1965: Discovery at MarsThursday, July 16, 2015, 7 p.m. PT (10 p.m. ET, 0200 UTC)
50th Annniversary of Mars ExplorationJuly 15, 2015, marks the 50th anniversary of Mars exploration. Mars@50 Those Were the Days...When you have been exploring a planet for 50 years, you should expect a few changes! Our tools and techniques for exploring Mars have improved, from the first grainy black-and-white images taken by telescopes on Earth, to full-color panoramas taken by rovers on the martian surface. Use the slider below to see a few examples of how times have changed. Martian MosaicsWhen twin spacecraft Mariner 6 and 7 sent back wide-angle images of Mars, scientists glued them on a globe already containing an indistinct, Earth-based view of Mars. Today, we leave the cutting and pasting to software programs that seamlessly stitch together to create mosaics of Mars.See More Revealing Mars History >> History of Mars Orbiter Mariner 4 SlideshowPlease select the type of slideshow. Image Gallery |