Introduction
This page showcases our resources for those interested in learning more about Mars. It includes activities that can be done at home as well as videos, animations, stories, and articles.
On this page:
Highlights
Videos & Animations
-
Join Dr. Paul Mahaffy, former Principal Investigator on the Sample Analysis at Mars Instrument Suite on the Curiosity rover, in hearing highlights of Curiosity’s journey since landing on Mars in 2012.
-
Is there water on Mars? There sure is! It’s not exactly like water on Earth, but Martian H20 can tell us a lot about the planet’s distant past while potentially aiding explorers in the future.
-
Take a look at the view from inside Gale crater as NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover explores a changing landscape.
-
Learn about the Curiosity rover’s discovery of ancient organic molecules on Mars, embedded within sedimentary rocks that are billions of years old.
-
These animations show what an early, wet Mars may have looked like and how the present-day dry Mars appears.
-
Explore this series of clips about a variety of Mars-related topics including landing on Mars, “marsquakes,” and driving a rover on Mars.
-
By measuring wind speed and direction in the Mars upper atmosphere, NASA’s MAVEN mission has discovered that high-altitude wind currents are being disturbed by terrain features far below.
-
NASA’s MAVEN mission explores the atmosphere of Mars to better study a phenomenon observed at Earth, known as “Sporadic-E Layers.” Learn more in this comic book-style animated video.
-
After nearly 300 million miles (470 million km), NASA’s Perseverance rover completed its journey to Mars on February 18, 2021. But, to reach the surface of the Red Planet, it had to survive the harrowing final phase known as Entry, Descent, and Landing.
-
After a seven-month-long journey, NASA’s Perseverance rover successfully touched down on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021. See how mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory celebrated landing NASA’s fifth – and most ambitious – rover on Mars.
-
Learn about NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter which successfully made history’s first powered flight on another planet on April 19, 2021. Ingenuity landed on Mars with NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover on February 18, 2021.
-
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter became the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet on April 19, 2021. See how the Ingenuity team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California determined that the flight was successful.
-
Explore this gallery for videos and animations relating to Mars science and missions.
Activities
-
Rovers of the Solar System
A coloring and activity booklet featuring past, present, and future rovers across the solar system. Grab your coloring tools and let’s see what you create! -
MAVEN at Mars Coloring Sheet
Download and color this MAVEN orbiter coloring sheet. -
MAVEN and Curiosity Rover Coloring Sheet
Download a coloring sheet of NASA’s MAVEN orbiter and Curiosity rover working together at Mars. -
Mars Curiosity Rover Coloring Sheet
Download and color this Curiosity rover coloring sheet. -
Describe Rocks Like a NASA Scientist
Learn how to describe rock samples like a NASA scientist. Then, take a quiz to see if you can match edible rocks made of candy bars – and real rocks from Earth and space – to the correct description. -
Comparing Planetary Gases
Learn about the differences between the atmospheres of Venus, Earth, and Mars by using jellybeans or colored cotton balls to represent the gases in each planet’s atmosphere.Note: This activity is written for a classroom setting but can be easily adapted to an at-home activity.
-
Make a Volcano
Explore how volcanoes can form on different planets in our solar system by creating your very own out of play dough, baking soda, and vinegar! -
Make a Cardboard Rover
In this challenge, you will build your own rubber-band-powered rover that can scramble across a room. Build your rover out of cardboard, figure out how to use rubber bands to spin the wheels, and use the engineering design process to improve your rover based on testing results.Note: A Spanish version of this activity is available here.
-
Make a Paper Mars Helicopter
The goal for this project is to build your own paper helicopter. Then, just as NASA engineers had to try out different versions of the Mars Helicopter (called Ingenuity) before coming up with a final design, you will experiment with the design of your helicopter to see what works best.
3D Models
-
Explore these interactive 3D models of a variety of Martian features and Mars missions.
Stories
1. Perseverance Rover Mission to Mars
NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover landed on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021. Its main job is to search for signs of ancient life and collect samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and soil) for a possible return to Earth. On Sept. 6, 2021, Perseverance completed the collection of the first sample of Martian rock, a core from Jezero Crater slightly thicker than a pencil. The samples that Perseverance has been collecting have enabled the rover to make some surprising discoveries.
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, a technology demonstration, also hitched a ride on the rover. Ingenuity successfully made history’s first attempt at powered flight on another planet on April 19, 2021. On its 17th flight on December 5, 2021, Ingenuity pushed its total flight time past the 30-minute mark, reaching an airborne milestone the rotorcraft’s team never considered achievable.
You can make your own paper Mars helicopter with this activity.
For the latest news and events regarding NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover, see here.
Articles
-
NASA’s Perseverance rover used its Mastcam-Z camera system to shoot video of Phobos, one of Mars’ two moons, eclipsing the Sun.
-
A scientific study based on recordings made by the Perseverance rover found that the speed of sound is slower on the Red Planet than on Earth and that, mostly, a deep silence prevails.
-
The whirling blades on drones flying above Mars may cause tiny electric currents to flow in the Martian atmosphere. These currents, if large enough, might cause the air surrounding the craft to glow, which would be most visible during evening hours. NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter doesn’t fly during this time, but future drones could be cleared for evening flights.
-
In September 2021, NASA’s Perseverance rover collected its first samples of Martian rock. This marked the first time a spacecraft packed up rock samples from another planet that could be returned to Earth by future missions, such as the Mars Sample Return program.
-
On Sept. 6, 2021, NASA’s Perseverance rover completed the collection of the first sample of Martian rock, a core from Jezero Crater slightly thicker than a pencil. The core is now enclosed in an airtight titanium sample tube, making it available for retrieval in the future.
-
Along with capturing the boulders, sand dunes, and rocky outcrops prevalent in the “South Séítah” region of Jezero Crater, a few of the images taken by NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter during its 11th flight capture NASA’s Perseverance rover amid its first science campaign.
-
On April 19, 2021, NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter became the first aircraft in history to make a powered, controlled flight on another planet. The Ingenuity team at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California confirmed the flight succeeded after receiving data from the helicopter via NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover at 6:46 a.m. EDT.
-
The largest, most advanced rover NASA has sent to another world touched down on Mars on February 18, 2021, after a 203-day journey. Confirmation of the successful touchdown was announced in mission control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California at 3:55 p.m. EST.
-
Video from NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover chronicles major milestones during the final minutes of its entry, descent, and landing (EDL) on the Red Planet on February 18, 2021, as the spacecraft plummeted, parachuted, and rocketed toward the surface of Mars. A microphone on the rover has also provided the first audio recording of sounds from Mars.
-
With the arrival of NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover to the surface of Mars on February 18, 2021, NASA’s MAVEN orbiter continues to carry out both relay communications support for NASA’s surface missions and joint data analysis with these missions and with the orbiters already at Mars.
Image Highlights
-
Auld Lang Séítah
The Perseverance rover acquired this image of Mars’ Séítah region on Dec. 9, 2021, using its onboard Right Navigation Camera (Navcam). -
Mastcam-Z’s First Martian Sunset
This sunset on Mars was captured by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover using its Mastcam-Z camera system on Nov. 9, 2021. -
Mapping Perseverance’s First Six Samples
This annotated map shows the locations where NASA’s Perseverance rover collected its first samples. -
Perseverance Rover's View of ‘South Séítah’
Composed of 84 enhanced-color images, this mosaic features a rover’s-eye view of the ‘South Séítah’ geologic unit of Mars’ Jezero Crater. -
NASA’s Perseverance Rover Collects First Mars Rock Sample
Perseverance’s first cored-rock sample is visible inside this titanium sample collection tube in this image taken on September 6, 2021. -
WATSON Views ‘Foux’
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took this close-up of a rock target nicknamed “Foux” using its WATSON camera, part of the SHERLOC instrument on the end of the rover’s robotic arm. The image was taken on July 11, 2021. -
NASA’s Mars Helicopter Reveals Intriguing Terrain for Rover Team
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter captured this image of tracks made by the Perseverance rover during its ninth flight, on July 5, 2021. A portion of the helicopter’s landing gear can be seen at top left. -
Ingenuity’s Sixth Flight
This image of Mars was taken from the height of 33 feet (10 meters) by NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter during its sixth flight on May 22, 2021. -
Perseverance Rover’s View of “Santa Cruz”
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover used its dual-camera Mastcam-Z imager to capture this image of “Santa Cruz,” a hill within Jezero Crater, on April 29, 2021. -
First 360-Degree Panorama from Perseverance Rover’s Mastcam-Z
Explore the first 360-degree panorama taken by Mastcam-Z, a zoomable pair of cameras aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover. The panorama was stitched together on Earth from 142 individual images taken on Sol 3, the third Martian day of the mission (Feb. 21, 2021). -
NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter in Flight
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter took this shot while hovering over the Martian surface on April 19, 2021, during the first instance of powered, controlled flight on another planet. It used its navigation camera, which autonomously tracks the ground during flight.
2. Volcanoes on Mars
Evidence abounds that volcanoes dot the solar system. Mars is one place where these phenomena exist, and the planet boasts the solar system’s largest (though, now, likely inactive) volcanoes. Olympus Mons on Mars is the tallest volcano in our solar system and measures 69,000 ft (21.1 km) high. In comparison, Mauna Kea on Earth rises roughly 13,800 ft (4.2 km) above sea level (this volcano also extends about 19,700 ft or 6 km below sea level).
Early on, Mars had really active volcanoes which were fed by hot, rising blobs of rock from deep inside the planet. But Mars doesn’t have tectonic plates that move over hotspots, like in Hawaii. So, instead of getting a chain of volcanoes, you could keep building one huge one, and, with the lower gravity on Mars (38% that of Earth), that magma could be pushed to great heights. This is how Mars ended up with such enormous volcanoes.
Articles
-
Scientists found evidence that a region of northern Mars called Arabia Terra experienced thousands of “super eruptions,” the biggest volcanic eruptions known, over a 500-million-year period about 4 billion years ago.
-
Some places on Earth are so extreme that NASA scientists use them as stand-ins to study harsh environments on other worlds. These locations are called planetary analogs because they are similar, or analogous, to Earth’s Moon, Mars, asteroids – and even exoplanets – planets that orbit other stars.
-
Volcanoes expose the pulse of many planets and moons, offering clues to how these bodies evolved from chemical soups to the complex systems of gases and rocks we see today. Unearthing these clues is what motivates planetary scientists to venture to such inhospitable places on Earth as smoldering lava fields and glacier-covered volcanoes.
Other Resources
-
This interactive 3D experience shows NASA’s Perseverance rover on the surface of Mars.
-
This interactive map shows the landing site for NASA’s Perseverance rover within Jezero Crater on Mars. Perseverance landed on February 18, 2021. The map also shows the location of the Mars Helicopter.
-
This tool places you right in Gale Crater on Mars, the landing site of NASA’s Curiosity rover. Explore the region in a 3D environment by clicking around and seeing images taken by Curiosity.
-
“Mars As Art” collection
Explore an online Martian art gallery.
-
The Solar System Treks are online, browser-based portals that allow you to visualize, explore, and analyze the surfaces of other worlds using real data returned from a growing fleet of spacecraft. You can view the worlds through the eyes of many different instruments, pilot real-time 3D flyovers above mountains and into craters, and conduct measurements of surface features.
-
Ever wonder how you would sound on Mars? Grab your headsets, turn up the volume and listen for the subtle differences between the sounds on Earth versus how they would sound on the Red Planet.
-
This interactive map shows the route driven by NASA’s Curiosity rover since landing in Gale Crater on August 5, 2012. Explore Curiosity’s current location on Mars!