A Brief History
On September 3, 1976, an American Viking 2 spacecraft landed on the surface of Mars. People have always dreamed of a Mars space expedition, and although this effort did not land any humans on the Red Planet, the fact that the US was able to successfully land a spacecraft on Mars certainly made the prospect of someday landing people on Mars more likely.
Digging Deeper
Viking 2 landed in an area called Utopia Planitia and was actually the second American spacecraft to land on Mars, the first being Viking 1, on July 20, 1976. The first Earth launched spacecraft to fly by Mars was Mariner 4, another American spacecraft, back in 1965.
Scientific research and space exploration so far have failed to find proof of life on Mars, though some evidence of fossilized bacteria may or may not have been found on bits of Mars rock that fell to Earth as meteorites. Do you think Mars has or ever had life?
Question for students (and subscribers): Will humans land on Mars during your lifetime? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Morden, Simon. The Red Planet: A Natural History of Mars. Pegasus Books, 2022.
Sparrow, Giles. Spaceflight, 2nd Edition: The Complete Story from Sputnik to Curiosity. DK, 2019.
The featured image in this article, an image from Mars taken by the Viking 2 lander, is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that “NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted“. (See Template:PD-USGov, NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy.)
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
