Who is Helios?

Helios was the Greek Titan of the sun.  (Titans are what gave birth to the gods and are often more powerful) He rode a chariot made of fire that flew across the sky that mortals saw as the sun. His role, however, was passed down to Apollo in the Hellenistic period.

Why Helios?

We’re naming our project after Helios and not Apollo because Apollo is most often associated with the NASA Missions to land on the moon in the 1960s. (Even though Apollo’s twin sister Artemis is the actual god of the moon) and because like Helios, we hope to ride a “chariot” of the sun and to pass it down the knowledge of our car by making a video series explaining how to make it.

Interesting facts about Helios 

• A  statue of Helios called the Colossus of Rhodes is one of the seven wonders of the world.
• In Ancient Egypt, there was a city called Heliopolis which meant the Sun City in Greek. 
• His son Phaethon went joyriding in the chariot of the sun and set the earth ablaze
• His Roman name was Sol ( a Sol is a 1 martian day which is almost 40 minutes longer than days on earth)

Sources 

1.  https://www.greekmyths-greekmythology.com/helios-sun-god/
2. https://www.theoi.com/Titan/Helios.html
3. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios
4. http://www.planetary.org/explore/space-topics/mars/mars-calendar.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/