The Red Album Crack the Code Lewis and Clark Expedition: Create Your Own Adventure Activity Index

<< Images from the Hubble Space Telescope and other high-tech instruments offer new glimpses of Mars, yet the red planet remains mysterious. Image by Steve Lee, Jim Bell, Mike Wolff and NASA.

Help NASA plan its next missions to Mars—a great frontier in modern exploration.

It's almost noon at your desk at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C. You're thinking a little about the report on your desk and a lot about lunch. The phone rings. It's the big boss—the agency administrator.

"Drop everything," the commanding voice says. "I have an urgent mission for you."

"Of course!" you answer, just a little nervously. "What do you need?"

"Information. National Geographic just published an article on Mars. It says that two-thirds of all Mars missions (both ours and the Russians') have failed. So now every politician and reporter in Washington is calling me to ask why one of our closest planetary neighbors is still such a mystery."

"I see. How can I help?"

"I need you to go exploring."

"In space?!" You can't believe your luck.

"Not quite," the administrator says. "Before NASA even thinks about launching another mission, I want to be sure we know everything there is to know about the red planet. Collect articles from the press, compile a list of Web sites, find pictures if you can. Look at the history of Mars exploration so far. See what worked and what didn't. And don't forget to look at the question of water. If Mars has water, it might have some sort of life too."

You take a deep breath. It's gonna be a big job.

"All in all, I want two things. One, your recommendations for missions in the next 20 years. Two, your predictions for the next century. Got it?"

"I think so. So there's no hope of actually exploring Mars in person?"

"Today, no. Tomorrow, who knows?"

Younger Xpeditioners: Recruit a parent or librarian to help you find information on Mars. Make a poster, booklet, or mobile that shows what you've learned.

Older Xpeditioners: Do some Mars digging, then draft the two lists the NASA boss needs. Write to your representative or senators to tell them what sort of space policy you'd like the U.S. to pursue. (If you live outside the U.S., you might want to explore your country's space program.)

Parents: It's hard in the 21st century to imagine the excitement once stirred by exploration. Kids even collected trading cards bearing explorers' pictures! You can help stir your family's curiosity—and boost both science and research skills—by encouraging your children to look at Mars the way previous generations looked toward the New World in the 1400s or the Poles in the 1900s. The red planet promises to be one of the great frontiers of our time.

You might even create a "red album"—a box or folder for the information you find about Mars. (See our handy tips.) You can add to it as new missions take place. In your reading, you might find historic predictions about space exploration. How far off were they? If everyone in the family makes predictions, reviewing them together in the future could be great fun.