Olympus Mons

Mars Quiz

1. The ancient people who gave the planet the name Mars for their war god were the: (A) Babylonians; (B) Romans; (C) Greeks.


2. The American astronomer who discovered the moons of Mars in 1877 was: (A) Asaph Hall; (B) Percival Lowell; (C) James Christie.


3. The popular American fiction writer who wrote The Martian Chronicles was:
   (A) Kim Stanley Robinson; (B) Edgar Rice Burroughs; (C) Ray Bradbury.


4. Compared to an Earth day, a Martian day is: (A) much shorter; (B) much longer; (C) about the same length.


5. What would be the weight on Mars of a person who weighed 70 kg (155 lbs) on Earth?
   (A) 27 kg; (B) almost the same as on Earth; (C) 81 kg.


6. Mars has one of the tallest mountains in the Solar System – it's called: (A) Ascraeus Mons; (B) Olympus Mons; (C) Rheasilvia.


7. Valles Marineris is: (A) a vast canyon system on Mars; (B) where the Mariner spacecraft landed; (C) a crater explored by the Spirit rover.


8. Samples of Martian rocks on Earth: (A) were collected by the Beagle 2 mission; (B) were returned by one of the Viking landers; (C) arrived as meteorites.


9. Which country launched the Hope spacecraft that arrived at Mars in February 2021? (A) India; (B) United Arab Emirates; (C) Japan.


10. This space entrepreneur said: 'I'd like to die on Mars, just not on impact.' (A) Richard Branson; (B) Jeff Bezos; (C) Elon Musk.

Answers and notes

1. The ancient people who gave the planet the name Mars for their war god were the: (B) Romans.
The Babylonians and the Greeks also linked the planet with their god of war. It was Nergal to the Babylonians and Ares to the Greeks.

2. The American astronomer who discovered the moons of Mars in 1877 was: (A) Asaph Hall.
Hall was working at the US Naval Observatory when he made his discoveries. James Christy worked there a century later when he, working with Robert Harrington, discovered Pluto's moon Charon. Lowell – business man, author and astronomer – was fascinated by Mars, and also the idea of a planet beyond Neptune. He didn't make any discoveries, but he built the Lowell Observatory where Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto in 1930.

3. The popular American fiction writer who wrote The Martian Chronicles was: (C) Ray Bradbury.
In honor of Bradbury's classic, NASA named the Curiosity rover's landing site Bradbury Landing. Robinson has written a fascinating trilogy of novels taking in two centuries of the settlement and terraforming of Mars. Burroughs is well known as the creator of Tarzan, but he also wrote an adventure series set on Mars.

4. Compared to an Earth day, a Martian day is: (C) about the same length.
A Martian day is just 41 minutes longer than an Earth day.

5. What would be the weight on Mars of a person who weighed 70 kg (155 lbs) on Earth? (A) 27 kg.
Mars is smaller and less massive than Earth, so its gravitational pull is less. On Mars, you'd weigh 38% of your Earth weight.

6. Mars has one of the tallest mountains in the Solar System – it's called: (B) Olympus Mons.
Olympus Mons, a shield volcano, is 21.9 km (13.6 mi) high. Ascraeus Mons, another Martian volcano, is 14.9 km (9.3 mi) high. Olympus Mons is the tallest volcano in the Solar System. However, NASA's Dawn spacecraft at the asteroid Vesta made measurements of Rheasilvia. It's slighter taller than Olympus Mons. Earth's tallest mountains are the shield volcanos Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. They're both 10.2 km (6.3 mi) from base to peak.

7. Valles Marineris is: (A) a vast canyon system on Mars.
Valles Marineris runs along the Martian equator for 4000 km (2500 mi). It's both deeper and some five times the length of the Grand Canyon. In November 1971, Mariner 9, the first spacecraft to orbit Mars, discovered the canyon system. It didn't land on Mars. Spirit explored Gusev Crater for over six years.

8. Samples of Martian rocks on Earth: (C) arrived as meteorites.
Beagle 2 was a failed British astrobiology mission – it landed on Mars, but didn't open properly to begin operations. As yet, there have been no sample return missions from Mars.

9. Which country launched the Hope spacecraft that arrived at Mars in February 2021? (B) United Arab Emirates.
The UAE's Hope made a successful orbital insertion on February 9, 2021. Also arriving that month were China's Tianwen-1 orbiter and NASA's Perseverance rover. India's Mars Orbiter Mission has been circling Mars since September 2014. Japan has not yet carried out any Mars missions.

10. This space entrepreneur said, 'I'd like to die on Mars, just not on impact.' It was: (C) Elon Musk.
There are three commercial companies who have completed a human spaceflight. Musk's company is SpaceX, Branson's is Virgin Galactic and Bezos owns Blue Origin.