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Most Spectacular Shots From 50 Years of Robotic Solar System Exploration 9.63 on the Cool-O-Mete


Valin

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Wired Science

 

 

Some people complain that the age of exploration is over. But for the past 50 years we have made it our mission to explore far and wide in the solar system, sending robotic probes to every nook and cranny we can find.

 

The last half-century has been a golden age. Since Mariner 2’s successful flyby of Venus in 1962, NASA and other space agencies have launched spacecraft to every planet in the solar system and even a few to asteroids and comets. In honor of this 50th anniversary, NASA’s history office is hosting a special symposium Oct. 25 and 26 to look back at the important milestones accomplished in this era.

 

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mercury.jpg

Mercury’s Caloris Basin in enhanced colors, showing different materials on the surface, taken by NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft. NASA

 

Mercury

 

Mercury is the least-explored inner planet, with only two probes ever being sent to the smallest world in our solar system. In 1974, NASA launched Mariner 10 to Mercury, which made a close flyby of the planet, taking thousands of photos and mapping half the planet’s surface. The probe flew by again after swinging around the sun and then one last time. In total, it took 28,000 photos and mapped approximately 45 percent of the planet’s surface.

 

MESSENGER — MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging spacecraft — reached the tiny planet in 2011 and entered orbit, becoming the first man-made object to do so. The probe’s main mission has been to build a complete map of the planet’s surface, determine the nature of its magnetic field, and figure out whether the bright deposits seen at Mercury’s poles are water ice.

 

 

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