3801 - Star, North Carolina, United States of America

What a great photo of the atmosphere of Mars. This was taken by the Viking I orbiter. Mars' atmosphere is composed of 95% carbon dioxide, molecular nitrogen (2.85%), and argon (2%). There is trace amounts of water vapor, oxygen, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and noble gases. It is a much thinner atmosphere that Earth's, and much colder. The temperature is generally below zero to -60 degrees Celsius. The Martian atmosphere doesn't prevent Sun's radiation from getting to the surface. The thin atmosphere also cannot retain heat at the surface. It also prevents the existence of liquid water on the surface. Studies suggest that the Martian atmosphere was much thicker in the past. 

Science fiction has written about terraforming Mars in order to make it into a planet able to sustain life, mainly human life. In the real world, it is consider infeasible using present day technology. There is also ethical reasons for not terraforming Mars and the considerable cost an undertaking would involve. 

I am currently watching the Apple TV series For All Mankind. It is an alternative history of the space race if the Soviet Union had landed a man on the moon first. It suggests that the space race would continue aggressively and that NASA would actually become self sufficient from extracting minerals - such as lithium - on the moon. Technology would also improve more quickly and there would be a moon base in the early 1980s - an American one and a Soviet one all located by Shackleton Crater on the moon's south pole. It also suggests there would be different history - such as Ted Kennedy becoming president after Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan would win in 1976, rather than in 1980. Pope John Paul II was assassinated and John Lennon survived his attempt. It also suggests the Soviet Union would be sticking around by also being aggressive in the space race and they would have stayed out of Afghanistan. I'm on season 2, but I understand that the astronauts will be heading to Mars in the late 1980s. 

This card comes from Star, North Carolina. Star has the distinction of being the geographic centre of North Carolina, as determined by the Army Corp of Engineers. There is a plaque that marks the spot, but it is located on private land and not open to visitors. As of the 2020 census, there are 806 people in Star.