Planetary+Exploration+By+Griff+Kell



Planetary Exploration  By: Griffin  K.   The whole time while race to get to the moon was going on. There were still other operations going on that weren’t as well publicized. Although the missions to the moon were important and very popular, the planetary exploration of the solar system gave us WAY more information on our solar system. The first couple planetary explorations that took place where undertaken by the Soviet Union  who sent two planetary probes past Venus and Mars in 1960. These missions brought back very little information but were significant in the aspect that people could send probes to far away planets. The first space probe to fly past Venus and send back useful information was the United States ’ Mariner 2 on December 14, 1962 . The information gained from Mariner 2 was surprising because it showed very high surface temperature and air density on Venus. The reason that these findings where surprising was because people assumed that Venus was similar to Earth and it was projected as a “ Paradise <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)">”. It was known that Venus had a very similar size and mass as the Earth but the findings from the Mariner 2 showed that Venus was completely uninhabitable. However the findings from Mariner 2 went almost unnoticed by the public because they were so enthralled in the space race to the moon with the <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)">Soviet Union <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)"> that they hardly cared about anything else. Also the Mariner carried no on board cameras and no pictures were taken of the planet so the public wasn’t able to see the benefits of the Mariner series. The <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)">Soviet Union <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)"> launched the Venera 7 in 1971 and it became the first vessel to land on Venus and then Venera 9 transmitted the first pictures from another planet. These two missions represent only two of a series of Soviet Venera missions. The Unites States meanwhile continued their Mariner series and in 1974 Mariner 10 flew by Mercury and became the first to do so and the last for almost 34 years. Almost 10 years earlier Mariner 4 flew past Mars in 1965 and became to complete such a task. The pictures transmitted from the Mariner 4 mission were completely unexpected because Mars was looked upon as a “hellish” planet but the pictures revealed Mars to be very similar to the Earth. The first spacecraft to land on Mars was the Mars 3 which was created by the <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)">Soviet Union <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)"> in 1971; however there were no pictures or research done on this landing. The first such research and pictures transmitted from the surface of Mars was the United States Viking series vessel in 1976. By this time in history the space race was winding down and joint operations were being undertaken by both the <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)">United States <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)"> and the <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)">Soviet Union <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)">.