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So, you're thinking of moving to Mars.
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Have you picked out a spot
for your new home?
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No? Well, I'm here to help.
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First things first,
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here are some of the things
you'll need to bring to The Red Planet:
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a high tolerance for cold,
loneliness, and radiation,
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a lifetime supply
of breathable air and food,
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a multibillion dollar spaceship,
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a desire to just get away from it all,
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and water.
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You're definitely going to need water.
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So what sort of real estate
are you looking for?
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How about a mansion in the maze-like
Noctis Labyrinthus?
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A hide away in the Happy Face Crater?
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A fortress on the Face Mesa?
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An oceanview?
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Uh, bad news on the last one.
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You're about 4 billion years late.
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We're pretty sure that Mars
used to have oceans, lakes, rivers,
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the whole package.
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But over time, almost all of it
froze beneath the surface,
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or evaporated off into space.
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There's probably still some
trapped beneath
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the seasonally expanding and contracting
carbon dioxide ice caps, though.
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So what might Mars look like today
if it had surface water?
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That of course depends
on how much we're talking about,
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but maybe something like this.
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The relatively flat northern hemisphere
is below the average elevation,
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so it would become one giant ocean,
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while the crater-ridden
southern hemisphere
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would stay mostly high and dry.
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That difference between hemispheres
is a bit bizarre,
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and we don't know why it's like that.
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The southern half is probably
much older,
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judging by features
like the number of craters,
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and the evidence of increased
volcanic activity in the north.
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Okay, so who knows.
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Maybe one day Mars will have oceans again,
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but for now, what we've got is essentially
one giant dusty desert.
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In fact, it's similar enough
to deserts on Earth,
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that we've been able to learn a great deal
about Mars on our home planet.
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For instance, Maritan sand dunes
form and behave
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similarly to our sand dunes,
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though the Martian versions
often grow twice as large
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thanks to a gravitational pull
that's about a third as strong as ours.
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And Mars has some features
you won't see on Earth,
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like tars, which are crestless
sand dunes up to fifteen meters tall,
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whose formations
we have yet to understand.
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You're probably wondering,
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"What do you get when you
combine a planet-wide desert
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with an atmosphere that, like ours,
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is subject to wind-generating
pressure differentials, dust storms?"
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These will be your main weather hazards
on the Red Planet.
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They play a large part
in making the planet red
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by distributing rusted iron particles
across the surface and into the air.
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Thanks to the low gravity
and lack of moisture,
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these dust storms can last for months
and cover the planet.
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So, you might want to build your home
as high as possible.
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Well, look no further.
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This is Olympus Mons,
the largest volcano in the Solar System.
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Even if Mars had a breathable atmosphere,
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you'd find the views from
the 25 kilometer summit breathtaking.
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Or are volcanos not your thing?
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Then how about Valles Marineris,
the largest canyon in the Solar System?
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It's so wide that from one side,
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the opposite rim would be below
the curve of the horizon.
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Still, you catch som spectacular
blue sunsets in the normally red sky,
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which gets its color from the dust
absorbing most of the blue light,
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and the way sunlight is scattered
by the atmosphere.
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Have you got spirit, curiosity,
or are you just looking for opportunity?
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Then stop stalling
and make the move to Mars today.
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Mars: Redder than Ever.