The Red Planet, that is, Mars, has always puzzled human civilization.
Legends have also prevailed in ancient civilizations about it, but in modern times, science has tried hard to remove the veil from its secrets.
A look at scientific efforts to unlock the secrets of Mars
1. On July 14, 1965, the Mariner-4 spacecraft arrived on Mars. He sent the first images of another planet.
It had sent 21 blurry black images to earth. Mariner-4 passed at a distance of 6,118 miles from Mars.
Nobody had imagined the information that Mariner-4 gave about Mars. There was no magnetic field on Mars.
The atmospheric pressure above it was much less than the atmospheric pressure present on earth.
2. Mariner-9 was launched on May 30, 1971. It reached Mars orbit and became its first artificial satellite.
Mariner-9 itself said that dust storms continue to increase on Mars. When it arrived, there was a dust storm on the surface of Mars.
This storm ended after a month and then Mariner-9 returned images of Mars with volcanoes and trenches.
The largest trench on Mars is 4,800 km long. Most surprising were the traces of the riverbeds on this dry planet.
Mariner-9 returned only very close images of both moons of Mars.
3. Mars-3 was the spacecraft of the Soviet Union. It arrived on Mars five days after Mars 2.
This vehicle had two objectives, first to drop an orbiter into Mars orbit and second to land a lander on the surface of Mars.
The specialty of this spacecraft was that it landed safely on the surface of Mars.
This spacecraft could send images from the surface of Mars for only 20 seconds. It is believed that it had stopped working because of the dust.
Although the images it sent back were not of much importance, this spacecraft continued to send working data until July 1972.
4. The Viking 1 and Viking 2 spacecraft were on NASA’s Viking mission in 1975.
Each spacecraft had an orbiter and a lander.
The objective was to photograph the surface of Mars, collect information about the atmosphere and find out the existence of life.
Viking 1 was the first spacecraft to continue operating for a long time despite landing on the surface of Mars.
Both Viking mission landers took 4,500 photographs of the surface of Mars. While both orbiters took 52,000 photographs.
Although no traces of life were found on Mars, Viking found all the elements on the surface of Mars that are necessary for life on Earth.
As – Carbon, Nitrogen, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Phosphorus.
5. NASA’s most important mission to Mars after Viking.
It is named after the women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth.
The purpose of this mission was to send a rover to the surface of Mars.
It had an airbag system that covered the lander in a sort of canopy after landing.
The importance of the Mars Pathfinder was to be economical and very effective.
Pathfinder collected a lot of important information about the surface of Mars. This is an image of a moon of Mars.
6. The Mars Global Surveyor sent to Mars in 1996 worked longer on the surface of Mars than any other spacecraft.
This spacecraft has helped a lot to increase our understanding of Mars.
Mars Global Surveyor discovered that water still flows on Mars.
This vehicle detected the presence of minerals associated with water. Image of the water floor that once existed on Mars.
7. Launched in April 2001, Odyssey is one of the longest operating spacecraft on the surface of Mars.
It was named after a name used in the literature of Arthur C Clarke.
Odyssey gathered information about the radiation on Mars to discover the possible risk to any future human expedition to Mars.
Very good quality images of Mars were taken with your camera.
8. The Mars Express sent to Mars in June 2003 was the first spacecraft from Europe to visit another planet.
Its purpose was to study the atmosphere and soil of Mars and discover the possibilities of life.
Mars Express also carried Britain’s Beagle 2 lander and the first radar on Mars.
This rover discovered deposits of water and ice under the surface of Mars.
He also studied the moon of Mars, Phobos.
Mars Express detected methane gas in the atmosphere of Mars. This image was taken by NASA’s Hubble Telescope.
9. The Mars Recinza Mission is collecting information about the history of water on Mars.
It also collects daily information about the weather on Mars. Along with this, he also learns about the seas and lakes of Mars.
Their job is also to find out if the ice discovered by Odyssey on the surface of Mars is just shallow or there are large ice deposits.
This image is of the Noctis Labyrinthus region of Mars.
10. Curiosity present on the surface of Mars was launched at the end of 2011.
Curiosity confirmed that some of the meteorites that reached Earth did indeed come from Mars.
2% of the soil on Mars is made of water.
Curiosity is the first such vehicle to reach Mars, which has carried with it equipment to collect soil and rock samples.