Few places have more mystical attraction than this rusty-red stone 54.6 million kilometers away. Even thousands of years ago, ancient civilizations speculated about what could have happened there so blood red. Surely it was impossible to do without blood or fire. But the mystical fog dissipates, and you discover strange icy lands that surpass even your wildest dreams: wide plateaus, blown by the winds of the desert, prehistoric craters, towering volcanoes and dune fields the size of Luxembourg, all covered with pervasive dust and stone powder. It never rains here (because the water evaporates instantly), the greenhouse effect is considered a joyful event, and a fall is not painful.
On Mars, sunsets are shimmering blue, and Earth is nothing more than a tiny ball among the stars. And wherever you go - hunting alien life or skiing on lakes of frozen carbon dioxide - you will be the first everywhere. It is breathtaking. However, this is an exaggeration, because you will not be able to breathe deeply on Mars.
How to get there?
After many years of selfless dreams, it finally happens. If all goes according to plan, SpaceX, led by its permanent leader Elon Musk, plans to send the first batch of tourists to the Red Planet in 2022.
However, if you don't want to pay for a ticket, there is another option: to explore Mars indirectly. This is a very real possibility that NASA is currently exploring. All you need is a robot and a virtual reality headset.
What to see?
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The first attraction on the list is Mount Olympus. This volcano, 22 kilometers high, is the largest in the solar system - almost three times the height of Mount Everest. Like volcanoes on Earth, this volcano at the top is covered with thin clouds, only they do not consist of water, but of dust. It is not yet known if Olympus is active, but if so, then its power should throw giant lava bombs into space.
If you head southwest you will find Valles Marineris. This impressive valley resembles a deep scar running along the Martian equator. In total, its length is about 4000 kilometers. This is a lot by earthly standards. In some places, its depth reaches 7 kilometers.
How this scar formed on Mars is unclear. Valles Marineris is composed of colorful layered sediments that may have formed at the bottom of an ancient lake or glacier, or during the accumulation of volcanic ash. But unlike, for example, the American Grand Canyon, which was formed by erosion, continental drift could have occurred on Mars, which formed an abyss when two tectonic plates broke. The two sides of the abyss coincide like pieces of a puzzle.
“Both of these places would be great to visit. They are much larger than anything on Earth, and this is in part because Mars has a much thicker crust,”says Ashwin Wasawada, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
If you look at the sunset from the canyon, it will not be red - blue. This phenomenon is associated with the planet's weak atmosphere, which is 1% thick on Earth. Our planet's sky is blue because these wavelengths are scattered by air molecules. On Mars, this does not happen to the same extent, which is why the sky is toffee-colored. But when the sun is low, light must travel further through the atmosphere, and the Martian sky turns an eerie blue.
And the Red Planet has another blue surprise. In many areas, under a thick layer of red dust, blue and green mineral rocks such as iron are found. As a result, when the dust is swept away by the wind or the impact of a wayward asteroid, it reveals a kaleidoscopic array of blue hues - from grooved sand dunes to craters glowing with cobalt blue aquamarine dust.
Climate
To say that Mars is best in the summer would be a bit off the box office. “The average temperature on Mars (about -56 degrees Celsius) is about the same as deep in Antarctica,” says David Cutling, an astrobiologist at the University of Washington.
If you prefer a beach holiday, you will definitely want to stay close to the equator. Here you will find pleasant warmth (up to 35 degrees in the shade) and very little wind. With such a thin atmosphere, a raging storm will be like a gentle breeze. And although it is humid and foggy at night, everything is dry during the day. “There are about ten water molecules per million air molecules in Gale Crater. There would be thousands of them on Earth,”says Vasavada.
Since the Red Planet is one and a half times farther from the Sun than the Earth, there is no need to take glasses with you - in the daytime it will be about as bright as if you had already put on a pair.
Alas, tents and bonfires are excluded. Even if you find something to burn, in the absence of plants, the atmosphere is 96% carbon dioxide, which is more suitable for extinguishing a fire than maintaining it.
Things to do
With a cold of -193 degrees, the Martian poles are a winter wonderland. Both lie in complete darkness for half a year and have ice caps made from frozen water. They are covered in a fluffy layer of super-soft frozen carbon dioxide snow; in the south, its thickness can reach several meters. If you love the arctic climate, you will be rewarded with skiing opportunities that will turn earth athletes green with envy.
According to Popular Mechanics magazine, about a quarter of the Red Planet's atmosphere freezes over and falls onto the planet's icy surface every winter. And while tiny cubic granules won't work for snowballs (not sticky enough) - they will be perfect for snowboarding and skiing.
When the sun's light returns in the spring, the poles evaporate, turning from solid to gaseous. On the surface of the ice, dry ice, from which theatrical fog is made on the ground, rises up, forming trickles of cirrus clouds, which are spurred on by powerful winds flying at a speed of more than 400 km / h.
If you don't want to stick to the equator, there is always wildlife viewing. Every known form of life on Earth is made of liquid water, so if there is life on Mars, it is most likely lurking in puddles.
Scientists have been looking for these puddles for many years, but to no avail. And so, in 2011, they were found: mysterious dark streams of liquid flowing down from the slopes of the canyons and craters of Mars. Most likely, these streams are very salty. But who knows, perhaps brine is the preferred choice for Martian life. Finding it requires microscopes, not binoculars.
And at night, we recommend leaning back in your chair - fortunately, a third of the earth's gravity allows - and enjoy the view. And don't forget to take a selfie.
ILYA KHEL