Every year on November 28, it is the 'Red Planet DayThe day commemorates the launch of Mariner 4 on November 28, 1964. Mariner 4 was an American unmanned space mission to Mars in the 1960s. This flight provided the first photographs of Mars by an unmanned spacecraft. It was also the first spacecraft to successfully reach Mars.

History of Red Planet Day

Around 400 BC, the Babylonians began keeping track of celestial events. They called Mars 'Nergal', the king of conflicts, ostensibly because of the association between the colour of the planet and the blood shed during armed confrontations with enemies. The ancient Greeks and Romans must have made the association as well, for in both their pantheons stood respectively Ares and Mars known as the gods of war. [one_half]   [/ One_half] [one_half_last]           As time passed and it became a possibility that humans might one day travel between the stars, authors and filmmakers capitalized on the sense of wonder surrounding the Red Planet and created science fiction works and just fantasy, imagining that they would walk on that rusty ground.

A major question was whether Mars contained good old-fashioned water, the source of any life on a planet. Flyby missions have detected polar ice caps. It was shown that ancient 'canals' were an optical illusion, but that did not stop many believers from assuming that there had previously been civilizations on the fourth planet from the sun. [/ One_half] [one_half_last]           It still goes without saying that the imagination has grown around the idea of ​​life on Mars, from the classic novel 'Stranger In a Strange Land' by author Robert Heinlein from the 50s to the 2015 Ridley Scott film starring Matt Damon, 'The Martian'. Trailer for the film 'The Martian': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej3ioOneTy8 Throughout this century, orbiter and rover missions sent back increasingly detailed information about Mars, until NASA and its international counterparts began planning manned missions to Mars. Now, on Red Planet Day, we commemorate the launch of the spacecraft. Mariner 4 on November 28, 1964Mariner 4 carried out the first successful flyby of the planet Mars and provided the first photos of the surface of Mars.

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Mariner 4

Mariner 4 was an American unmanned space mission to Mars in the 1960s. The goal of this mission was to take images of the planet and investigate potential radiation belts around Mars. It also allowed NASA to gain experience with long interplanetary flights. This flight produced the first photographs of Mars taken by an unmanned spacecraft; it was also the first spacecraft to successfully reach Mars.  

  Mariner 4 was launched on November 28, 1964, aboard an Atlas-Agena rocket from Cape Canaveral. This probe had a modest weight of 261 kg and cost 83,2 million dollars. [/ One_half] [one_half_last]                   After a flight of 7,5 months, Mariner 4 arrived at the red planet on July 14, 1965, which had fascinated humanity for centuries.  The onboard instruments to investigate the planet were switched on, and on July 15, the camera began transmitting the first close-up shots, which were once taken from a spacecraft on Mars. A first for the Americans. Mariner 4 took 21 photos while flying past Mars; the closest distance to the planet was 9600 km. Due to the great distance, it was not possible to transmit the images directly. Instead, the reconnaissance aircraft captured every photo on tape to send later.  

  After Mariner 4 had flown past Mars, flight control maintained contact with the spacecraft until October 1, 1965, when radio contact was lost at a distance of 309,2 million kilometers. In 1967, NASA restored the connection for attitude control testing for Mariner 5's Venus mission. This was more or less of the same type. During a new meteor shower on December 10 and 11, NASA counted 83 impacts. However, the supply of fuel for attitude control was exhausted, causing the probe to swing into a different position, resulting in a weak radio signal. On December 21, 1967, Mariner 4 fell silent forever.   [One_half] [/ One_half] [one_half_last]         [/ One_half_last]