Telescopes to Pathfinder Past Mars Exploration Telescopes to Pathfinder

The Beginnings Tycho Brahe studies Mars’ motion to support Copernican view of the Solar Sytem Kepler used this to lay the foundations for his three laws of motion Galileo first to observe Mars with a telescope in 1609

Canals on Mars? Schiaparelli observes Mars in 1877 and sees “canali” This inspires many, including Percival Lowell to observe Mars.

A Reality Check Mariner 4 did the first fly by in 1965 and sent back pictures and data, including the following:

Then On to Viking Two orbiters and landers arrive in Martian Orbit in 1976

Mars Global Surveyor Arrives in orbit in 1996 and aerobrakes into a circular orbit over a period of two years

Pathfinder 1997

Spirit and Opportunity

Mars Statistics Mass (kg) 6.421e+23 Mass (Earth = 1) 1.0745e-01 Equatorial radius (km) 3,397.2 Equatorial radius (Earth = 1) 5.3264e-01 Mean density (gm/cm^3) 3.94 Mean distance from the Sun (km) 227,940,000 Mean distance from the Sun (Earth = 1)1.5237 Rotational period (hours) 24.6229 Rotational period (days) 1.025957 Orbital period (days) 686.98 Mean orbital velocity (km/sec) 24.13 Orbital eccentricity0.0934 Tilt of axis (degrees) 25.19 Orbital inclination (degrees) 1.850 Equatorial surface gravity (m/sec^2) 3.72 Equatorial escape velocity (km/sec) 5.02 Visual geometric albedo0.15 Magnitude (Vo)-2.01

Minimum surface temperature-140°C Mean surface temperature-63°C Maximum surface temperature 20°C Atmospheric pressure (bars) 0.007 Atmospheric composition Carbon Dioxide (C02) 95.3200% Nitrogen (N2) 2.7000% Argon (Ar) 1.6000% Oxygen (O2) 0.1300% Carbon Monoxide (CO) 0.0700% Water (H2O) 0.0300% Neon (Ne) 0.0003% Krypton (Kr) 0.0000%