Everything they have told us about Mars makes us think that it is a hostile place. For human life, yes, there is no doubt. But here we earthlings are still determined to go, discover what secrets it hides and see if it was ever habitable or not. Also, why not, if it can be again one day.
The exploratory spirit of the human being with the help of technology has made it possible for us to discover Mars over the years through spectacular photographs that have been sent by the different rovers and NASA probes.
First photographs of Mars
The first spacecraft to head to Mars was known as Mariner 4. It was orbiting for 2 days around Mars and took 21 images approaching 9,846 kilometers to the red planet.
NASA’s Viking mission went further and managed to safely land a fully functioning spacecraft on the planet. His goal was to achieve high-resolution images of the surface, becoming the first photos of Mars taken from its surface.
Hubble telescope
Since its launch into orbit in 1990, the Hubble telescope has taken spectacular photographs of Mars showing us some of the most amazing snapshots. Hubble has several spectrometers and 3 cameras.
One of its cameras is narrow field and photographs small areas of space, the second is wide field to immortalize photos of planets in their entirety and the third is infrared.
The most advanced robot ever to walk on Mars
NASA’s Mars2020 mission is in charge of the Perseverance robot, which explores the Martian surface slowly but surely. On board, in addition to hundreds of gadgets such as drills and sample tubes, the Ingenuity is also on board, a drone that first explores by air the most optimal routes that Perseverance will follow by land. An entire engineering work, worthy of a space series, which also has a Spanish flavor.
An example of this is the meteorological station (MEDA), capable of analyzing pressures much lower than those recorded on Earth, specifically about 7 millibars, which represent 1% of what we endure on Earth. On the other, an integrated circuit capable of withstanding temperatures beyond 55 degrees below zero has been developed to ensure the proper functioning of all the instruments on Mars. In addition, it has collaborated on other projects such as remote rock analysis or communication systems between Perseverance and Earth.
Missions to Mars, starting points
The landing points of these missions are not chosen at random, but are studied millimetrically. Although it is one thing to plan it on Earth and on a computer program and another what the robot, autonomously, is going to find there. Because controlling them remotely over such long distances is a daunting task. In the best conditions, the Earth-Mars signal can arrive in approximately 3 minutes. In the worst conjunctions, up to 22 minutes.
Jezero Crater, landing site of Perseverance
In the case of Perseverance, which landed in the Jezero crater, the main aim is to obtain information about water or life and, on the other hand, to obtain and use oxygen from Mars for future missions , either for the use of astronauts or to return to La Land and not having to carry oxygen tanks from here. Mars’s atmosphere is 96% carbon dioxide, but it won’t be easy.
Gale Crater, Curiosity’s landing site
Perseverance’s predecessor, Curiosity, landed in Gale Crater, which has a large mountain in the center and which contained many different layers of rock. This allowed us to know more about its past as a planet, including its formation.
Victoria Crater and Endeavor, Opportunity Discoveries
One of NASA’s first major missions was reaching the red planet with Opportunity. It has been active for 14 years, from 2004 to 2018 and holds the record for distance on a celestial body, going from Victoria crater to Endeavor. With him he wanted to study, mainly, the extra-Martian meteorites and clues on the water in the past.
Visit Mars without leaving Earth
The truth is that the photographs of Mars sent by the different robots that have stepped on the red planet over the years leave one with their mouths open, but while we continue to dream of one day traveling to Mars, we can visit similar landscapes in our Earth planet.
chili
One of the enclaves on Earth that most closely resembles the landscape that we can find on Mars is the Atacama desert in Chile. The extremely dry conditions of this desert, its majestic rocky landscape and its shades of orange color could be the setting for any science fiction movie.
Iceland
Continuing with international locations, we can say that Iceland is one of the countries that when you visit it for the first time or simply see a photo on the Internet, you feel more of a feeling of being on another planet. The land of fire and ice has places like Landmannalaugar full of fumaroles and mountains with reddish tones that evoke a Martian landscape.
Spain
Within our country, one of the desert landscapes that can most remind us and take us to Mars is located in Navarra and is called Bárdenas Reales. The geological forms of this place are amazing. 42,500 hectares of Natural Park where ravines, plateaus and hills evoke a Martian atmosphere.
