Facts About Mars

During the 1800′s, Scientist Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli, who was closely observing Mars, announced that he had seen “Canali” on Mars or “Channels” when translated in English. But people got excited over the discovery and wrongly translated it to “Canals” giving the impression that intelligent occupants built large canals in Mars.

One of the missions of the Mariner exploration series was to know, once and for all, if there is life on Mars.

Mariners 6 & 7 was the first successful duo to fly by Mars and take pictures. The probes came as close as 3,550 kilometers to Mars and took 55 close up pictures of the surface of Mars. The 2 spacecrafts took a total of 143 images of Mars combined.

The Mariner 6 was successfully launched on February 6, 1969 and was quickly followed by Mariner 7 on march 27, 1969. They reached Mars on July 31, 1969 and March 27, 1969 respectively. The Mariner 6 successfully flew by Mars and took 75 pictures of the Martian surface while Mariner 7 took 126 pictures.

MISSION HIGHLIGHTS

• Took pictures of the Southern and Northern polar caps.

• Proved that what Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli saw were “Channels” instead of “Canals”.

• Photographed geologic features of Mars, including; Collapsed ridges, Craterless depressions, Impact regions, and Cratered deserts.

The Discoveries of Mariners 6 & 7 brought about a new mission – A Mars orbiter. Scientists realized that pictures taken by fly-by missions won’t give much information in terms of studying the Martian atmosphere and weather patterns. A lot of questions remained unanswered and a thorough observation of the red planet was the only solution.

Shown on the picture are soil, taken from the “Snow White” trench, delivered to the wet chemistry laboratory. The wet chemistry lab is used to identify the components of the Martian soil by mixing it with an Aqueous solution from Earth. Scientists have so far determined that the Martian soil is composed of salt and other chemicals like sodium, perchlorate, chloride, magnesium and potassium.

In the coming sols, Phoenix will be delivering soil samples to another instrument called TEGA – Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer. This instrument is used to heat samples and study the substances that turned into gas. It determines whether the samples contain organic compounds and it also helps scientists determine the properties of the Martian soil.

The Martian summer will be ending soon so scientists want to be able to analyze as many samples before the Phoenix’s battery dies out.

The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development is by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.

Image NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University

Mariners 8 and 9 were designed to be the first Martian orbiter. We’ve been sending probes to Mars but the only thing that we were able to do was fly by the planet and take some surface pictures. The fly-by pictures did give us a glimpse of Mars and its surface but those weren’t enough for us to be able to study the geography, components, atmosphere, weather and other essential factors to determine whether there is life on Mars.

And so, the Mariners 8 and 9 came to the drawing board. They were to orbit the planet and take pictures so we can map out the red planet, understand its geography, as well study the Martian atmosphere with the use of the infrared and ultraviolet instruments aboard the Mariners.

Mariner 8′s scheduled lift off was May 8, 1971. Unfortunately, it failed during launch so the mission was an unfortunate failure that didn’t even…”fly”

Mariner 9 launched on May 30, 197. Since it was only days after Mariner 8′s launch failure, the launch day of Mariner 9 was very suspenseful and full intensity. Everybody was anxious, are we on the verge of throwing away millions of dollars again on this mission? or are we gonna see success? The launch was successful but everybody’s fingers remained crossed. Not until the Mariner 9 reaches Mars and achieved it orbit can we celebrate partial success.

On November 13, 1971, the Mariner 9 reached Mars and officially became the first artificial satellite to orbit

Phobos

Mars. A joyous and glorious day for the human race.

When the Mariner 9 arrived in Mars, the planet was covered with dust due to a dust storm. It lasted for month and only then the Mariner 9 was able to take pictures and feed them back to Earth where anxious scientists and the public were waiting.

Deimos

The Mariner 9 was able to map out the Martian surface 100% and took the first close up photos of Mars’ moons Phobos and Deimos. In total, the spacecraft took 7,329 photos of Mars and stayed in orbit for 349 days. Nearly a year after its arrival.

The mission cost a total of $137 million. A fraction of the cost of its successor Viking who nearly cost a billion dollars.