Mars Exploration In the Past
Mars has been a fascinating topic since ancient times. The site, The Planet Mars, is an online book about Mars. This book, by William Sheehan, provides a concise, interesting history of Mars observation.
Approximately 100 years ago, Mars was a major topic for conversation. Astronomer Percival Lowell believed that he saw canals on Mars. He postulated that these canals were evidence of a civilization in trouble. Lowell's observations on Mars are contained in the on-line book, Mars.
The most successful exploration of Mars to date has been done by unmanned probes from both the United States and Russia. The Mariners series of probes were launched in the 1960's. The Mariner probes, however, only observed Mars from a distance. A historic event took place in the 1970's with the Viking series of landers. Two landers Viking 1 and Viking 2, landed on the Martian surface and returned pictures to Earth. In the 1990's, another lander arrived on Mars. This mission, Pathfinder, brought a robot to the surface of Mars that could take pictures and explore the surface. Pictures from all these missions can be found at NASAs Planetary Photojournal. The Planetary Society maintains a comprehensive listing of all missions to Mars.
