Mars, The Movie (1998)

mars the fourth planet from the sun is visible to the naked eye as a bright star in the night sky through a telescope it appears as a yellowish brown disc with indications of complex features however using images taken by cameras on the viking orbiter spacecraft a simulated flight over mars reveals much more detail these are shaded relief maps of the topography of the earth and mars rendered onto spheres the diameter of mars is 4202 miles or about 53 percent of earth's the planet's volume is about 15 percent of earth's a comparison of the relative size of each planet to the size of its surface features demonstrates the enormity of the martian terrain the mars elevations were derived from stereographic analysis of the viking orbiter imagery for scale the outline of the continental united states is superimposed on a portion of the martian terrain over which our flight will occur [Music] among the most impressive features on mars are the thousands montes shield volcanoes more than two times the height of mount everest and the valles marineris a system of enormous canyons over 3000 miles long this viking orbiter image mosaic was used for the flight simulation the line being drawn follows the flight path flight elevations vary from 500 miles to 3 miles above the surface the relief has been exaggerated five times and the natural color enhanced to allow better interpretation of small surface features [Music] for centuries mars has captivated observers on earth unmanned spacecraft and scientific data visualization have increased our interest in and knowledge of the red planet [Music] you