pale blue dot
On August 12, 2005, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was launched from Cape Canaveral, as part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. MRO is a multipurpose spacecraft designed to conduct reconnaissance and exploration of Mars from orbit. The orbiter played a crucial role in advancing our understanding of the Red Planet, both in terms of current conditions and …
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United Arab Emirates’ Hope Probe (Arabic: Misbar Al-Amal, al-amal means “hope” in English), which entered Mars’ orbit in February 2021, has captured a breathtaking photo of Mars and its tiny moon Deimos.
To be able to reach space, we need rockets. Rocket engines work by action and reaction (“To every action, there is always opposed an equal reaction”, see notes 1) and push rockets forward simply by expelling their exhaust in the opposite direction at high speed and can, therefore, work in the vacuum of space. Space rockets …
Continue reading “Top 12 Tallest Rockets Ever Launched [2023 SpaceX Starship Update]”
On January 15, 2004, NASA’s Opportunity rover landed on Mars (in Meridiani Planum), three weeks after its twin, Spirit, touched down on the other side of the red planet on January 4.
On January 4, 2004, NASA’s Spirit Rover landed on Mars. It was a robotic Mars exploration vehicle, and with its twin Opportunity, studied the history of climate and water at sites on Mars where conditions may once have been favorable to life. Operational from January 4, 2004, to March 22, 2010, Spirit far outlasted her …
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On December 4, 1996, Mars Pathfinder, a robotic spacecraft that was designed primarily to demonstrate a low-cost way of delivering a set of science instruments and a free-ranging rover (Sojourner) to the Martian Surface was launched from Cape Canaveral on top of a Delta II rocket.
On December 2, 1971, Soviet Union’s Mars 3 robotic space probe performed the first soft Mars landing. But, just 110 seconds after the landing, and 20 seconds after the transmissions has begun, it failed and transmitted just a gray image with no details. Although having no scientific value, this was the first transmission ever from …
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On November 9, 1971, NASA’s Mariner 9 spacecraft entered Mars orbit and became the first spacecraft to maintain an orbit around another planet than Earth. Mariner 9 beat Soviet Union’s Mars 2 by 13 days despite being launched 11 days later than its Soviet counterpart. In about 11 months, the orbiter mapped 85% of the …
On September 3, 1976, the lander of NASA’s Viking 2 spacecraft (which consisted of an orbiter and a lander) separated from the orbiter and safely landed on Mars.
NASA’s robotic spacecraft Mars Pathfinder landed on Mars on July 4, 1997. It was carrying a small rover named Sojourner and with that landing, Sojourner became the first operational rover on another planet.
