The six stunning places space tourists can explore on Mars

MARS is home to some breathtaking landscapes, from volcanoes five times the height of Everest to fields of so-called “ghost dunes”.

With plans already underway for future cities on Mars, humans may be able to explore these regions for themselves in the 2030s and beyond.

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Mount Bergen

Mount Mons is the largest volcano in our solar system and the highest on Mars.

The volcano, which is five times as high as Mount Everest on Earth and has a crater about the size of Hawaii, will be a huge landmark for tourists and permanent residents of Mars in the future.

The volcano is 21 km high, so not for the faint of heart.

Tharsis volcanoes

Mount Mons is just one of dozens of large volcanoes in the Tharsis region that runs along Mars’ equator.

For interstellar hikers, Mount Mons offers breathtaking views of the Tharsis volcanoes.

These volcanoes are inactive and haven’t exploded for billions of years – which poses little risk for hikers who don’t want to avoid hot butts.

On Earth, people regularly climb volcanoes, such as Mount Fuji in Japan, Mount Etna in Sicily and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

Although these volcanoes are of course much larger than those on Earth.

Nili Fossae

Once called the “most colorful region on Mars” by Time Magazine, the images of the Nili Fossae region are truly a sight to behold.

Located on the northwestern edge of the Isidis impact basin, the Nili Fossae is a trench carved into the surface of Mars long ago by a suspected impact.

The area has long been considered ideal for future humans and has even been designated as a future landing site.

Images of the site were captured in 2016 by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

While the beauty is enough to make you question whether Mars was ever truly red, the images are infrared false color images.

This means that the colors in the final image may not be what you expect.

However, it is believed that, like Iceland’s black sand beaches, the area is home to basaltic terrains.

Scientists have also discovered olivine-basalt sand in the region, which can appear green and black.

So it could still be one of the regions with more color diversity on the Red Planet.

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Valles Marineris

In addition to being the largest volcano in the solar system, Mars is also home to the largest rift.

At approximately 3,000 kilometers long, Valles Marineris makes the Grand Canyon seem like just a crack in the sand.

Melas Chasma is the widest segment of the Valles Marineris canyon system.

How exactly Mars earned this gigantic scar still baffles scientists to this day.

Arctic

A visit to either pole is sure to take your breath away – if you can survive the temperatures.

But the swirling dark spiral of ice that crowns Mars’ North Pole looks beautiful (from far away).

Whether space tourists want to brave the steely katabatic winds, where temperatures can reach −153 °C (−243 °F), is another matter.

Ghost dunes

Imagine looking out over a field of hundreds of hardened ancient sand dunes, walking through their curls like waves frozen in time.

These so-called ‘ghost dunes’ cover Mars and researchers have discovered fields containing more than 300 of these unique features.

They are what remains of Mars’ warmer and more watery history.

Although modern dunes exist on Mars, it is believed that the ancient sandbanks may contain signs of life.

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