talk about Martians.

This Course includes the following great BONUS LESSONS:

• What on Earth is Astronomy?

• Mini-Lesson: Eclipses

• Mini-Lesson: Meteor Showers

• Mini-Lesson: Aurora

• Project Artemis: America Returns to the Moon

Mars: The Haunting Red Planet

1. Objective

2. Warm-up activity

3. Discovery and name origins

4. Observing Mars from Earth

5. Position in the Solar System as compared to the Sun and the Earth

6. Myths about life and canals on Mars

7. Mars’ surface features, including coloring, ice caps, etches, craters, volcanoes and canyons

8. Mars in popular culture, including Martians, movies and science-fiction novels

9. Exploring Mars with a telescope, from orbit and from the surface

10. History of missions to Mars and a current mission status

11. Discussion of humans visiting Mars

12. Mars landing methods, including airbag crash landings

13. Cameras on Mars

14. Martian weather, including sandstorms, dust devils, temperatures and seasons

15. Similarities and differences between Mars and Earth

16. Introduction to occultations

17. Martian moons Phobos and Deimos

18. Introduction to the concept of escape velocity

19. Martian meteorites on Earth

20. Colonization of Mars

21. Test questions

22. Cross-curricular activities