| Mars | |
|---|---|
 Elon Musk on Mars | |
| Rap battle information | |
| Appeared in | Elon Musk vs Mark Zuckerberg |
| Character(s) | Elon Musk |
| Release date | December 7, 2018 |
| Times appeared | 1 |
| Based on | |
| |
Mars is where Elon Musk briefly rapped in Elon Musk vs Mark Zuckerberg.
Information on the location
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System after Mercury. In English, Mars is named after the Roman god of war, and is often referred to as the "Red Planet" because the reddish iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance that is distinctive among the astronomical bodies visible to the naked eye. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere, having surface features reminiscent of both of the impact craters of the Moon and the valleys, deserts, and polar ice caps of Earth.
While humans have been observing Mars ever since antiquity, humanity's current fascination with the Red Planet really took off by the 19th century when telescopes were invented whose resolution was strong enough to resolve Mars as more than just a red dot in the sky. Most notably, the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli observed Mars during its opposition on September 5, 1877 and made out lines that he called canali (which translates to English as "channels" or "grooves"). However, because the word canali was mistranslated into English as "canals", many people came to believe that Mars was inhabited by intelligent, technologically advanced extraterrestrial beings. While, later observations led scientists to conclude that the canali were an optical illusion, that did not stop people from speculating on whether Mars could be inhabited by intelligent, technologically advanced extraterrestrial beings (as evidenced by the multitude of science fiction works featuring Martians that were written around this time).
Nevertheless idea that Mars could have been home to extraterrestrial life has also made it an attractive destination for space probes with Mars being the most explored planet in the Solar System with 48 missions having been sent there as of 2023 and many more still planned. The first attempts to send probes to the planet Mars were done by the Soviet Union from 1960 to 1964. However the 1960-64 Soviet Mars missions all failed and the first successful flyby of Mars was performed by NASA's Mariner 4 spacecraft on July 15, 1965. The results of the mission initially shattered all hopes that Mars could have been home to intelligent, technologically advanced extraterrestrial life as the results revealed the planet to have a dry, moon-like surface, a thin atmosphere, and no global magnetic field to protect it from solar radiation. Later on, NASA's Mariner 9 spacecraft would become the first spacecraft to orbit Mars on November 14, 1971. It returned photographs of dry riverbeds and canyons, which suggested that at some point in its history, liquid water may have once flowed on the surface of Mars, reigniting the possibility that there was a time in the past when Mars was habitable and life may still exist on Mars today. Despite the Soviet Union's initial failures, they would eventually become both the first nation to land on Mars when the lander of the Mars 2 spacecraft attempted the first soft landing on Mars, only to crash on the Martian surface on November 27, 1971 (the Soviets eventually would become the first nation to make a soft landing on Mars when the lander of the Mars 3 spacecraft soft landed on Mars on December 2, 1971, though the lander only transmitted for 20 seconds). NASA's Viking 1 lander would later become the first successful lander on Mars on July 20, 1976. It and the Viking 2 lander were both sent to Mars to study the structure and composition of Mars as well as search for life. However, the results turned out inconclusive and the results of the mission are still hotly debated to this day. Further missions sent to Mars, have since strengthened the possibility of Mars being habitable in the past. Studies of Mars' geology show that there once may have been a global magnetic field on Mars which, in the past, would have protected its atmosphere and surface from solar radiation and allowed Mars to support bodies of liquid water on its surface. Furthermore, missions such as the Curiosity rover have discovered many of the chemical ingredients needed for life in the Martian soil and even organic molecules in three billion year-old sedimentary rocks. At the same time, possible biosignatures like methane and formaldehyde have been found on the Martian surface, raising the possibility that life may still exist on Mars, probably in its subsurface, where conditions may still remain warm enough for liquid water to exist.
Appearance in the battle
This is the location where Elon Musk briefly rapped from the line “Your platform only launches depression” onwards.
Trivia
- Mars is the third non-fictional extraterrestial location, after the Moon and Outer Space.
