To prepare for the new setting I have been reading a lot of stuff about Mars, and it has been enjoyable to once again take an interest in our Solar System. I am still trying to put my ideas down on paper, but it is a slow going. Hopefully I will have some concrete soon, but in the meanwhile please enjoy ten facts about Mars.
- Mars can easily be seen from Earth with the naked eye. It's brightness surpassed only by Venus, Jupiter, the Moon, and the Sun.
-A Martian day is called a sol, and it is a bit longer than an Earth day. It last just under 24 hours and 40 minutes.
- A Martian year is a bit over 668 sols, or just under 687 earth days.
- Mars rotates on a tilted axis, ensuring that the planet experiences seasonal weather variations similar to Earth.
- Mars has an eccentric elliptical orbit, causing greater variations in the length of Martian seasons.
- Martian surface temperatures vary from lows of about −87 °C during the polar winters to highs of up to −5 °C in summers.
- Mars is the site of Olympus Mons (estimated height of between 21-29 km ) the highest known mountain within the Solar System, and of Valles Marineris, the largest canyon (more than 4,000 km long, 200 km wide and up to 7 km deep).
- Mars have two moons called Phobos (fear) and Deimos (loathing).
- You have to travel about 182.5 million miles to reach Mars. It would take 41.6 years to fly that distance in an airplane, but only a bit over 14 months in the Space Shuttle.
- Today there are 13 man made objects on the surface of Mars.
Oh, I forgot to mention that I am thinking of calling our setting «Tales from the Red Frontier». What do you think? Good or bad?
- Mars can easily be seen from Earth with the naked eye. It's brightness surpassed only by Venus, Jupiter, the Moon, and the Sun.
-A Martian day is called a sol, and it is a bit longer than an Earth day. It last just under 24 hours and 40 minutes.
- A Martian year is a bit over 668 sols, or just under 687 earth days.
- Mars rotates on a tilted axis, ensuring that the planet experiences seasonal weather variations similar to Earth.
- Mars has an eccentric elliptical orbit, causing greater variations in the length of Martian seasons.
- Martian surface temperatures vary from lows of about −87 °C during the polar winters to highs of up to −5 °C in summers.
- Mars is the site of Olympus Mons (estimated height of between 21-29 km ) the highest known mountain within the Solar System, and of Valles Marineris, the largest canyon (more than 4,000 km long, 200 km wide and up to 7 km deep).
- Mars have two moons called Phobos (fear) and Deimos (loathing).
- You have to travel about 182.5 million miles to reach Mars. It would take 41.6 years to fly that distance in an airplane, but only a bit over 14 months in the Space Shuttle.
- Today there are 13 man made objects on the surface of Mars.
Oh, I forgot to mention that I am thinking of calling our setting «Tales from the Red Frontier». What do you think? Good or bad?
I think it has possibilities. :)
ReplyDeleteAnother interesting thing about Mars is its dust--which is really on the powderish side. It would swirl around the world in storms, and choke and foul equipment.
The GURPS Transhuman Space book on solar system has a lot of good stuff on Mars as does (appropriately) GURPS Mars.
Good to hear:)
ReplyDeleteYeah, I read about the dust storms on Mars, there are tons of interesting stuff about Mars. I will have to check out GURPS, hopefully they are still available on Amazon:)
I like you title - but suspect the real game will be more "fear and loathing on Mars" as Bjørge put it.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to seeing some play reports from this campaign.
ReplyDeleteLeketøys: I agree, Tales from the Red Frontier is a bit too much on the pulp side, and I am still looking for a more appropriate Cyberpunkish name for our game:
ReplyDeleteDangerous Brian: I am too looking forward to some game reports, but it will take a while. Mostly because I am on vacation for a couple of weeks.