#mariner program

[9to5buzzcom]

On Nov 3, 1973, NASA launched the last space probe in the Mariner Program, Mariner 10.

[marsmissiontournament]

Mars Mission Tournament Round 1 Match 5

Mariner 6 vs Mariner 7

(twin spacecraft get one picture)

Read about the spacecraft here.

Which of these early Mars orbiters is your favourite?

Mariner 6

Mariner 7

Voting ended onApr 20, 2023

[marsmissiontournament]

Meet the Contestants: Mariner 9

A model of the Mariner 9 spacecraft [NASA]

Mariner 9 was the last of the Mariner program to visit Mars, launching on May 30, 1971. It was the first spacecraft to orbit Mars (or any other planet), on November 14 of the same year, but only marginally – the USSR craft Mars 2 and Mars 3 reached the planet a few weeks later.

Mariner 9’s mission was to map the surface of Mars and to study changes both on the surface and in the atmosphere. Unfortunately, mariner 9 arrived a couple months into the Mars Year 9 (1971) global dust storm, a massive, planet-encircling dust storm which almost entirely obscured the planet’s surface.

Despite this, Mariner 9 did the most detailed mapping of Mars by that time, and remained operational until October 27, 1972. It could still be orbiting Mars – it was designed to remain in orbit for at least 50 years, and its current whereabouts are unknown.

Read more on the NASA Mariner 9 site.

Tune in to round 2 of the Mars Mission Tournament, when Mariner 9 goes up against the Curiosity rover.

[marsmissiontournament]

Meet the Contestants: Mariner 6 & 7

Mariner 6 and 7 spacecraft [NASA]

Mariner 6 and 7 were two nearly identical spacecraft which preformed flybys of Mars following the success of Mariner 4.

Mariner 6 launched on February 25, 1969, and reached its closest approach on July 31, 1969 (just 11 days after the Apollo 11 landing!). Mariner 7 launched a month later, on March 27 1969, and made its closest approach on August 5 of the same year.

On July 31, as Mariner 6 was making its closest approach, NASA lost telemetry from Mariner 7, and it switched to its low-gain antenna until the high gain became operational again.

Altogether the spacecraft took 201 pictures between them (75 by Mariner 6, 126 by Mariner 7) and got up-close images of 20% of the surface including the south pole. They also determined that Mars’ thin atmosphere was mostly composed of CO2, and to confirm that there were traces of water on Mars’ surface.

Read more on the NASA Mariner 6 and Mariner 7 sites.

Tune in for round 1 of the Mars Mission Tournament, when these spacecraft go head to head.

[marsmissiontournament]

Meet the Contestants: Mariner 4

Mariner 4 Schematic [NASA/JPL-Caltech]

The Mariner 4 spacecraft made the first successful flyby of Mars. Launched on November 28, 1964, it reached Mars July 14, 1965 and returned the first up-close images of the planet. There’s a tumblr post kicking around that I can’t find which talks about Mariner scientists printing out the first image as a matrix of values and colouring them in like a colour by numbers – it’s a great story.

Mariner 4 returned many images of Mars surface, allowing more detailed mapping, and also images of the atmosphere, which was much thinner than previously believed. I take it for granted now that Mars has a tenuous little atmosphere, but it’s cool to see that we haven’t always known that.

The spacecraft did not remain in martian orbit, and instead swung out around the sun, where it remains today. But we lost contact with Mariner 4 after just over 3 years on December 21, 1967.

Read more on the NASA Mariner 4 site.

Tune in for round 2 of the Mars Mission Tournament, where Mariner 4 will be going up against one of the earliest Soviet Mars missions.

[thefactgoosewithspace]

Mariner 5 closes flyby of Sol ( AKA the Sun )

[hyperwave]

Free kindle book and epub digitized and proofread by Project Gutenberg.

[jellobiafrasays]

10 cents (usa, 1975)