Mars
Which planet should humanity go to? Of course to Mars! In the game Spaceship Commander people fly to Mars like they go to their grandmother's village, some for work, and some as a tourist. Why to Mars? Because for a people he is the most favorable from the planets closest to us. Mercury is not an good decision, it is too hot there (+427C on the sunny side and almost -170C on the dark side). Venus - landing there is a sure suicide (pressure 100 atmospheres and temperature +464 C). Earth - well, we are already here :) The moon - although it is close the conditions there are not very good (there is no atmosphere, harsh temperature drops from +100 to -170), and low gravity. And then Mars - the planetary traveler's best choice. The force of gravity is 30% of the Earth's, more or less acceptable temperature conditions (about them later), as well the atmosphere, though it is of carbon dioxide (CO2). Another bonus is that the length of a day on Mars is 24 hours 37 minutes 22.7 seconds, just like on Earth. Our gas giants Jupiter and Saturn also have interesting satellites, but they are much further than Mars. Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun
Solar system. The bunch of planets in the center are Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars - also called the "Inner Region of the Solar System". Next up are the gas giants.
The mass of Mars is 0.10 of the mass of the Earth, and the diameter is 0.53 of the diameter of the Earth. Mars is called the "red planet" because of the reddish hue of the surface, given to it by the mineral maghemite - iron (III) oxide. Size comparison
The relief of Mars has many features - impact craters like on the Moon, volcanoes, valleys, deserts and even polar ice caps like on Earth. The Martian extinct volcano Mount Olympus is one of the highest known mountains on the planets of the solar system, its height is 21 km. The grandiose Mariner Valley has a length of 4500 km (a quarter of the planet's perimeter), a width of up to 600 km (an average of 200) and a depth of up to 11 km. At the north pole of Mars is the Great Northern Lowland - a plain that occupies 40% of the planet's surface, which lies 4-5 km below the average radius of the planet, and is essentially a crater from a colossal collision with another celestial body. Mars is a godsend for "space archaeologists", because Geologically, it has remained almost unchanged for 3 billion years! And on Earth during this time, violent tectonic processes took place, which erased almost all traces of the early history of our planet. Previously, Mars had rivers, lakes and seas and reminded the Earth. However, a billion years ago, active processes in the lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere of Mars is stoped, and it has acquired a modern look. The fault of the global catastrophic changes in the Martian climate is considered to be the large eccentricity of the orbit and the instability of the axis of rotation, which cause huge, up to 45%, fluctuations in the flow of solar energy incident on the surface of the planet. And also weak influx of heat from the bowels of Mars, due to the small mass of the planet, and the high rarefaction of the atmosphere. Mars is a quite harsh place, although there are a more worse places. The atmosphere of Mars consists of 96% carbon dioxide, and oxygen here is only 0.1%, which is clearly not enough for breathing. Also, the atmosphere here is very rarefied, how much? Approximately 100 times more rarefied than on Earth! Therefore, walking on Mars without a helmet you will very quickly get air out of your lungs and you will feel yourself very bad. And Mars is also famous for its dust, it is able to cover any apparatus or building very quickly, by the way it is very toxic, since it contains perchlorates. There is more bad news about the very powerful radiation that comes from the Sun, because Mars does not have a magnetic field and nothing stops it, unlike Earth, for example. To date, the best way to hide from this radiation is to sit in caves (lava tubes). But in the game Spaceship Commander people use a special nanofiber that effectively shields radiation (used in buildings, ships and uniforms). Somewhere in the wastelands of Mars
Oddly enough, it cannot be said that Mars is catastrophically cold. Of course, it is better not to go to the surface of Mars without a heated spacesuit, but on a good summer day the planet can be warm. Since the atmosphere of Mars is very rarefied, it does not smooth out daily fluctuations of surface temperature. Here there is a temperature below -120, and sometimes +20, it also depends on the season, but on average it is somewhere around -60, which is comparable, for example, with the Arctic regions of the Earth, so if you are a Siberian, then Mars will not surprise you much with frost. On Mars, the color of the sky is reddish. This is due to the size of Martian dust, which is suspended in the atmosphere, as well as the composition of this dust - it consists of iron oxides. There is an interesting point - at sunset, the color of the sun on Mars ... red? Very red? No blue! The physics of this process is not very simple, but in short it is again due to the size of the dust particles. Mars in the game Spaceship Commander is the main transport hub. It has many supply bases and most of the personnel of these bases work on a rotational basis. Supply base
Working days on Mars
Inside the Martian base (plants are highly valued here)
Landing window
So, Mars although not a paradise, is quite suitable as an initial base for humanity on another planet. After the infrastructure is built, it is already possible to go to other, more distant planets from here more efficiently than from Earth. There are also ideas about terraforming it, but that's a completely different story.