Seasons are caused by the inclination of a planet's rotational axis relative to the plane of its orbit around the sun. Earth's axis is inclined 23.5 degrees. On the first day of summer in the northern hemisphere, Earth's north pole is tilted 23.5 degrees toward the sun, so the northern hemisphere receives more sunlight. Half a year later, on the first day of winter, Earth's north pole is tilted away from the sun, so the northern hemisphere receives less sunlight. See similar questions...

Essentially, an analemma is the pattern the sun makes in the sky if you plot its position at noon every day in the course of a year. If one had a sextant, a chronometer set to the time and date on the prime meridian, and an analemma chart, one could determine one's position with fairly good accuracy. The shape of the analemma is influenced by the magnitude and phasing of two factors: axial inclination and orbital eccentricity. See similar questions...

Finding life on Mars would excite researchers for a variety of reasons. Firstly, it would just be interesting to know that life did (or does) exist elsewhere in the universe. Humans have been wondering about this question almost as long as we have been in existence. Finding evidence that suggests that we may not be alone, that Earth is not the only planet capable of sustaining life, would be an amazing revelation. As for scientists, many want to know how and why life was created on Earth. See similar questions...

The information in a Mars document is organized similar to a PDF document. Mars represents document information by combining standard XML, images, fonts, and color formats within a Zip-based package. Page content is represented in SVG. In Mars, the pages, images, fonts, bookmarks, and other document components appear as separate files within the Zip package. The Mars components such as bookmarks are easier to manipulate by virtue of their XML representation. See similar questions...

Orbiter now includes Duncan Sharpe's TransX MFD mode, which is a great tool for setting up interplanetary routes. You need to activate the TransX module in the Orbiter Launchpad dialog to use this. TransX is quite a complex navigation tool, so to understand the concept and options, make sure you read the TransX manual (in the Doc folder) carefully. See similar questions...

Mars and Earth are like two cars on a racetrack as they journey around the Sun. Earth is on the inside track and travels faster than Mars, which is on the outside. When Earth laps Mars about every two years, it comes as close as 35 million miles (56 million km) or as far away as 63 million miles (101 million km) because of Mars’ highly elongated orbit. See similar questions...

For two reasons, an Earth calendar will not work on Mars. First of all, a Martian sol is nearly forty minutes longer than an Earth day. This may not seem like much, but over the course of a month this difference accumulates to nearly an entire day. So if one tried to use an Earth calendar on Mars, the months that contain 31 days on Earth would generally have only 30 sols on Mars, and most of our 30-day months would be only 29 sols long on Mars. See similar questions...

Many Martian calendars divide the year into nearly equal lengths of time (to within a sol). A few instead divide the orbit of Mars around the sun into equal arcs, and since Mars travels at different speeds at different points in its elliptical orbit, the months on such calendars vary in their duration by about 50 percent. Although each season contains the same number of months on such calendars, each month has a different number of days from every other month. See similar questions...

Basic MARS houses your employee records, which provides their access to the system and assigns their curriculum. In addition, full MARS allows you to monitor your employees' progress through various report options and permanently stores those records to clear their status from cycle to cycle. There are optional features such as sync which electronically update your employee records and email to communicate completion status based on course or curriculum. See similar questions...

NASA has explored the moon using robotic spacecraft, and we plan to continue to use robotic spacecraft to collect lunar data enabling human scientists to return to its surface. Science is just one reason for returning humans to the moon. The primary reason is that the moon provides opportunities to develop technologies and techniques needed for opening the space frontier. It allows us to learn how to survive long term stays on other worlds while only three days travel time from Earth. See similar questions...

Very Briefly, Mercury is the smallest of these four and has no atmosphere. It looks a bit like the Moon and is covered in craters. Venus is about the same size as Earth but has a much thicker atmosphere mostly of Carbon Dioxide. The surface of Venus is hot enough to melt lead and there is a continuous acid rain which has attacked and destroyed all spacecraft landed there. See similar questions...

The sample return capsule, still attached to the main Genesis spacecraft, will be aligned to its proper entry orientation about six hours before entry. At that time it will be spun to 15 revolutions per minute, adding stability for its descent into Earth's atmosphere. The capsule will be released two hours later. After the capsule is released, the main spacecraft will be diverted so it cannot collide with the sample return capsule. See similar questions...

The amount of time it takes to transmit a signal from Mars to Earth or from Earth to Mars using the High Gain Antenna varies according to the relative positions of Earth and Mars in their orbits around the sun. At the time of the July 4th landing, it took approximately 10 minutes to transmit a signal. See similar questions...

The daily temperatures are in the 90’s with strong Florida sunshine. Lows average in the 70’s late afternoon thunderstorms are common but normally go as quickly as they have appeared. Visit attractions early to avoid the midday heat and then return in the evening to enjoy the extended summer hours and night time shows. This is ideal weather with highs in the 80’s and lows in the 60’s. See similar questions...

Late March through late May represents the period of long rains in Tanzania. This is usually not an ideal time to plan a safari because of the potential for sudden downpours. Directly after the long rains, however, is a wonderful time to visit Tanzania's national parks due to the abundance of wildflowers and vegetation. It is also a wonderful time to go on safari because the level of dust and the number of tourists is minimal. See similar questions...

Our programs are customized for each individual, based on your needs and our initial assessment, but the following describes a typical day at New Seasons: The day begins with a fresh, nutritious breakfast. You then depart the residential treatment center (home) and head to the outpatient treatment center (work), where the bulk of mental illness, drug or alcohol rehab treatment occurs. One hour of day treatment will be spent on individual work with a therapist or counselor. See similar questions...

The Spiders From Mars were David Bowie/Ziggy Stardust's three-piece rock band from 1971 to mid 1973, however they were only officially known by this name following the album's release in June 1972. Bowie has said that the inspiration for the name came when he was writing the song "Ziggy Stardust". The band consisted of: quot;It was Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and somehow, along the lines, the Spiders got attached to David Bowie. See similar questions...

Yes. In accordance with the Outer Space Treaty, the spacecraft has been thoroughly cleaned to reduce the total number of spores in a manner analagous to that used by Mars Pathfinder. However, the lander was not sterilized like the Viking landers. While the Mars Polar Lander will bring terrestrial life forms from Earth to Mars, they will not be able to grow or reproduce in the Martian environment due to the complete absence of liquid water, and the intense ultraviolet flux at the Martian surface. See similar questions...

Several ideas have been put forth regarding Martian clocks. Since a Martian sol is only three percent longer than an Earth day, the most straightforward approach is to simply stretch Earth's units of time into slightly longer hours, minutes, and seconds (this system is used by NASA and JPL). Another approach is to add 39 minutes, 35.2 seconds at the end of 24 hours. Still another idea is to have a "metric" clock based on powers of ten. See similar questions...