Missions

 
    The search for intelligent life on Mars reached a fever pitch as we entered the Space Age.  Because of the evidence of intelligent life, Mars was an immediate target for space programs globally. The first successful Mars mission was an American unmanned flight called Mariner 4.  This flight was crucial in finding the “canals” bogus and in discovering Mars cratered surface. These results came back as a surprise to most astronomer

   .  NASA launched Mariner 4 in 1964 and followed that with the Mariner 6 and 7 missions. Mariner 6 was particularly successful in discovering that Mars’ atmosphere was made of carbon dioxide.  After the Mariner flyby missions the image of Mars changed from an Earth-like world to that of a barren moon-like planet.
 

   The next Mars’ mission to actually reach Mars was the Mars 2 Orbital launched by the USSR in May of 1971.  Unfortunately for the USSR a dust storm covering most of Mars ruined any good photographs the orbital might have taken. The Mars 2 Lander became the first man made object to reach the surface of Mars when it crashed into Mars on November 27, 1971.
Nine days after launching Mars 2 Orbiter the USSR launched Mars 3, which had the first soft landing on Mars on December 2, 1971. Unfortunately 110 seconds after landing it stopped transmitting. During that 110 seconds it did manage to send part of a picture to Earth. That image combined with images taken by Mars 2 was made into a picture of a dust storm that covered all of Mars that year.  To get more complete observations for themselves, NASA decided they had to put a spacecraft into orbit around Mars.

Viking 1&2

    In 1976 NASA followed their Mariner 9 mission with the favorable launchings of the Viking 1 and 2 Orbiter and Lander missions. The Viking Orbiters were particularly successful in showing that at one time water flowed on Mars’s surface.  This came as quite a shock to most astronomers because liquid water simply cannot exist on Mars today. Water is a liquid that can only exist within a certain range of temperatures. What determines this temperature for water is atmospheric pressure. Mars' atmospheric pressure is .007, and the average temperature is only 218 k (-67 degrees Fahrenheit). With this combination of temperature and pressure, water can exist as a vapor and as ice, but not liquid.  The Viking Lander’s pictures showed that there were no obvious signs of life on Mars. The landers however also were equipped with a miniature biological laboratory in which to study microorganisms. NASA scientists figured that anything that lives also must eat, breathe, and give off waste.
    The landers both scooped up soil samples to test if anything in the soil was actually alive. At first when the tests were completed the Martian regolith showed tremendous signs of organic change. Then scientists realized that it was not an organic material that was changing but a chemical reaction because of the high concentration of peroxides and superoxides. Besides tricking the scientists into thinking they were organic, the peroxides and superoxides may have also killed any organic material on Mars acting like a planet wide antiseptic.
 
 

    After the Viking missions space exploration to Mars became an expensive hassle. NASA, forced by budget cuts and failed super-expensive missions, did not make any new discoveries on Mars until the Mars Global Surveyor or MGS was launched in 1996. The MGS was a breakthrough for NASA Instead of making a massive spacecraft with complicated and easily breaking expensive equipment NASA simplified things and made MGS to be lighter, less costly but still have basic observing instruments. The MGS may have been equipped with relatively basic instruments but they were still able to produce good information.
    The four best instruments were a camera, a magnetometer, an altimeter, and a spectrometer. The camera has stolen the spotlight so far, sending back amazing pictures like a cliff wall that is composed of over eighty layers of rock strata.  MGS has also sent back important images of dry riverbed channels that may help answer questions about water in Mars’s history.
    The magnetometer turned out to be more useful than predicted. A mistake by NASA caused the MGS satellite to have a larger elliptical orbit than planned. It caused the satellite to fly close enough to Mars to get interesting readings in ancient Martian lava.  The magnetometer’s readings showed that billions of years ago Mars may have had a strong enough magnetic field to block out solar radiation and give life on Mars a chance. This discovery was made possible by the fact when lava is cooling the magnification in the lava stays the same as when it was first formed. This would allow scientists to figure out the history of the magnetic field on Mars.
    The MGS altimeter is also a nice piece of equipment. It measures elevations on surfaces of Mars within one meter of their actual height. Scientists have been finding formations that may help explain the history of Mars. In particular Mars’ plains might be revealed as an ancient sea floor.
    The spectrometer can be a special instrument because it is currently reading Mars’ spectrum of infrared heat. This allows for the possible detection of a material that would hint towards a history of water on Mars. As a whole discoveries from the MGS are still underway and within the next years as the MGS enters it’s circular mapping orbit it will begin to discover Mars more consistently and methodically.