Beyond the Bookshelf Saturday

Today’s Beyond the Bookshelf Saturday is out of this world…literally.

Following up on last week’s book review of Packing for Mars I thought we’d do a little extreme traveling today and see what the red planet has to offer us in the way of summer vacations.

Named after the Roman God of War because of it its (blood) red color this planet is known for being home to iron-rich minerals and a lack of liquid water.  So don’t expect your vacation to include a lot of swimming…

What Mars does have is a nice rocky terrain, including Olympus Mons which is three times as tall as Mount Everest and would make an excellent mountain climbing excursion during your summer holiday.

If that’s not enough to get you excited about your Mars Vacation, think about the exotic dust storms you could film and put on youtube.  And you won’t have to worry about overheating on this vacation, with temperatures dropping to about -80F.

Now, I know what you’re thinking.  Sounds fantastic!  But it’s going to take me years to get there and I only have this summer to travel.  Well, NASA has you covered wit there list of the places on Earth that simulate a Mars-like environment as close as we’re able to get while still on Earth:

-Death Valley California

-Mono-Lake California

-Channeled Scabland in Washington

-Permafrost in Siberia, Alaska, and Antarctica

-Volcanoes in Hawaii (apparently all of them).