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Mars Probes

Ever since humans have gained the ability to travel in space, we have used this ability to send space probes to observe our neighboring planets. The planets Venus and Mars were the first to have probes sent to them by the Soviets and Americans, because they were the closest planets to Earth (And the most like Earth).

The first probes to be sent to Mars, Mars 1 & Mariner 4, did very little to help us understand the red planet. They sent back some data, such as surface pressure and magnetic field, but it did not give any useful imagery of the surface. This trend continued with Mariner 6 & 7, who's imagery quality was also too low to be useful. To these probes, Mars appeared covered with craters with no other significant features. Mars appeared to be a large version of the moon, with a very thin atmosphere.

The first interesting pictures of Mars were taken by Mariner 9, which carried much better cameras. It mapped out much of the surface with enough detail to show features like riverbeds, volcanoes, canyons, and other formations. Because of these features, new questions were raised about the possibility of life on Mars. Although the Soviet probes Mars 2-6 had incredibly bad luck, the American probes Viking 1 & 2 were incredible successes. These probes mapped out the entire surface of Mars and placed two landers on the surface. These landers then analyzed the soil, took pictures of the surface, and measured the weather on Mars.

More recently, the Soviet probe Phobos 2 was launched to study Mars' moon, Phobos. Then, in July of 1997, Mars Pathfinder was launched. But even these are not the last, for there will be many more Future Mars Probes launched toward Mars in the years to come. These will gather needed information for a manned mission to Mars early next century.

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