Thank you for reading the history of trips to Mars.. when did it start? Which one succeeded?
Basrawi News Encyclopedia Written by Israa Khalil Mars is one of the most Earth-like planets in our solar system – both have rocky landscapes, hard outer crusts, and cores made of molten rock.
Because of its similarity to and proximity to Earth, humanity has been fascinated by Mars for centuries. In fact, Mars is the most explored planet within our solar system.
But how many trips have we taken to Mars, and which ones have worked?
Exploration trips to Mars and the first landing on its surface
According to NASA, there have been 48 expeditions to Mars over the past 60 years.
The Soviets conducted their first exploration mission to Mars in 1960, with the launch of Corable 4, also known as Mars 1960A.
The flight was unsuccessful, the spacecraft reached an altitude of 120 km in the air, but the pumps of the third stage did not generate enough momentum to remain in Earth’s orbit.
Over the next few years, the Soviet Union and then NASA attempted several unsuccessful Mars missions.
In 1964, history was made when NASA launched the Mariner 4, the first successful flight to Mars.
Mariner 4 didn’t actually land on the planet, but the spacecraft flew close to Mars and managed to capture images, giving us a close-up of the planet’s rocky surface.
Then, NASA made history once more on July 20, 1976 when its spacecraft called “Viking 1” landed on the surface of Mars.
With this, NASA became the first space agency to complete a successful landing on Mars, and “Viking 1” took panoramic pictures of the planet’s terrain, and also enabled scientists to monitor the planet’s weather.
Trips to Mars attract private companies
So far, all Mars landings have taken place without human crews, but NASA plans to send humans to Mars by the late 2030s.
Not only are government agencies planning missions to Mars, but a number of private companies are also planning to send missions to Mars.
SpaceX, owned by entrepreneur Elon Musk, has a long-term plan to build an entire city on Mars.
And two space startups, Impulse and Relativity, announced in July 2022 that they would send a joint flight without a human crew to Mars, with the hope that the mission would be ready for implementation as soon as possible by 2020. 2024.
Source: Visual Capitalist
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