Before I was assigned the research paper in a field of my major, I had already been doing a little research on a topic I found quite compelling. My major is Mechanical Engineering and I hope to complete an aerospace minor along with that. From this information, it’s safe to say my research was based on some sort of flight, whether it was within our atmosphere or not. To clarify, my interest is not bound by our atmosphere! I have studied space travel and life out of pure enjoyment since elementary school. The one enigma I found most compelled to research happened to be Earth’s close companion, Mars.
Before I talk about Mars, I will give you some history of America’s space explorations. As almost everyone knows, stepping foot on the moon was one of the first space explorations, and also, one of the greatest. In that single step the hopes and dreams of the American citizens were unified in glory and pride. From that moment on, the boundaries of our race were constantly being tested. After landing on the moon, the next big step was to get people to try to live in space. Although that goal was not quite accomplished, the International Space Station was built to simulate space using its unique microgravity environment to run various experiments ranging from biology to meteorology. Lately, NASA has been sending unmanned space crafts to Mars to get soil samples, take pictures, and do other such things. Using the information gathered by the unmanned crafts, scientists have found possible signs of previous life on Mars.
Mars, although it may not be aesthetically pleasing, does hold many keys to life within its area. The first major thing to notice about Mars is it is home to the solar system’s largest volcano. The volcano, Olympus Mons, is actually larger than the entire state of Arizona. The interesting part of the volcano is not its size, though. Volcanos are important features of a planet because they have the ability to create atmospheres and oceans. Since Mars contains the largest volcano, it is possible the volcano created Mars’ atmosphere and may even be the source of the frozen water on Mars. Along with a large volcano, Mars contains the largest canyon in the solar system. Valles Marineris, the huge canyon of Mars, is three thousand miles long, or about as wide as the continental United States. For a canyon this large to be created, there must have been a large mass of water traveling through, slowly eating away at the crust of Mars, until the largest canyon was created. Another interesting fact about Mars is the traces of water previously on the planet. At the polar caps, there is frozen water to be found. Most of Mars now has water underneath it’s surface. Frozen between the crust and the core, water is trapped on Mars and holds promising signs of life. Why was life on Mars once so promising? Water is one of the key ingredients to life, and it has been found under the surface of Mars! Along with water, another key component to life is the presence of methane in the atmosphere. In the atmosphere of Mars, methane was been found in three major areas of the planet. The importance of methane on Mars is simple and can be better explained by using Earth as an example. On Earth, 99.9% of all methane in our atmosphere is produced by life. That means, if there are large quantities of methane on Mars, there may have been previous life that created the methane. Using all of this information plus lots more, scientists have concluded Mars, in its early history, may have been a lot like Earth is today. Mars had the potential to support life at some level, but not NASA is trying to piece the puzzle together to find the answers why the red planet is completely barren and dry. Still, because Mars could have previously supported life, scientists are now viewing Mars as the next place humans may be able to reside in.
