Mars regained the world’s attention this fall, with recent news of the discovery of liquid water on the planet and a new blockbuster film set on Earth’s nearest neighbor, The Martian. This is a timely moment to focus on Red Planet Day, November 28.
Celebrate the fourth planet from our solar system’s sun with our series of blogs discussing general information about Mars, some of the more than 40 space missions humans have launched to study the planet, a section on the future of Mars and plans for manned missions to the planet, and concluding with links to fiction and non-fiction on Mars.
From Mars Hill near Flagstaff, the location of the main facility of Lowell Observatory where Pluto was discovered, to the Lunar Planetary Laboratory (LPL) at the University of Arizona in Tucson and Kitt Peak, which houses a massive collection of diverse astronomical instruments, our state has a long storied history in astronomy and with the Red Planet. UA’s LPL has been involved with the Mars Odyssey Orbiter, Phoenix Mars Lander, Mars Polar Lander, Mars Observer, Viking, HiRISE and Mars Reconnaissance Observer, Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Express, Mars Pathfinder, Beagle 2, Mars Exploration Rovers, and MAVEN missions to our crimson neighbor among many other lunar, planetary, and solar missions to study our solar system and the galaxies beyond.
In this pioneering, exploratory spirit, La Paloma Academy, your Tucson charter school, has paired with the other campuses in our district to put together a retrospective on 50 years of successful exploration on Mars for you to enjoy with your child and commemorate Red Planet Day. You can also enjoy the word search created especially for this topic.
Early Missions
The race to Mars began in 1960. It has been a mix of catastrophic failures, lost vehicles, and astounding success. Several missions by the U.S. and the USSR (Russia) failed before Mariner 4 flew by the Red Planet and returned the first 22 photos of the surface, plus data on the atmospheric pressure and temperature on Earth’s smaller neighbor.
Mariner
Neither the findings nor the failures deterred future missions by either country. Mariner 6 and 7 performed flybys for the United States. The Russian Mars 2 lander crashed on the surface in 1971, making it the first vehicle to deliver the Russian coat of arms to the planet. Its identical twin, Mars 3, achieved a soft landing but stopped transmitting 20 seconds later. This failure was attributed to the dust storms raging on the planet’s surface at the time. The accompanying orbiters of the same names completed their missions and sent back images of the surface and data which allowed for the creation of relief maps of the surface.
Mariner 9 reached Mars and descended into orbit around the planet in September of 1971; however, at the time a dust storm raged on the surface and obscured imaging. The only features visible through the vicious storm were the summits of Olympus Mons and three Tharsis volcanoes. This orbiter transmitted 7,329 images which resulted in the global mapping of the planet and allowed some of the first views of the Martian polar ice caps, Valles Marineris, and the planets moons.
Viking
The next successful missions came with the 1975 launches of the Viking orbiters and landers which reached the planet a little less than a year later. They mapped the surface at higher resolution and the images from the orbiters, compiled into mosaic images and maps, are available from the NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive (NSSDCA). Viking 1’s orbiter completed 706 orbits before it was powered down in 1978; the lander ended communications in 1982. The Viking 2 Lander ended communications in 1980. Both landers took and analyzed surface samples, deployed seismometers, and studied the atmosphere and weather. They took more than 1,400 images of both sites. The Viking 2 Orbiter shut down in 1980 after 1,400 orbits.
Orbiter Missions
In 1996, NASA deployed the Mars Global Surveyor to do high-resolution surface imaging while studying the gravity of Mars and the topography of its surface. This project also gathered more information on the weather and climate, the composition of both the atmosphere and the surface, the role of water and dust on the surface, and the Martian magnetic field—its existence and evolution. In the same year, the Pathfinder Lander launched carrying the Sojourner rover which touched down on July 4, 1997. It transmitted data that led to theories that Mars was once warmer and wetter than it is now.
A series of failures and partial successes followed the immense success of the 1996 missions.
Photo from forbes.com.
