Just a note, this information is current as of 2018 Terran counter. Mars has been terraformed and given an earthlike atmosphere, and its new natives have the power to change a planet’s rotation, so take this information as NNIYC!
Welcome to Mars! The crown jewel of Sol, homeland of two races. Every Vector visits their birthplace at least once. And if this is your “at least once,” here’s some facts about the fourth planet.
Seasons and the Year
Mars circles the sun once every 688 days sol. Because it spins at an angle, there’s seasonal variation over the year, but Mars’s orbit around the sun is lopsided, and its distance from the sun can vary by about 250 million kilometers, or 20%. That’s about 40% more solar energy hitting Mars during its closest pass. But what does that mean?
Cons: There’s almost no land in the Northern hemisphere.
Spring: 194 days
Summer: 178 days
Fall: 142 days
Winter: 154 days
Down South:
Spring: 194 days
Summer: 178 days
Fall: 142 days
Winter: 154 days
There are a couple of places in MarsCo’s weather Goldilocks Zone. Most of the Tharsus Rise, verdant Sabia region, and technically Pulse’s mythical homeland, Elysium, all enjoy that great calendar, but those endless summers are for the most part wasted on the ocean. Pity!
It’s So Big!
The scale of Mars is intimidating. The low gravity lends itself to staggeringly tall trees and skyscrapers. Even the clouds tower miles into the sky, making sunset on a cloudy day a long, slow affair with glorious colors. Winds are brisk, oceans are wide, plains stretch forever. If you’re travelling from Venus, you may be able to handle the width of the place, but the height will come as a shocker. If you’re from one of the Jovian moons or were raised on a Bluesky, pick up your jaw when you’re done dropping it.
So Many Bodies…
Martian cities are packed like no-where else in Sol. More than half of the vector population of the system lives here, and much of that in urban centers that stretch two or more miles high. As a tourist, you may be visiting the big tourist traps like the Vale or Olympus Mons. Long-term residents may spend their entire lives in a single building, and the dense urban cores of the most heavily populated cities pack millions of Vectors in a small area. In a best case, that leads to an incredibly rich living and shopping environment, with an entire moon’s worth of amenities in five square miles of city. At worse, in areas that are poorly maintained and ignored by the big corporations, the level of squalor and need rivals any slum or refugee camp in the history of Sol, and that’s in a single building.