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IntroductionScientific research on Mars started in the 1600s with invention of telescopes. As technology increased, so did the amount of knowledge that research brought us. But why so much research and attention on this planet? Mars, being the fourth planet from the Sun and our closest neighbour, excluding the Moon, has always attracted much of our attention. Other than the fact that it is the reasonable next stop for exploration after the moon, it is also because Mars is the only other planet favourable for human habitation. As a result, people have always been curious about Mars, whether that it had supported life in the past or can support life in the future. Oddly, unmanned missions to Mars, an important advancement in human science, started amidst the Cold War, which saw the two super powers, the US and the USSR competing for prestige in the space race. With the Cold War saw great advancement in space research and the formation of two rival space research agencies: the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the US, and its soviet counterpart the IKI. Unmanned missions to Mars started in the 1960s, mainly to achieve the first of many goals, a flyby. The missions are planned to achieve the following in step:
[ Note: Due to copyright issues, links are provided to the pictures of the respective space missions ] |