MARS
Location
Mars Location: 41.262488, -111.762664 What3Words: ///crossings.reassures.desirability
Location Description: The Mars sign is on 100 S near the highway in Huntsville across the street from the “Welcome to Huntsville” sign.
Mars continues to capture the fascination of Earthlings and is a regular trip destination for them. Everything except the planet itself, of course, is bigger on Mars. Plus, it has two moons instead of one.
Mars is home of Olympus Mons, an extinct volcano which is the highest and widest mountain in the solar system. It is 14 miles tall – 8.5 miles taller than Mt. Everest,with a coverage area 40% larger than all of Utah. If you think the air is thin on the summit of Mt. Everest, at the summit of Olympus Mons air doesn’t even exist. In fact, the Martian atmosphere ends halfway up the mountain, putting its summit in outer space. To climb the mons would require a space suit with oxygen tanks. The good news is your gear will feel like it weighs one-third of what it weighs on earth. Olympus Mons is truly a home worthy of the Greek gods.
To complement its grandiose heights, Mars is home of Valles Marineris, the “grandest canyon” in the solar system. It’s 10 times longer, 20 times wider, and 5 times deeper than Earth’s Grand Canyon. Its canyon rim rivals Mt. Everest’s height. If Valles Marineris were on Earth, it would stretch from Los Angeles to New York.
Before you leave, check out NASA’s Mars rovers. Five are either parked or roaming over Mars’ surface, including one from China. Then, of course, there’s NASA’s Ingenuity, the world’s first extra-terrestrial helicopter stationed on the Perseverance Rover on Mars.
