Scientific missions in the ‘Red Planet’: Mars
On the other side of the lens
Mars, an out of reach planet, with more than 50 million kilometers away from our land, has been one of the planets that has aroused the curiosity of many astronomers, and this curiosity has caused the generation different theories. One of the most famous theories is the assumption that existed intelligent life.
Thanks to this fascination with the planet and the belief and the desire that there could be life on Mars is that the scientists and astronomers of the Earth began to question and imagine how the planet would be, for this reason they began to want to know more about the place. They began to raise ideas, hypotheses and theories, relying on the ideas of the scientific method, which helped strengthen the method as such.
It is important to be able to define that it is the scientific method;It is a set of ordered steps that are mainly used to find new knowledge in the sciences, its format is simple, you ask a question that you would like to investigate, with that question you ask a hypothesis you put it approves and depending on the result you would get a theory a theory.
Starting with investigating and looking for resources that could verify the theories that were initially raised. The above revolutionized the different technologies that were used at the time;An example of them is vision teams at long distance (telescopes) which were necessary to see Mars from Earth. Thanks to these teams, scientists could see Mars more closely, detailing it and being able to study more easily, which helped them explain and respond the theories and hypotheses that had been raised before.
One of the theory, in which the telescopes helped support them, is expressed by the "Italian Giovanni Schiaparelli, which, in 1877, made a map of the surface of Mars in which he pointed out the presence of different" Canali "alluding to structuresNatural, word that was translated into English as "Canals", which indicated artificial structures, such as the Suez channel, which was being built at the time. Camille Flammarion, the Carl Sagan of the nineteenth century, disclosed the idea that it was constructions carried out by a Martian intelligent civilization with strong hydraulic needs.”(El País, Manuel Vázquez Abeledo).
Percival Lowell looking for evidence of the existence of the channels, looked for an adequate place for the observations and found it in Flagstaff, where he built the observatory that today bears his name. He was a pioneer in looking for adequate places for astronomy, wherever they were. As he pointed out, "when this is recognized, and it will finally be, the fashion will be to place the observatories from where it can be observed, rather than being seen".
In the same way to reach their goal they had to go from just seeing Mars from Earth to being able to travel to the planet, this was the motivation for the development of the necessary technology to make space trips. In this path, the man was needed to dominate the flight, with this he achieved the creation of the first airplane, and hence the development of technology led to the creation of the first rocket that allowed to leave the atmosphere of the earth and reach other planets.
The chapter of space flights began in July 1950 with the launch of the first rocket from Cabo Cañaveral, Florida: Bumper II. It was mainly used to test rocket systems and to investigate the upper atmosphere. The rocket carried sensors that allowed them to measure different characteristics such as air temperature and the impacts of cosmic rays. After numerous attempts to go to the moon, Apollo 11 was a manned space mission of the United States whose goal was to make a human being walk on the surface of the moon. The mission was sent to the space on July 16, 1969, it reached the surface of the Moon on July 20 of that same year and the next day it managed to make two astronauts (Armstrong and Aldrin) walk on the lunar surface.
The first Soviet missions to Mars took place from the Marsnik program, which consisted of two nearby flights with probe in October 1960. The two probes failed to leave the earth and were trapped in the orbit, one of them reached a maximum height of 120 km before resenting the earth.
Mars 1 launched on November 1, 1962, it would be an interplanetary automatic probe, the first of the Soviet Probe program to Mars. Would fly at a distance of 11.000 km from the planet, would take photos of the surface and send information on cosmic radiation, micro meteorite impacts, on the magnetic field of Mars, radiation in the environment, structure of the atmosphere, and possible organic components present. 61 radio transmissions were maintained with intervals every 2 days.
For the last 60 years, multiple missions have been sent to Mars with the purpose of analyzing and studying the planet’s surface. This study of the planet seeks not only to investigate it but also understand and understand it, in order to consider the first missions that allow to send human beings with the ultimate goal of colonizing the planet.
It is clear that this curiosity and fascination with a planet can go very far, to start just seeing it and now in the near future be on the surface of that place, and as much as possible to live there. Humanity wants to reach the limits of knowledge, evolving and opening the doors to a future where everything is possible.
Sources:
- Apollo 11. (s.F.). Retrieved May 23, 2018, from https: // is.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11
- Mars exploration. (s.F.). Retrieved June 18, 2018, from https: // is.Wikipedia.org/wiki/exploraci%c3%b3n_de_marte
- Mars channels. (s.F.). Retrieved April 29, 2017, from https: // is.Wikipedia.org/wiki/channels_de_marte.
- Albeedo, m. Vazquez. (2015, Octubrea 22). The Mars channels, an example of the use of the scientific method. Recovered from
- https: // elpais.com/elpais/2015/10/21/science/1445442540_335497.HTML
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