Eric's

  **Past Missions **  There have been about 39 missions that have been recorded by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). Of the 39 missions, only 17 missions had been successful. The United States of America were the first to have had a successful mission in 1964, the shuttle's name was [|Mariner 4] , it returned with 21 images of the planet mars. The first nation to attempt sending a shuttle to mars was the USSR in 1960, the shuttle was called Korabl 4.

Between 1962-1973, 10 small spacecrafts have been built and designed by NASA to explore our solar system and very first time visiting Venus, Mars, and Mercury in the process. These spacecrafts were called Mariner.

__//Mariner 3//__ failed to reach mars but mariner 4 on the other hand returned with 21 images of lunar-type impact craters, some of them were lightly coated with frost from the Martian night. Mariner 4 was launched on November 28, 1964, and arrived on July 14, 1965. __//Mariner 6 & 7//__ was the first to complete a duel mission to mars. Mariner 6 was launched on February 24, 1969 and Mariner 7 February 27, 1969. Mariner 8 & 9 were mars' first "orbiters". Mariner 8 failed during launch on May 8, 1971. Mariner 9 launched May 30, 1971 and arrived on November 13, 1971 it was Mars’ first artificial satellite. Mariner 9 observed a great dust storm and discovered the first two images of mars' two moons Phobos and Deimos. __//Viking 1 & 2//__ were orbit-landers, they traveled as one until they got to mars' atmosphere. Viking 1 & 2 discovered the "face of mars". The mars observer was supposed to study geology, geophysics and climate of mars but unfortunately NASA lost connection with the space craft just a bit after it entered mars' orbit. __//The mars global surveyor//__ had a piece of equipment called a mars orbital camera, it provided images used to learn the repetitive weather patterns and changing meteorological conditions of mars using a built in laser altimeter provided a 3-D illustration of mars' polar ice cap. //__The pathfinder__// launched December 4, 1996 it was used for transporting an instrumented lander and a free-ranging robotic rover. The lander's original name was the Carl Sagan memorial station and the rove was named the sojourner. The lander retrieved 15 chemical analyses of rocks and soil, 16,500 images and the rover retrieved 550 images. Somehow both the lander and rover outlived their life expectancy the lander lived about 3 times longer than expected and the rover lived 12 times as longer. __//The mars climate orbiter//__ was supposed to gather data on the interplanetary weather but it was lost on September 23, 1999 it was lost because it was badly burnt because it was too close to mars' atmosphere according to an engineer. __//Mars polar lander /deep space 2//__ was launched January 3, 1999, it was designed to extract water samples from the ice found on the polar cap found on mars. The mission was unsuccessful because they both went missing upon arrival __//The phoenix//__ was launched in august 2007 and arrived on May 25, 2008.The phoenix was built to resume the mars polar mission. The phoenix is our most recent mission, it will have the same instruments as the polar lander but this time it will settle farther north of the polar ice caps. It will extract and analyze the soil found on mars using a robotic arm. 

Mankind has from the earliest of times looked up at the night sky and viewed the tiny red dot that is Mars with a sense of fear because the planet's red color symbolizes war and aggression. Knowledge of Mars has been recorded from as early as the 28th Dynasty of the Egyptian New Kingdom (1570 BC - 1293 BC), Mars was refered to as 'Horus of the Horizon'. The Egyptians even recorded Mars’ nostalgic motion, where the planet appears to travel backwards (in reality this is actually an optical illusion) cool eh? Other ancient civilizations watching Mars included the Babylonians, who called the red planet Nergal, the god of battle and of the dead. The Persians called Mars Pahlavani Siphir, the celestial warrior. Mars itself got its name from the Roman god of war with the same name. notice a pattern with all the myths? They are all war and death related! O.o Even as recently as the 19th and 20th centuries, mankind has been worried about Mars' seemingly aggressive tendencies. In the 1880s, astronomers studying Mars through their telescopes thought that they had spotted canals on the planet's surface, something they decided could only be built by Martians. Were these Martians warlike? Popular theory was yes, so much so, when the drama 'Wars of the Worlds' was broadcast in 1938, there was widespread panic when listeners thought war like Martians really had landed. Mars even creates urban legends of its own in the 21st century. A popular e-mail entitled 'Mars Spectacular' does the rounds every year around August. The e-mail states that on August 27 of whichever year the e-mail happens to be circulating, Mars will appear to the naked eye in the night sky as big as the moon. This e-mail is completely false but actually started life based on a real true event. On August 27 2003, Mars did approach closer to Earth, so much so that it looked six times bigger than normal, however the only way it would of seemed as big as the moon was if you looked at it through a 75 x telescope! Bibliography
 * __Pop culture__**