Mars Bingo Vocabulary

Student Handout
  1. Olympus Mons: The largest volcano on Mars (and in the Solar System!) Olympus Mons is a shield volcano that is 16 miles high (approximately 3 times as high as Mt. Everest- Earth's tallest mountain), is 370 miles across and would cover the same area as the state of Arizona!

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  2. Valles Marineris: The longest canyon system on Mars (and in the Solar System!) This canyon is approximately 2500 miles long and reaches depth of nearly 3 to 6 miles deep in some places.

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  3. 687: The number of Earth days that make a Martian year. Remember that a year is the amount of time it takes a planet to travel all the way around the Sun. The Earth has a year that is 365 1/4 days long. If you lived on Mars, you would be a little older than 1/2 the age you are now.

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  4. Viking Missions: The name of the Mars missions (2 orbiters and 2 landers) that were sent to look for life on Mars in 1975-1976.

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  5. Carbon Dioxide: The main component (over 95%) of the Martian atmosphere (air).

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  6. Mars Pathfinder: The name of the Mars mission that landed on Mars on July 4, 1997. There had not been a landing on Mars in 21 years, before this mission successfully landed. The main objective of this mission was to test new ideas in spacecraft engineering and to study the rocks.

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  7. 25.5 degrees: The amount of tilt of the axis of Mars.

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  8. Sojourner Truth: The name of the first rover on Mars, named after a Civil War slave who helped other slaves become free. This rover was also the first rover sent to another planet and rolled around on Mars for nearly three months. The rover weighs 23 pounds, is 2 feet long, 1 1/2 feet wide, and 1 foot tall.

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  9. Mars Global Surveyor: The name of the spacecraft that began orbiting Mars in 1997. This mission collects data that will help us understand how high and low the mountains and valleys are, tell us about the minerals and rocks on the surface of the planet, take better pictures of the planet than we have ever had before, and reveal the magnetic history of the planet. The mission will last until at least 2001./LI>

     
  10. 1/2 Diameter: The size comparison of diameters (ratio) of Mars to Earth.

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  11. Mars Polar Lander: The name of the spacecraft that landed on Mars December 3, 1999.

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  12. Climate Study: The main science objective of the Mars Polar Lander and Orbiter.

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  13. Red Planet: The nickname of Mars. This nickname was given because of the red dust that covers the planet and helps to give it its color.

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  14. 37: The number of minutes that the Martian day is longer than an Earth day.

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  15. Phobos: The larger moon of Mars. The translation of the name means "fear".

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  16. Deimos: The smaller moon of Mars. The translation of the name means "terror".

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  17. Marie Curie: The name of the microrover that is scheduled for the Mars Surveyor 2001 lander mission. This microrover was named after a famous chemist and physicist from France that was the codiscoverer of radium in 1898.

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  18. Teleoperation: The remote operation of a robotic device, such as a rover or science instrument aboard a spacecraft.

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  19. Payload: Anything that a flight vehicle (like a spacecraft) carries beyond what is required for its operation during flight. This includes the scientific instruments and planetary rovers on the Mars missions.

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  20. Escape Velocity: The speed that any object must travel in order to escape the gravitational pull of a planet.

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  21. Aerobraking: The way a spacecraft can slow down by using the atmospheric drag of a planet. The Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Polar Orbiter used this method.

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  22. Astronomical Unit: The measuring unit for distances in the Solar System. One A.U. is equal to the mean distance from the Sun to the Earth (approx. 93,000,000 miles).

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  23. TES: The Thermal Emission Spectrometer instrument on board the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft that is studying the minerals, rocks, and atmosphere of Mars.

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  24. FIDO: The prototype rover being tested to get ready for the 2003 and 2005 Mars Return Sample Missions. The initials stand for Field Integrated Design and Operations.

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  25. Athena: The name of the 2003 and 2005 rovers that will be the rolling "field geologists" of the Mars Sample Return Missions. This is a bigger rover design than the Sojourner or Marie Curie rovers. It will be able to drill rocks and collect rock and soil samples. It comes with a microscopic imager and several spectrometers to give information about the rock right there on Mars. It also has a camera that will be able to rise above the rover and take pictures for the science team back on Earth. Through these pictures, the scientists will be able to direct the rover to the areas they wish to study.

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  26. Pancam: The name of the camera that will be on the Athena rover. The name stands for panoramic camera.

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  27. Air Bags: The Mars Pathfinder used these to bounce into the Martian surface on July 4, 1997. This was called a passive style landing.

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  28. APXS: The Alpha Proton X-Ray Spectrometer instrument that was on the Sojourner and Marie Curie rovers. This instrument was able to indicate what kind of minerals were in the rocks that it tested.

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  29. Polar Caps: These are located at the North and South Poles of Mars and are composed of water ice and Carbon Dioxide ice.

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  30. Mojave Desert: This is where the FIDO rover was tested to see if the instruments and software could operate correctly before the Athena rover (the rover that FIDO is being tested for) was sent to Mars. Other places this rover is tested are: Hawaii and the Mars Yard at Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

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  31. Navcam: The camera that is used to navigate (to help steer) the FIDO and Athena rovers.

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  32. Mini-Corer: The instrument on FIDO and Athena that will drill into rocks. These drill cores are about the diameter of a pencil. The drill cores collected on Mars will be returned for study here on Earth in 2008.

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  33. Mars Sample Return Missions: The 2003 and 2005 Mars missions that will be returning Mars rocks samples (drill cores) and Mars soils to Earth in 2008. Scientists will study these samples to learn more about Mars.

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  34. Mössbauer Spectrometer: The instrument on the FIDO and Athena rovers that can detect iron minerals in soil and rocks. It has been tested on Earth and will be sent to Mars in 2003 and 2005.

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  35. Color Microscopic Imager: The instrument on the FIDO and Athena rovers that is able to give scientists a very close and detailed picture of rocks and soils and will aid scientists in the interpretation of the minerals within the rocks.

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  36. Mars Surveyor 2001 Mission: The mission which will launch from Earth in 2001 and arrive in 2002. This mission will carry the Marie Curie rover, have a robotic arm that can scoop Mars soil for experiments, and carry a camera calibration target that is also a Martian sundial. Students helped to design this special sundial!

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  37. Sol: One day on Mars.

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  38. Ares Vallis: The Mars Pathfinder landing site. Scientists think this is an area on Mars that experienced a very large flood in its ancient history. Mars Pathfinder landed here on July 4, 1997.

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  39. NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

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  40. Mars: The fourth planet from the Sun that is named after the god of war.