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The history of Mars observation is about the recorded history of observation of the planet Mars. Some of the early records of Mars' observation date back to the era of the ancient Egyptian astronomers in the 2nd millennium BCE. Chinese records about the motions of Mars appeared before the founding of the Zhou dynasty (1045 BCE).
Mars before and after the dust storm. The 2018 Mars global dust storm was a massive and planet-wide dust storm that affected the surface of Mars between May and July 2018. It became one of the most intense, discussed and widespread storms in the history of Mars observations, with its impact felt across the entire planet.
This means that Mars has lost a volume of water 6.5 times what is stored in today's polar caps. The water for a time would have formed an ocean in the low-lying Mare Boreum. The amount of water could have covered the planet about 140 meters, but was probably in an ocean that in places would be almost 1 mile deep. [1] [2]
The Mars Observer spacecraft had a mass of 1,018 kilograms (2,244 lb). Its bus measured 1.1 meters tall, 2.2 meters wide, and 1.6 meters deep. The spacecraft was based on previous satellite designs, originally intended and developed to orbit Earth.
Since the late 20th century, Mars has been explored by uncrewed spacecraft and rovers, with the first flyby by the Mariner 4 probe in 1965, the first orbit by the Mars 2 probe in 1971, and the first landing by the Viking 1 probe in 1976. As of 2023, there are at least 11 active probes orbiting Mars or on the Martian surface.
On March 2, 2004, NASA announced that "Opportunity has landed in an area of Mars where liquid water once drenched the surface". Associate administrator Ed Weiler told reporters that the area "would have been good habitable environment", although no traces of life have been found. Larger grains suggest the presence of fluid.
CRISM was being used to identify locations on Mars that may have hosted water, [1] a solvent considered important in the search for past or present life on Mars.In order to do this, CRISM was mapping the presence of minerals and chemicals that may indicate past interaction with water - low-temperature or hydrothermal. [2]
On 2 December 1971, the Mars 3 lander became the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing, but its transmission was interrupted after 14.5 seconds. [47] The Mars 2 and 3 orbiters sent back a relatively large volume of data covering the period from December 1971 to March 1972, although transmissions continued through to August. By 22 August ...