On this day in 1965, we got our first closeup picture of Mars, and did not see any aliens.
Mariner 4 was the first spacecraft to fly by Mars, and the first to return close-up images of the Red Planet. On July 15, 1965, the Mariner 4 spacecraft made its closest approach to Mars, and made history by taking the first photos of another planet from space.
This spare Mariner 4 solar panel hangs over my desk at work. It’s about 6′ long and contains a total of 24 rows of solar cells, with each row composed of roughly 42 individual cell strips. The panel is mounted to a support structure with wiring and a single Bendix power connection port, and features a Ryan Aeronautical Co. parts label: "Mariner C, Part No. 4100…56, Serial No. 18."
The Mariner 4 spacecraft consisted of an octagonal magnesium frame with four solar panels attached to the top. Power was supplied to the spacecraft by 28,224 solar cells contained in the four 69" x 35" solar panels, which could provide 310 W at Mars.
Launched on November 28, 1964, Mariner 4 was the fourth in a series of spacecraft used for planetary exploration in a flyby mode and, after a seven-month voyage, represented the first successful flyby of the planet Mars, returning the first pictures of the Martian surface. These represented the first images of another planet ever returned from deep space. Mariner 4 was designed to conduct closeup scientific observations of Mars and to transmit these observations to Earth. Other mission objectives were to perform field and particle measurements in interplanetary space in the vicinity of Mars and to provide experience in and knowledge of the engineering capabilities for interplanetary flights of long duration.
It disappointed some to see a barren crater field with no signs of life or vegetation, resembling the moon more than Earth. Dr Bruce Betts, chief scientist at the Planetary Society, said Mariner 4 proved that the Martian environment "was very hostile to life as we know it. It found cold temperatures, a thin atmosphere, and no magnetic field, which showed that, unlike Earth, the surface would be susceptible to harmful radiation."
It used a TV camera to capture 22 images on 4-track tape, and then took four days to transmit it back to Earth. In the era of rotary dial telephones, sending a plucky little machine a hundred million miles away to image another planet’s surface was an unprecedented achievement.
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