1962 1 1 In June, the former Soviet Union launched the "Mars 1" probe, which skimmed the surface of Mars for exploration activities. However, "Mars 1" lost contact with the ground when it flew away from the earth 1 100 million kilometers, and its whereabouts were unknown. As the first Mars probe launched by human beings, it is widely regarded as the beginning of human journey to Mars.
1964165438+10 In October, the United States launched Mariner 4 spacecraft to Mars. 1On July 5, 965, the American Mariner 4 approached Mars and took 2 1 photo at a distance of 10000 km. It is found that there are a large number of craters on Mars, and the atmospheric density of Mars is only 1% of that of the earth. Mars has neither a molten iron core nor a magnetic field.
1965: the former Soviet launch probe 2 (zond 2), the detection situation has not been announced.
1969, American mariner 4 sent back 75 photos. In the same year, American "Mariner 5" and "Mariner 6" spacecraft passed Mars again. More than 200 photos taken by them show that the temperature on the surface of Mars is lower than expected, the carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere of Mars is as high as 95%, and water vapor is almost difficult to find. That year, American Mariner 7 sent back 126 photos.
197 1, 1 1 year, Mariner 9 launched by the United States entered the orbit of Mars, becoming the first Mars artificial satellite, and made a long-term investigation around the orbit of Mars. Mariner 9 successfully photographed the whole picture of Mars and sent back 7329 photos, confirming that there is no canal on Mars. There are many round mountains on one hemisphere of Mars, which looks like the moon, while the other hemisphere is relatively flat.
1971May19 and 28, the former Soviet Union launched Mars 2 and Mars 3 one after another, hoping to land on Mars. "Mars II" dropped a detection instrument in June165438+1October of the same year, but it crashed on the surface of Mars; The lander of "Mars III" made a soft landing on Mars in June 5438+February of the same year, but it only sent back a signal for 22 seconds and stopped working forever.
1974, the Mars 5 probe of the former Soviet Union flew along the orbit of Mars for several days. In the same year, the Mars 6 and Mars 7 probes of the former Soviet Union landed on Mars, and the detection results were not announced.
1975, the United States launched Viking 1 and Viking 2 spacecraft to Mars. 1 In July and August, 1976, American Viking1and Viking 2 landers landed on Mars successfully. These two landers carried many sophisticated instruments, analyzed the soil of Mars, measured the wind speed, air pressure and temperature, and determined the atmospheric composition of Mars. The exploration of Mars has taken a step forward. In the following years, these two spacecraft photographed almost the entire surface of Mars, and sent back 5 1539 unusually clear photos of Mars and a large number of detection data to the Earth. 1July, 978, Viking 2 stopped working. 1 In August, 980, Viking1also ended its four-year observation mission.
1989, the former Soviet Phobos 1 and Phobos 2 probes disappeared on the way to Mars.
1On September 25, 1992, the American Mars Observer was launched, but it lost contact with the ground before 1993 entered the Martian atmosphere in August.
1996, the Russian Mars -96 spacecraft failed to launch.
1996165438+1October 6th, Mars Global Explorer was launched. The purpose of this exploration is to collect all kinds of data about the atmosphere, appearance and internal structure of Mars, and to photograph the poles of Mars and the winding "canals" on Mars, so as to help scientists understand whether rivers once existed on Mars. 199665438+On February 4th, the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft carrying the rover "sojourner" set out. After a long journey of 494 million kilometers and 7 months, it landed on Mars Ares Plain on1July 4, 997. The main purpose of this exploration is to let the "sojourner" on wheels drive on Mars under the remote control of the ground staff, so as to realize the large-scale mobile patrol of Mars. This exploration activity has enabled human beings to have an intuitive understanding of the surface landscape of Mars. "Mars Pathfinder" sent back thousands of photos of the surface of Mars, including many close-ups and 360-degree color panoramic photos. People know from these photos that the Ares Plain on Mars looks like a desert on Earth. Like the earth, there are mountains, hills, valleys and even craters on Mars. There is an α-proton -X-ray spectrometer on the rover sojourner, which can analyze the chemical composition of rocks on site and send the analysis results back to the ground control center.
Concept map of Mars exploration robot "Mars rover" released by NASA.
The analysis results show that Mars, like the earth, has many different kinds of rocks, some of which are very similar to the rocks on the earth in chemical composition. Judging from the rut left by the rover, there is a layer of virtual soil on the surface of Mars and a hard shell below. "Mars Pathfinder" has also obtained a lot of valuable information, which will take several years to analyze and sort out. 1in March 1998, the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft and its rover stopped working. "Mars Pathfinder" sent back 2.6 billion bits of scientific information, 6.5438+0.6 million pictures and 6.5438+0.5 complete chemical analysis results of Martian rocks and soil.
Due to the successful exploration of Mars Pathfinder, scientists will carry out the next step of Mars exploration, that is, send an automatic sampling spacecraft to Mars and bring back various samples from Mars to Earth for analysis and research. In 1998, 65438+February and 1999, 65438+1October, NASA launched two unmanned Mars probes, the Mars climate orbiter and the Mars polor lander. "Mars Climate Probe" 1999 was burned when it entered the atmosphere of Mars in September. "Mars polar lander" also disappeared after the scheduled landing time of June 5438+February of the same year. Later, it was found that the reason was that the fire truck that slowed down was turned off prematurely. Two consecutive Mars exploration failures seriously affected NASA's Mars exploration plan and were once interrupted.
1998 In July, Japan launched the Mars probe "Hope". In February, 2003, Japan Space Agency announced that the Mars exploration failed.
1In February 1998, the American Mars Climate Probe was launched, but1September 1999, it was burned when it entered the atmosphere of Mars.
1999 65438+ 10, the United States launched the Mars Polar Lander probe, and its whereabouts were unknown after the scheduled landing time.
On April 7th, 200 1 year, the American Mars Odyssey spacecraft was launched. The "Odyssey" will conduct a two-and-a-half-year geographical exploration of Mars, and its main task is still to find water on Mars to determine whether there is life on this red planet. This launch marks the resumption of the US Mars exploration program.
On June 2, 2003, the European Space Agency's Mars Express probe was launched, and its Beagle 2 lander was scheduled to land on Mars in the early morning of June 25, 2003, but the ground control center has not contacted it until today.
On June 2, 2003, the European Space Agency's Mars Express probe was launched, and its Beagle 2 lander was scheduled to land on Mars in the early morning of June 25, 2003, but the ground control center has not contacted it until today.
On June/KOOC-0/0, 2003, the rover Mars rover (figure/KOOC-0/) carrying the rover Spirit flew into space. According to the plan, the probe will fly to the orbit of Mars in June 5438 +2004 10, and then put the "Courage" on the "Gushev Crater" of Mars through parachutes and airbags to find out whether there are traces of water there. The twin brothers and Opportunity of the rover Spirit were successfully launched on July 7, and they also embarked on a long journey to Mars to find water and traces of life. Around 20041October 4 12: 38, the American spirit rover successfully landed on the surface of Mars after more than half a year of interstellar travel, and sent back the first message to the earth at 20: 52, followed by a three-dimensional panoramic color photo (Figure 2). Meanwhile, Opportunity is on its way to Mars. This has caused a new round of Mars exploration climax all over the world.
According to Dr. Fritz Nadali, the head of the American Mars exploration program, the United States formulated a detailed Mars exploration program in the first decade of this century. Every 26 months, the United States will launch a Mars probe. Among them, an orbital probe named "Mars Reconnaissance" will be launched in 2005, which can take an image of an object the size of a football on Mars. In 2007, the United States will launch mission to mars four times. Its fourth action is to launch the Mars lander, which will land near a basin near the Martian ice. In 2009, NASA will send a larger lander named "Mars Science Laboratory" to Mars, which is a large rover weighing 600-1000 kg and can walk several kilometers on the surface of Mars. Using nuclear energy, the "Mars Science Laboratory" will be equipped with a large number of analysis and testing equipment to find out the composition of rocks and soil on Mars and the chemical composition that may form life on Mars. It can continue to work on Mars for many years.
Europe will launch the "Aurora Plan" action. The time span of "Aurora Project" is 30 years: in 2007, the return equipment with high-speed manned technology was successfully developed; In 2009, a "rover" spacecraft was sent to Mars to find and verify signs of life on Mars; From 20 1 1 to 20 14, samples of Martian materials were brought to the earth for the first time, demonstrating that humans landed on Mars; In 2026, the main stage of human mission to mars will be verified by automatic mechanical landing in mission to mars; From 2030 to 2033, human beings realized their dream of landing on Mars.
Russia put forward the plan of human landing on Mars before Europe. Russian space officials announced that Russia will send a man to Mars 20 15 years ago. According to the plan, the Russian space agency will send a six-member team to Mars. This plan is expected to take about 440 days and cost 20 billion US dollars.
China's "National Medium-and Long-Term Science and Technology Development Plan" is expected to include the exploration of Mars and other planets. At present, some research topics about the Martian environment are under way. According to scientists in China, China will launch its own Mars probe in 2020.