58 years have passed since the first orbital photos of Mars

July 14 () –

On July 14, 1965, NASA successfully flew over Mars for the first time with the Mariner 4 probe. who sent to Earth first close-up images of the red planet.

Like its ill-fated predecessor Mariner 3, this spacecraft was designed to make detailed scientific observations of Mars, including measurements of particles and interplanetary fields in the vicinity of Mars.

Launched on November 28, 1964 on an Atlas rocket, Mariner 4 consisted of a magnesium octagon, 50 inches long and 18 inches long. In the bottom center of the spaceship there was the television camera on a scanning platform.

It was also equipped with a magnetometer, dust detector, cosmic ray telescope, trapped radiation detector, solar plasma probe, and ionization chamber/Geiger counter. The mass of the ship was 260.68 kilos.

During its two days in orbit of Mars, Mariner 4 took 21 imageswhich covered scattered areas of mid-latitudes of the planet representing 1% of the total surface of Mars. The closest approach was 9,846 kilometers.

The ship met all the programmed objectives and kept sending useful data until October 1, 1965 when it was at a distance of 309 million kilometers, at which time the orientation of the antenna did not allow the sending of more data. reports Wikipedia.