Currently there is no translation for this activity.

Meet our neighbours: Mars

Created: 2025-03-10

Author(s):
Lina Canas

Using cheap, household items, we will build a tactile version of the red planet, Mars, that can be used to identify and explore the different characteristics of the red planet. Just like the other activities of the "Meet our Neighbours" series, the tactile Mars will be a great resource to explore a planet for both visually impaired and normal vision students.
NOTE: The "Meet our neighbours!" project is published in AstroEDU in this activity Collection. It was produced by NUCLIO and Europlanet and supported by Galileo Teaching Training Program and GalileoMobile. You can find more information at this Link

Materials

For each group bulding a tactile Mars:

Two printed copies of the attached PDF file (Tactile_Mars.pdf)
thick fabric (the surface of Mars)
curved sequins (for craters)
Aluminum foil (for polar caps)
Cotton (for atmosphere)
Buttons (for volcanoes)
Glue and scissors

NOTE: These materials are only suggestions; all textures can be replaced by other local, easy to find, low-cost materials.

Goals

To explore the red planet Mars through a tactile hands-on experience for visually impaired students and their non-visually impaired peers.

Learning Objectives

Students will explore and learn the characteristics of Mars using the tactile model: the color of its surface, the presence of canyons, craters and volcanoes, the existence of the polar caps and other features

Background

General information

Mars, nicknamed the Red planet because of its dominant colour, is the fourth planet from the Sun at an average distance of 228 million kilometres. With Mercury, Venus, and Earth, it belongs to the category of telluric planets, those that have a solid surface (on the tactile image that we will produce, the surface is represented by the thick fabric on the tactile image- point 1). As on Earth, on the surface of Mars we can also find craters, signs of heavy bombardment from asteroids from space (point 3 of the tactile image).

Its equatorial diameter of 6,787 km is about half that of Venus and Earth. Because of its smaller size, its internal structure and its climatic evolution have been substantially different from that of Venus and Earth. Its atmosphere is much less dense, with an average surface pressure of 6 millibars (150 times less than on Earth), and composed of carbon dioxide (CO2: 95%), nitrogen (N2: 3%) and argon (Ar: 1.6%) with traces of oxygen and water vapour.

Canyon and volcanoes
Among the main geologic features, there is Valles Marineris, a canyon nearly 4,000 km long, with a depth that can reach 7,000 m (materialized by the deep cut in the thick fabric in the tactile image- point 2). There is also a high plateau called Tharsis, on which sit several volcanoes (materialized by the buttons on the tactile image - point 4). One of these volcanoes, Olympus Mons, is the highest in the solar system with a summit altitude of 26 km (point 5 on the tactile image).

Mars has two tiny, natural satellites, Phobos and Deimos. Their mean diameters are respectively 22 and 13 km. By their aspect and their composition, they are very similar to asteroids. Actually, they may be asteroids that were captured by the gravitational attraction of Mars.

Mars is the planet that is the easiest to reach by planetary probes: launch opportunities occur about every two years, and the travel time is about six months. Since the mid-1960s, nearly twenty probes have explored its surface, atmosphere, and natural satellites, returning many data allowing us to understand better the planet’s past. An important question that these probes are trying to answer is whether life may have existed at some point on Mars.

Polar Regions
The Polar Regions are permanently covered with a mixture of carbonic ice (frozen CO2) and water ice (these ice caps are materialized by the aluminium foil on the tactile image - point 6). The extent of the polar caps varies with seasons, so they usually appear different in size, the larger being of course in the winter hemisphere.

Clouds
Similarly, condensation clouds composed of carbon dioxide and water vapour regularly form in the atmosphere (materialized by the clumps of cotton on the tactile image - point 7). These clouds sometimes cover the summit of the highest volcanoes.

Full Description

Prior to the activity

Print both Mars mold and Mars features PDFs for each group, and prepare the materials listed above.
Ask students what they know about Mars, introducing it as the red planet for some aspects similar to our Earth. Tell students they will be making models of the planet to investigate its different features.

During the activity

Gather the children in groups of 5 elements – visually impaired and non-visually impaired (ideally three non-visually impaired to 2 visually impaired);
Distribute materials accordingly;
Close supervision is important. Follow each group and explain each of the tactile elements and their correspondence to each object feature.
Understand the different needs of each group of students to promote interaction between the students during the building of the tactile image – visually impaired students need to be familiarized with the different materials involved.
Give enough time to follow instructions and build the tactile image.

Building the tactile Mars

Step1
Cut the outer, round shape of the planet from one of the paper prints;

Step 2
Place it on top of the thick fabric and with a pen draw the circle;

Step 3
Cut the round shape again on the thick fabric;

Step 4
Place the cut image print on top of the thick fabric and with a tooth pick mark the area on the surface of the fabric;

Step 5
Remove the thick fabric area previously outlined by the toothpick;

Step 6
Cut the aluminum foil accordingly to the area outlined by the polar caps;

Step 7
Place abundant glue on the area correspondent to the cut area for the polar caps;

Step 8
Place the cut aluminium foil on top of the polar caps area;

Step 9
Place glue on the flat surface of the larger button and place it on top of the double circled areas;

Step 10
Place glue on the flat surface of the smaller button and place it on top of the larger buttons previously glued;

Step 11
Cut the cotton in smaller portions and place abundant glue on the region denoted by curved lines;

Step 12
Place cotton on top of the glue;

Step 13
Place glue on the flat surface of the sequins and place it on top of the single circled areas;

Wait for the image to dry. This may take a while.

Exploring the tactile Mars

There are several ways in which you can explore the scientific content of the tactile schematic images. If you’re presenting the final tactile image to the students, first let them explore and feel the different textures. Questions will arise as the students explore; encourage them to write their questions down and share them with the other groups. Read “Background Information” to understand the different features present in Mars' schematic tactile image, and share with the students as they ask about them, or (if you have more time), prompt each group to choose a feature to learn more about and then have them present to the other groups in the class.

In the image above, you can identify the following features:

(1) the overall surface of the planet;
(2) canyon;
(3) craters;
(4) volcanoes
(5) Olympus Mons
(6) polar caps and
(7) clouds.

Evaluation

Call out a feature of Mars (volcanoes, canuons, craters, polar caps...) and ask the students to point it out on their diagram. For each feature give a brief description. e.g. - These are holes on the surface (Answer: craters).

Ask the class to suggest how Mars is similar and different form the Earth and why.