Artist’s illustration of NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover on the Red Planet’s surface.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Some six weeks away from the “seven minutes of terror” that will precede the entry, descent, and landing of NASA’s most ambitious robotic Mars mission ever attempted, it’s worth a look back at what we learned from NASA’s very first Mars flyby which launched some 56 years ago last month.
NASA’s Mariner 4 spacecraft, launched from Cape Canaveral on November 28, 1964, became the first successful flyby of the red planet, returning the first close up pictures of Mars from space. But what its 21 crude images relayed to an eager team of scientists back on Earth was that Mars was far different than initially imagined. And that it bore little resemblance to the planet which up until the late 19th century had been envisioned as brimming with flowing water, perhaps even canals constructed by an intelligent civilization.
Mariner 4’s amazing flyby, some seven and a half months after launch, instead revealed a planet that was more arid than Arizona and likely incapable of harboring any sort of surface life. The 575 lb. spacecraft took measurements of cosmic dust, solar plasma, trapped radiation, and cosmic rays. But its transcendent claim to fame is that it took and subsequently sent back the first grainy black and white images of another planet from deep space.
This was a feat that would not have been possible without NASA’s nascent deep space network, now a mainstay of all of the space agency’s deep space communications with its planetary probes.
After its February 18th landing, NASA says its six-wheel, car-sized rover will begin scouring Mars’ Jezero Crater in an effort both to better understand the area’s geologic history but to also search for traces of ancient microscopic life. During wetter times billions of years ago, Jezero is believed to be the site of an early Martian lake. Thus, Perseverance will devote a lot of its time there collecting and caching Martian dozens of drill core sediments. The rover will seal and deposit the samples in tubes on the surface that will eventually be collected for return to Earth by future missions, says NASA.
As for Mariner 4 and its legacy?
The spacecraft flew past Mars on July 14, 1965, collecting the first close-up photographs of another planet at a minimum distance of some 6200 miles, says NASA. The pictures, played back from a small tape recorder over a long period, showed lunar-type impact craters, some of them touched with frost in the chill Martian evening, the agency notes. In addition to providing key information about how to safely deliver future missions to the Martian surface, says NASA, the spacecraft far outlasted its planned eight-month mission.
The mission’s measurements indicated that the solar wind may have direct interaction with the Martian atmosphere, and that the atmosphere and surface are fully exposed to solar and cosmic radiation. We now know from NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft just how extreme this direct interaction with Mars’ current and ancient atmosphere actually is and was.
This early mission and others in the Mariner program like it proved that interplanetary missions were feasible with the technology of the era and could be developed within a few short years.
In contrast, at the time of the Mariner 4 1965 flyby, we had no clue that Mars’ climate history would be so frustratingly complicated to decode. A frozen desert world that shows signs of past hydrology, there’s a running joke among planetary scientists that almost everyone has ‘discovered liquid water on present-day Mars at least once. But even now, more than a half century after Mariner 4 surprised us; that’s a point that’s actively debated. Does Mars have liquid water on the surface? Or in its subsurface?
We’re still puzzled by gaps in our understanding of Mars’ climate, even as NASA’s Mars MAVEN mission has provided a wealth of extraordinary data showing how dramatically the planet lost its atmosphere and water.
But Mars science’s defining question still remains whether the red planet once harbored some sort of microbial life. And for the truly optimistic, whether Mars might still be hanging onto life deep within its subsurface.
Fifty-six years after Mariner 4’s historic flyby, we can be thankful that 2021 will see missions arriving at Mars from NASA, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and China. All of which will continue chipping away at Mars’ remaining mysteries.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
