How long have we been observing Mars? Well, towards the end of the nineteenth century improved telescopes meant that astronomers could start to observe the surface of the planet.An Italian astronomer saw channels on the surface of the planet and this caused great interest.
Unfortunately,a translation made some English mistakes and people thought that "canals" had been found on the surface.This made people think about the possibility of life on Mars and "Martians" entered science fiction for the first time. In H G Wells' famous book The War of the Worlds of 1898, Martians are highly developed creatures with large heads that try to take over planet Earth.
Right,now let's look at actual exploration of the planet. The first probe to get near Mars was Mariner 4,which flew past the planet in 1964 and took photos of it. After that,there were several failures, with probes crashing on landing or failing to get into orbit. The big breakthrough came with Pathfinder,which successfully landed on July 4,1997 and sent back wonderful photos of the surface of Mars.These photos and the six-wheel vehicle which explored the area increased public interest.
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