What wil it cost to get to Mars? What's the apmosphere like? What's the weather like? What's the size of Mars?
486442
It will cost about $1 billion to get to Mars. The atmosphere is carbon dioxide. You can't breathe it. There is no weather on Mars. THe Size of MArs is about one-eighth the size of Earth.
1062573
It most likely will never melt, as Mars is far from the Sun. If it does, it might not last long, as it has no atmoshpere and a weak gravitational pull.
883887
Mars is smaller so it has a significantly smaller atmosphere.\nEarth has liquid water.\nMars is assumed to currently have no living organisms.\nMars has 2 moons.
478701
Equatorial diameter 6,804.9 km (4228.4 Miles)\n(0.533 Earths)\nPolar diameter 6,754.8 km (4197.2 Miles)\n(0.531 Earths)\nOblateness 0.007 36\nSurface area 1.448×108 km2 (55.907 Million Square Miles)\n(0.284 Earths)\n\n\n"Mars-5-inch-thing" Sure... but in which category of questions are we?
561687
Dave_Stark\n23 seconds ago\n\n\n \n The average distance from Mars to the Sun is 1.52369 astronomical units. One astronomical unit (AU, the average distance from the Sun to the Earth) is 1.49597870E11 meters.\n\nConverting those numbers, then, means that Mars is:\n\n1.52369 * 1.4959787E11 meters = 2.27941E11 meters, or, converting into English units:\n\n141,635,833 miles (on average -- remember that the orbits of the planets around the sun are not circular, but elliptical)
1104643
As has already been mentioned we have at least two very fine robots on Mars.  But to make it possible for humans to make the trip, there are a number of problems.  It is a very long way to go and people need to survive the distance and still be in good enough physical condition to move around the surface of Mars.  They also need to have sufficient fuel to make the round trip.  NASA has been generating plans for such an operation for years and it continues to work on them.  For the most current ideas, try going to "www.NASA.gov" and searching the site for topics about Mars.  You'll learn a lot about the program.
1127272
This site has up-to-date release-quality photos (ie. not raw data, just the images that are good enough for a regular person to want to look at) from the Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit and Opportunity):\n\nhttp://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/mer/
73165
The first Mars Rover made the trip in eight months.\nIt's about fifty million miles away.\nI don't know how cold it is.
966458
Earth at Aphelion Search\nhttp://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0oGkk9cFFFFkDYAzqlXNyoA?p=earth+aphelion&prssweb=Search&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-501&x=wrt\n\nMoon near Apogee, Earth near Perihelion\nhttp://www.fourmilab.ch/images/peri_apo/\n\nEarth at Aphelion\nhttp://www.spaceweather.com/glossary/aphelion.html\n\nPictures\nhttp://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=earth%20aphelion&prssweb=Search&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-501&x=wrt&fr2=tab-web
270456
On average, 2,432,890.5 miles per day. (Mars orbital circumference of 888,005,041 miles divided by 365 days.)
884418
I think your facts of science need to be updated.\n\nMars orbit is 1.5 AU (about 145 million miles)  from the Sun. \n\nThe Earth is 93 million miles away from the Sun.  At its closest, Mars is about 50 million miles away, and we have sent many probes to Mars without the need for "infinit (sic) energy"\n\nA manned Mars mission is well within human ability.
541536
Wasn't that the Mars landing?  Looking for life out there.
24676
It depends on how fully terraformed Mars was and how risky the flight there would be.  Mars could conceivably be terraformed into a beautiful Earth-like world.  Given safe transportation there, heck yeah I'd consider it, especially if they allowed homesteading.
413649
Mars being very hot now is not a suitable condition for humans and plants, as we know it, to live.\nBut now that Water in the form of Ice has been confirmed, it is a possibility for us to live there, provided that the ice has to be vapourised to create water clouds, and subseqently the clouds should give out rain, and when this chain starts, the creation of oxygen could be obtained by growing plants which emit oxygen. \nWHEW. That my friend is a hectic task ahead (and probably not feasible also). So may be, just may be, that some where about at 200 years down it could be a dream come true.\n\nBesides, we would only be intruding the rules of the Nature by doing so.
156605
There are polar caps on Mars that vary with the season. These are composed of ice, and dry ice (solid CO2). The Martian atmosphere is about 3% water vapor, which is the most water vapor that it can hold at its temperature and pressure, so it has a high relative humidity. We believe that Mars has permafrost under the surface. There appear to be runoff channels from water in some places on the Martian surface. \n\nIf there ever was a civilization on Mars, they did not leave much in the way of clues or ruins, or at least they have not been found yet, and I suspect they will not be.
322288
How will you keep warm?\nIt will be lonely without other people, including women.\nYou need to work on modular housing for atmospheric-interior pressure differentials.\nYou need to know where the water is located and how to get a handle on it.\nYou need energy source(s).\nYou need entirely new clothing and suit for outdoors.\nYou need a food supply and a plan for replenishment.\nWhat is most valuable or needed will not be known for sure until people gain experience by living there.\nLots of people will also need a Doctor/Surgeon.\nYou will need to visit Finland first.\nYou will need to know sub-surface temperatures, have a piping engineer, a construction engineer (specialized).\nShould you live underground? How far? What about meteorites?\nHow best to make use of existing terrain? Needs a very old geologist with lots of experience everywhere.\nWhat about people who become criminals or go nuts? You need to be able to send them back to earth...the alternatives are not pretty.\nYou need lots of energy-efficient bio-friendly lighting, especially to avoid depression.\nSame for plants -- which ones? Some colorful veggies and flowers, for sure.\nSo you will also need gardeners, horticulturist.\nYou will need excavating equipment that operates in this environment.\nWhat kind of transportation is best for Mars??????\n\nJust a start, but if you do not think of these things first, you will have trapped yourself in a place worse than Earth, though that may be hard to imagine until you consider the matter.\n\nShould weapons be allowed or banned?\nHow will the community be governed?\nDemocracy would apply to some things, in other cases the person who knows must be dictator, lest unforgiving mistakes result.\n\nMany things we take for granted here will need constant monitoring. More recycling necessary, less garbage.\n\nWhat about long distance transport, need aircraft adapted to Martian atmospheric conditions.\n\nThis all has to grow for many, many years before it will approach self-sustaining. Meanwhile, without planet Earth to call on for help...\n\nVisit Biosphere and Antarctica before you decide
484356
Over the years we've sent quite a few probes - both orbiters and landers - to Mars.  So far we have seen zero signs of intelligent life, and nothing definitive about simple life, either.\n\nWhat we have seen that excites us is signs of water.  And from what we know about biochemistry, it may be pretty easy for simple life forms to develop in the presence of water.  Some of the probes that have landed on Mars have looked for organic compounds - the building blocks of life.  So far they haven't found anything like that - but that doesn't mean they're not there!\n\nI think the best way to investigate if there's life on Mars would be to send humans there to to really good tests.  Hopefully that will happen in the next 15 or 20 years.