Let's go to Mars!

Let's go to Mars - The Game

Explore Mars!

Let's go to Mars is a scientific graphic adventure in which you must land on Mars, explore the surface of the planet, build a permanent base for the arrival of your colleagues, collect and analyze Martian samples, and face the many dangers that exist on the red planet. Be careful to maintain your oxygen and energy levels or you will fail in your mission!

"Let's go to mars" is an application for mobile, tablets and PC developed by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC), Wildsphere & Laniakea Management & Communication in the context of the H2020 project "UPWARDS: Understanding Mars planet". Funded by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology - Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the H2020 european program.

Available on

As of November 2017 the number of downloads is over 300 000 (and growing!)

PC download

(see minimun requirements)


The Story

Year ... well, in many years. A large crew of scientists, engineers, professors and even journalists, travels to Mars in a large spacecraft: The BIG. Its mission: to build the first permanent human colony on Mars (of course).

You will advance on the H-O2 to get everything ready and built on Mars by the time The BIG arrives. As there is no budget, you will need to use pieces from a previous failed mission (the H-O1) as well as the different resources on the surface of the planet.
But your mission is also scientific. You should collect data on the red planet that will help the scientists of The BIG (the upwardians) to ensure the survival of the future colony.

But Mars is not a good place to live. Dust, dust and more blinding dust, uncontrolled eddies, landslides, extreme cold. You must take care of yourself and monitor your oxygen levels, your food reserves, and your state of mind.

The future colony on Mars depends on you.

The science - The Upwardians

The BIG is a scientific mission too. The Upwardians are the scientists of the crew and they need you to take data from Mars in orden to keep investigating the different open questions about the red planet. You will have to collect samples from the Martian surface, subsurface, atmosphere, dust, ice, etc. All these data will help the Upwardians to try to solve the different pieces of the Martian puzzle: Why the atmosphere is escaping? Which is the source of Methane? How the global dust storms are formed? Do exist liquid water under the surface? Is it possible the life on Mars?

Collect all samples you can and create the most complete Martekipedia ever! 

The characters

Astronaut Milio Gar
Due to an error in the selection process, the astronaut Milio Gar was chosen for this mission. His null sense of orientation, his dizziness and his allergy to dust make him the least suitable man for this trip. Anyway, it's the only one we have...sorry about that.

Astronaut Ana Tamayen
Russian astronaut Ana Tamayen is characterized by her discipline, leadership, efficiency and love of cream cakes and The Beattles music. After many years of training and several missions at the earth moon, she faces her great challenge: to explore Mars.


AI Schiaparelli 9000

Schiaparelli is the onboard Artificial Intelligent and your personal assistant in this mission. She will lead the trip to Mars, will help you to complet your missions, rescue you when you are in troubles but do not expect she makes you a tea in the mornings, she is a little boor (it is something characteristic of the 9000 models).

Rover A23 - "The Perci"

Perci is your helper on the Mars surface. It isn't so cute? But, before you can use it you will have to build it using the ExoMars 2018 pieces. Thanks to Perci you will be able to collect minerals from the Martian surface. 


Astronaut John "The Hermit" Carter

He is the pilot from H-01 spaceship. He is the first man on the Martian surface. He is a survival but sorry, he is absolutely crazy.

He knows a lot of secrets about Mars and he can help you a lot but you will have to answer his questions about Mars, and we fear they won't be easy. You will have to consult the Martekipedia.


The Martians??

Some crazy and "outsider" scientists are convinced that exists life on Mars, that is full of life!

They think that many of the Martian characterics (Methane, dust, geological structures, etc.) are produced by the action of these life forms. Of course, this is the most estupid and craziest idea ever... or not.


The landscapes

The H-O2

It is your little spaceship. You will have to follow the instructions from Schiaparelli and prepare the route to Mars in the control room. You will also have to collect interplanetary dust from the outer space and analyze it in the lab. Try to get food and MOXIS (capsules full of oxygen) to survive on Mars. And don't forget to take a rest and do some exercise in the gym. 

The landing zone

Oxia Planum - 18.275°N 335.368°E

The chosen place to build the first human colony on Mars. It is a huge flatland where ExoMars 2018 landed. Collect the pieces from the H-O1 failed mission and the Martian resources and start to build the human base, but first you will have to build the Perci rover.

Dune fields

Olympia Undae - From 78ºN to 83ºN & from 120ºE to 240ºE

Olympia Undae is the largest continuous dune field on Mars and contains a variety of dune forms and wind-related depositional features. All of these dune types occur on Earth too. In his landscape, you will have to survive huge dust storms that will make you blind.

The Pole - North Pole Cap
The planet Mars has two permanent polar ice caps. The northern polar cap has a diameter of about 1000 km and contains about 1.6 million cubic km of water and dry ice (solid carbon dioxide). It is known that every summer large amounts of water vapor sublime from the ice-covered surfaces of the Polar Regions and is then transported globally by winds and later condenses back at the poles to sublime again the following summer. You will have to take ice samples to the upwardians, and try to understand the origin of the geological structures on the ice.
Valle Marineris - 13.9°S 59.2°O

One of the largest canyons of the Solar System  that runs along the Martian surface east of the Tharsis region.At more than 4,000 km long, 200 km wide and up to 7 km deep. It has been recently suggested that Valles Marineris is a large tectonic "crack" in the Martian crust.  You will have to jump from the platform to platform with care not to stumble, or you will have a long fall. 

The "dust evils" land

A dust devil is a strong, well-formed whirlwind. It occur when the sun warms up the air near a flat, dry surface. The warm air then rises quickly through the cooler air and begins spinning while moving ahead. The upwardians want to investigate the connection between the dust evils and the global dust storms. You will have to collect dust samples in order to help them.

Olympus Mons - 18.65ºN 226.2ºE

It is currently the largest volcano discovered in the Solar System.  it has a height of nearly 22 km and it stands about two and a half times as tall as Mount Everest's height above sea level. It is the youngest of the large volcanoes on Mars.


System Minimum Requirements

These apply only to PC:

  • windows XP or higher
  • x86(_64) processor with 1.4+ GHz
  • 1.5 GB RAM
  • a recent Nvidia or AMD video card - Notebooks and integrated Intel graphics chipsets may work but are not officially supported
  • 2 GB HDD space for the ShiVa Installation
  • 900p or higher resolution display
  • 3-button mouse and keyboard with a numeric keypad

The authors
