On February 25th, 1969, NASA launched Mariner 6, a spacecraft intended to conduct a flyby of Mars to search for signs of life on the red planet. When it passed by Mars, it took many pictures. It might not sound like much, but those photos revealed many Martian mysteries. Here’s what we learned.
The Surface Pressure of Mars is Much Lower Than on Earth
On Earth, you don’t often think of the pressure constantly pressing down on your body. You’re accustomed to it, so you never feel it. But there are various levels of pressure on Earth. You’ll feel a lot more pressure diving deep into the ocean, and you’ll feel less if you ascend high into the atmosphere. Changes in pressure like this are why your ears sometimes pop when traveling between different elevations.
The thin atmosphere of Mars does have something to do with this, as meteorites don’t burn up as much when crashing through the thin air on Mars. That means more material actually makes it down to the surface to impact it. But this isn’t the only reason why there are so many craters on Mars.
Once a crater is formed from a meteor impact, there isn’t a whole lot happening on Mars to actually wipe it away over time. There’s not much soil erosion happening since there is no rain and only sporadic seasonal water flows, no big tectonic movements to change the surface of the planet, and no new lava flows going around to cover any of it up with new material. A combination of all of these factors creates the chaotically cratered surface of Mars.
This is about all we learned about Mars from the Mariner 6 mission. It might not seem like a whole lot when reading it when compared to modern missions, but remember, this mission was in 1969, and it provided us with a whole new perspective on the Red Planet. Besides that, Mariner 6 tested out new technologies and provided valuable data about the performance of deep-space craft, informing future NASA missions. Mariner 6 advanced our understanding of a field where there’s always more to learn.
