Mars is a good deal smaller than the earth and it weighs much less. Its surface gravity is therefore less than our gravity here at home   and it is surface gravity which gives weight to an object on a planet. The gravity of Mars is about one third the gravity of the earth and only about twice the gravity of our light footed moon.

A pound of sugar on earth would weigh only .36 of a pound on Mars. Ten pounds of potatoes weighed on earth would weigh only 3.6 pounds when weighed again on Mars. Andy, who weighs 100 pounds on earth will demand to know what is wrong if the scales on Mars do not show his weight as 36 pounds. An 85 pound boy who lands on Mars will weigh 30 pounds plus a little more than one ounce.

We shall find many severe handicaps to our Martian vacation, but the light footed gravity will provide enough fun to make up for most of them. The Martian air is thin and may contain little or no oxygen. We may have to tote around some of the air we need to breathe and since water is also scarce or non existent, we may have to carry along the water we need,

But every 100 pounds of equipment on earth will weigh only 36 pounds on the planet Mars. The muscles we developed to cope with the earths gravity will be three times as strong. We shall be able to j u m p three times as high and run three times as fast, The Martian scenery, we think, may be dusty red desert with few hills and no seas. But we shall have the most fun with the light Martian gravity which shrinks our earth weight to about one third.