Talk:Mars

Suggested minor change in headline: Timeline -> Timeline of Mars Missions

When reading the content, it is unclear weather 'Timeline' refers to the Timeline of Mars missions or the history of the planet. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.125.105.149 (talk) 08:44, 8 December 2011 (UTC)

I agree with the suggested change but also would like to point out that there would be a repeat of the table Timeline of Mars exploration at the Exploration of Mars article. I think that this kind of table should appear only once in that article. Tom Paine (talk) 12:52, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

I'm slightly opposed to the proposed title. Is there any way it could be done without including the word "Mars"? --W. D. Graham _{(previously GW)} 17:43, 10 January 2012 (UTC)

What about 'Timeline of Exploration Missions' or simply 'Timeline of Exploration Missions'? Anyway I still think this table should only appear in the Exploration of Mars article.Tom Paine (talk) 18:28, 11 January 2012 (UTC)

or "Timeline of Human Exploration" OlympusMoons (talk) 17:17, 20 January 2012 (UTC)

Well, the name of the article shouldn't be used in the section headings, so "Mars" can be removed. "Human" is assumed here, as Wikipedia is written by humans, for humans. That would reduced the list to "Timeline of missions" (or "Missions timeline"), "Timeline of exploration" (or "Exploration timeline"), or "Timeline of Exploration Missions". Regards, RJH (talk) 17:48, 20 January 2012 (UTC)

I like "Exploration timeline", but no strong opinion. DanHobley (talk) 03:11, 21 January 2012 (UTC)

Mars - Orbit and Rotation, Perihelion and Aphelion

In the Orbit and Rotation section, paragraph two, Mars is described as having had its last perihelion and aphelion both occurring in March of 2010.

Reference 117 cites a source that lists: Apr 21, 2009: Mars in Perihelion (1.38134 AU, 206.6 million km) Mar 31, 2010: Mars in Aphelion (1.66594 AU, 249.2 million km). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.182.217.107 (talk) 17:58, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

Fixed by Kheider, thanks. Materialscientist (talk) 07:12, 29 January 2012 (UTC)

Spacemaster

WE Johns in one of his "Biggles" stories wrote in fair depth about a trip to Mars, using the disc shaped space ship "Space master".AT Kunene (talk) 10:07, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

That might be suitable material for the Mars in fiction article. Fartherred (talk) 02:41, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

map of mars

There didn't seem to be a map of Mars with features being names in the article - and I stumbled accross this image which looked like it might be useful to the article. EdwardLane (talk) 11:37, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

I added the image to History of Mars observation#Geographical period, since it is of historical interest. Thank you. Note that there are several modern maps available in the Geography of Mars article. Regards, RJH (talk) 17:06, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

Success?

This article states: "The first objects to successfully land on the surface were two Soviet probes: Mars 2[citation needed] on November 27 and Mars 3 on December 2, 1971, but both ceased communicating within seconds of landing." How were these successes? Sounds like they unsuccessfully landed as they failed within seconds. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.158.38.6 (talk) 14:12, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

Wiki's own article on the Mars 2 probe states: "On November 27, 1971 due to on-board computer malfunction the lander entered the martian atmosphere incorrectly which resulted in crash-landing and loss of probe." Sounds like someone is being creative in their interpretation of the world "success." Mars 3 apparently did a little better - it got to the surface but failed within 15 seconds. Once again has to be pretty optimistic to call this a successful landing - it doesn't even meet the 30 second rule for dropped food items - see http://blogs.sfweekly.com/foodie/2010/01/you_dropped_food_on_the_floor.php. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.158.38.6 (talk) 14:22, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

Suppose you brought your car to a stop at a red light, then the engine died. Was your stop unsuccessful? But I suppose we could just get rid of "successfully" and leave it to the judgment of the reader. Regards, RJH (talk) 15:31, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

Years

Why is the synodic period given in Julian years, shouldn't this be in Gregorian years?AT Kunene (talk) 12:57, 4 March 2012 (UTC)

Probably because Julian year (astronomy) is a time interval used in astronomy. Regards, RJH (talk)