The Mariner probes

[Charlemagne]

Well, you wanted it, so here is my little thread dedicated to the first probes to explore the other planets... the Mariners.

Let's start at the beginning.

The year is 1962. The United States has finally caught up to the Soviet Union in the Space Race, and now seeks to overtake it, with a bold new project - the Mariner Program. This program would send robotic probes to the other planets of the Inner Solar System (Mercury, Venus, and Mars), and truly usher in the Interplanetary Age. However, there were still problems to overcome. The Soviets had previously tried to send two probes to Venus - Sputnik 7 and Venera 1 - and both of those had failed. Sputnik 7 was destroyed when its rocket exploded on the launch pad, and while Venera 1 HAD made it into space, it had also shut down only about a week into its mission. And the actual Mariner design wasn't far enough along to send a "true" Mariner-class probe into space yet. But, when things aren't quite going according to plan, what do you do? Improvise....

MARINERS 1 & 2

Now, while the "true" Mariner design wasn't far enough along, NASA DID have a few surplus Ranger-class lunar probes hanging around. Collectively shrugging, they took two of them, and renamed them Mariner 1 and Mariner 2. And since they wanted to first make sure they could get to another planet, they chose Venus - the closest planet to Earth - as the target for the first two Mariner probes. And on July 22nd, 1962, Mariner 1 blasted off from Cape Canaveral to begin a three-month-long journey to Venus.

Only there was a problem. A software glitch had caused the rocket carrying Mariner 1 to start fishtailing, and it veered dangerously off-course. In response, the Range Safety Officer was forced to give the rocket the auto-destruct command, vaporizing the rocket and Mariner 1 with it.

Identifying and correcting the problem which had caused the loss of Mariner 1, NASA readied Mariner 2 for lift-off. And on August 27 - just over a month after the Mariner 1 fiasco - Mariner 2 blasted off from Cape Canaveral. This time, it made it into space, and successfully left Earth's orbit, beginning the three-month-long journey to the second planet.

Mariner 2 was, perhaps unsurprisingly, a troublesome space-craft. It was being sent on a mission for which it was never designed, after all. The Earth-tracker had come close to failure, only to jump back to full strength a few days before it would have been too late. Several telemetry sensors failed. One of the solar panels stopped working (though, considering that Venus is much closer to the sun, the other solar panel was able to power the probe sufficiently). It was, however, able to make the journey to Venus. On December 14, 1962, Mariner 2 flew by Venus, coming within roughly 20,000 miles of the planet. It took readings of Venus' clouds and surface, revealing that Venus was a hellishly hot world with a choking atmosphere. Any hopes of finding Venusians were forever dashed.

When news of Mariner 2's flyby was brought to the American public, they were ecstatic - for the first time, we'd beaten the Soviets at something in the Space Race, and had proven that we were DONE playing catch-up. This was the turning point in the Space Race. To commemorate this occasion, William Pickering - the head of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory - was named Grand Marshall of the 1963 Tournament of Roses Parade, and a float of Mariner 2 was made - it even being the Parade's leading float.

Kind of odd to think of a space probe's float being the leading one in the build-up to a football game, but hey, this was the height of the Space Race, and we'd just overtaken the Soviets, so... perhaps not that odd, all things considered.

Mariner 2 sent its final transmission to Earth on January 3, 1963, three weeks after its historic Venus flyby. Today, it remains in orbit around the sun, the little space probe that could - secretly carrying an American flag in one of its compartments.

Next post - Mars gets its first visits - Mariners 3 & 4.

 

[Volpone]

Did they ever get around to probing Uranus?

How did it feel?

 

[Charlemagne]

MARINERS 3 & 4

By 1964, the "true" Mariner design was complete. As Venus had already been visited by Mariner 2, Mars was chosen as the target for Mariners 3 and 4. Mariner 3 was launched from Cape Canaveral on November 5, 1964, and the launch seemed to go smoothly. However, once Mariner 3 made it into space, a major problem was detected - the solar panels weren't receiving any sunlight. It turns out, the protective shroud never detached, which prevented sunlight from reaching the panels. Without a source of power, Mariner 3 died just 8 hours into its mission.

Mariner 4, launched just over three weeks later, on November 28, proved to have much better luck than its predecessor. Mariner 4's protective shroud detached without a hitch, allowing sunlight to hit the panels. And thus, Mariner 4's 7 and a half month trip to Mars began.

On July 15, 1965, Mariner 4 became the first probe to explore Mars, as well as the first probe to take an up-close photo of a planet other than Earth. The photos Mariner 4 sent back revealed Mars to be a cold, barren, heavily cratered world, forever shattering the idea of intelligent Martians.

Mariner 4 also measured Mars' atmosphere, revealing it to be incredibly thin - the final nail in the coffin for the idea that Mars might have Earth-like life. Mariner 4 remained active until December 21, 1967 - far longer than Mariner 2.

Next up - Mariner 5 (aka "A Funny Thing Happened While Flying by Venus").

 

[Charlemagne]

Did they ever get around to probing Uranus?

How did it feel?

Uranus wasn't probed until 1986 - 12 years after the Mariner program ended.

 

[Charlemagne]

MARINER 5

With the successes of Mariners 2 and 4, another probe in the series was built - Mariner 5. Venus was chosen as Mariner 5's target, as with its improved sensors, it could take better readings of that planet than Mariner 2, answering questions that Mariner 2 had been unable to. Mariner 5 was initially built as a back-up to Mariner 4, but with that probe's success, they decided to do another trip to Venus instead. They removed Mariner 5's camera (as Venus is a cloud-covered world, the TV camera was deemed unnecessary), shortened and flipped its solar panels, and added thermal insulation to protect its electronics from the increased heat due to the decreased distance from the sun. So, on June 14, 1967, Mariner 5 was launched, like its predecessors, from Cape Canaveral. However, on Mariner 5's mission to Venus, something completely unexpected happened. That something, was Venera 4.

Venera 4 was the Soviet Union's first successful interplanetary probe. Like Mariner 5, its target planet was Venus (well, considering that Venera is the Russian word FOR "Venus"...). And also like Mariner 5, it would arrive at Venus in mid-October, 1967. Unlike Mariner 5, which would simply conduct a flyby, Venera 4 would attempt to land on Venus' surface. And while Venera 4's lander certainly returned valuable information about the composition and temperature of Venus' atmosphere... it was crushed by the enormous pressures of Venus' atmosphere - in this case, 25 times the atmospheric pressure of Earth's atmosphere at sea level. The Russians initially claimed that Venera 4 made it to Venus' surface before it was destroyed. HOWEVER.... at the same time that Venera 4 was descending through Venus' atmosphere, Mariner 5 was conducting a radio occultation test to measure the thickness of Venus' atmosphere, and found that the pressure at Venus' surface was actually 100 times greater than Earth's, and that Venera 4 had been destroyed by the atmosphere WAY before it ever touched the surface.

The speed at which the Russians retracted that particular claim.... would only be rivaled by the speed in which Blackfoot deletes an incriminating post (assuming he's smart enough to know that said post is incriminating).

Mariner 5 would have a shorter life-span than its immediate predecessor, as contact with the probe would be lost on December 4 of that same year. Like Mariners 2 and 4, it now orbits the sun, as a defunct lump of metal.

Next up - Mariners 6 & 7 - aka "The Middle Children of Space Exploration".

 

[blackfoot NAP]

This is Mariner 10. It was the first probe to explore the planet Mercury - which it did WAY back in 1974.

Now you may ask, "Now Charlemagne, what in God's name does THIS have to do with sports?" The answer? Not a Goddamn thing. It's just that this little tidbit of information is still infinitely more useful and worth sharing than whatever the fuck Blackfoot tries doing in this forum.

^posted at the agony of defeat.^​

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[Charlemagne]

Why yes, I was going to get to Mariner 10, eventually. But seeing as it's the final Mariner probe, I still have a bit to go.

 

[Charlemagne]

MARINERS 6 & 7

With three successful Mariner probes under its belt, NASA decided that it needed to return to Mars, to attempt to answer the questions that Mariner 4 had either left unanswered or opened up. This prompted the launch of Mariner 6 and Mariner 7 - the only time in the Mariner program that both members of a probe duo would be successful (Mariner 1 blew up shortly after takeoff, Mariner 3 made it into space, but its solar panels never got any sunlight, and Mariner 8.... well.... more on THAT probe later). The two probes were both launched in early 1969 - Mariner 6 on February 25, Mariner 7 on March 27 - and once again, both were launched from Cape Canaveral. Despite the difference of more than a month in launch times, Mariner 7 was launched at a faster speed than Mariner 6, allowing it to reach Mars only a week after its twin.

While en route to Mars, Mariner 7 took the first up-close, full-view photos of Mars.

If you look close enough, you can kind of make out Olympus Mons and Valles Marineris, even though no one knew exactly what they were at the time.

Mariner 6 arrived at Mars on July 31, 1969. Mariner 7 arrived less than a week later, on August 5. The two probes kicked off a revolution in the understanding of Mars. First, by detecting water ice in craters on Mars' surface. And secondly, by finding that Mars' atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide. They took over 200 photos, photographing 20% of Mars' surface, in far greater detail than Mariner 4.

Now, you may wonder, if these probes revealed so much about Mars, why did I call them the "middle children" of the Mariner program? Simple. These two probes suffered from amazingly bad timing. They had the rotten luck of arriving at Mars only about two weeks after the Apollo 11 moon landing. As such, they received a mere fraction of the hype that previous Mariners did.

Next up, Mariners 8 & 9.

 

[Charlemagne]

MARINERS 8 & 9

The year is 1971. Two years have passed since Mariners 6 and 7 conducted their flybys of Mars. And yet, only 20% or so of the Martian surface has been mapped. Plans for an ambitious mission to map the majority of Mars have been proposed, and are in the process of being put into action. This mission will involve two probes - Mariners 8 and 9 - being inserted into orbit around Mars, instead of just doing flybys like previous Mariners had. But in order to carry the necessary propellant to actually enter orbit, these probes had to be bulkier than their predecessors. Much bulkier. To the point that each one weighed more than Mariners 6 and 7 COMBINED.

On May 9, 1971, Mariner 8 was launched from Cape Canaveral. For roughly 4 minutes, things seemed to go well. Then, shortly after the second stage rocket separated from the first, it began to tumble out of control After 6 minutes of tumbling, the rocket ran out of fuel, and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, roughly 350 miles north of Puerto Rico. So, with Mariner 8 now sleeping with the fishes, an investigation was launched into what went wrong. The problem turned out to be autopilot error, specifically, a problem with the pitch rate gyro amplifier. To this date, Mariner 8 remains the most recent probe lost due to launch vehicle malfunction.

Now forced to do a solo-probe mission, Mariner 9 was launched on May 30, and began a rather uneventful 5-and-a-half month voyage to Mars. Upon arriving at the red planet on November 14, however, Mariner 9 revealed something truly unexpected - the entire planet was engulfed in a giant dust storm. As such, Mariner 9's imaging systems were put on standby until the storm dissipated two months later. In Mid-January, 1972, Mariner 9's imaging of Mars truly began. The probe went on to reveal that while Mars was dead now, it had once been a living world, billions of years ago. It found the dried up remains of a great water-carved canyon, as long as the continental United States, which was named "Valles Marineris" (Latin for "Mariner Valley"):

And the largest volcano in the entire solar system, Olympus Mons:

To give you an idea as to just how massive Olympus Mons IS.... it stands 24 miles high, and covers an area roughly equal to that of France.

Mariner 9 sent back over seven thousand images of Mars, before it ran out of propellant in October of 1972. It was then deactivated on October 27, and it remains in orbit of Mars to this day, a derelict probe, just like the rest of its kin.

Next up - Mariner 10 - The Final Mariner.

 

[Charlemagne]

MARINER 10

1973. A year has passed since Mariner 9 mapped most of Mars. Pioneer 10 has cleared the asteroid belt, entering the Outer Solar System, and will, in just a few months, become the first probe to reach Jupiter. Pioneer 11 is hot on its trails, and will not only explore Jupiter in 1974, but will also become the first probe to reach Saturn in 1979. And the Soviet Venera missions to Venus are in full-swing. But what about the innermost planet, Mercury? Well, NASA has decided to finally send a mission to that sun-baked little world - Mariner 10.

Launched on November 3, 1973 from, like all its siblings, Cape Canaveral, Mariner 10 would go on to become the first probe to pass by not one, but two planets - it would fly by Venus to both test its instruments and to get a gravity assist to help catapult it to Mercury. And what a journey it would be. Unlike most of the previous Mariner probes, Mariner 10 had a very problematic flight. Every time one technical error was fixed, it would only be a matter of time before another one popped up. In one especially embarrassing incident, it mistook a fleck of its own reflective paint for the star Canopus (it was using said star to help navigate).

Finally, on February 25, 1974, Mariner 10 flew by Venus, taking photos of the planet in both visible light:

And ultraviolet light:

As well as taking readings of Venus' atmosphere, which ultimately ended up revealing the existence of numerous cloud layers on the planet.

After Venus, Mariner 10 continued its sunward trajectory, heading towards Mercury. Rather than just flying by Mercury once, like most probes did with their target planets, Mariner 10 would conduct three flybys.

On March 29, 1974, Mariner 10 would conduct its first flyby of Mercury. The second would occur on September 21, and the third and final flyby on March 16, 1975. Mariner 10 would reveal Mercury to be a rocky, heavily cratered, little world, much like our moon. There were some key differences, though. For one thing, Mercury had a surprisingly strong magnetic field, indicating a large, massive iron core. The second, was the even wilder temperature variations. In the day time, Mercury reaches temperatures of around 700 degrees Fahrenheit (370 degrees Celsius). At night, the temperature drops down to -300 degrees Fahrenheit (-184 degrees Celsius).

Mariner 10 would also discover that Mercury WASN'T tidally locked as previously believed. Rather, it rotated once every 59 days.

In any case, Mariner 10 exhausted its fuel supply on March 24, 1975. Once this happened, it was given the radio signal to shut down. And thus, the Mariner missions came to an end.

Well.... sorta. Ya see, Mariners 11 & 12 WERE built.... but for various reasons, had their names changed shortly before launch. Their new names were.... Voyagers 1 & 2, respectively.

 

[blackfoot NAP]

This is Mariner 10. It was the first probe to explore the planet Mercury - which it did WAY back in 1974.

Now you may ask, "Now Charlemagne, what in God's name does THIS have to do with sports?" The answer? Not a Goddamn thing. It's just that this little tidbit of information is still infinitely more useful and worth sharing than whatever the fuck Blackfoot tries doing in this forum.

 

[blackfoot NAP]

This is Mariner 10. It was the first probe to explore the planet Mercury - which it did WAY back in 1974.

Now you may ask, "Now Charlemagne, what in God's name does THIS have to do with sports?" The answer? Not a Goddamn thing. It's just that this little tidbit of information is still infinitely more useful and worth sharing than whatever the fuck Blackfoot tries doing in this forum.

.

 

[blackfoot NAP]

magne, wat in God's name does THIS have to do with sports?" The answer? Not a Goddamn thing. It's just that this little tidbit of information is still infinitely more useful and worth sharing than whatever the fuck Blackfoot tries doing in this forum.






































magne, what in God's namedo with sports?" The answer? Not a Goddamn thing. It's just that this little tidbit of information is still infinitely more useful and worth sharing than whatever the fuck Blackfoot tries doing in this forum.



















magne, what in God'

 

[blackfoot NAP]

MMMMMMMMMMMMM

 

[blackfoot NAP]

LOL Wait til tonight. Looks like Charlemagne is owning you in this fake spam thread.

YOURE WELCOME

LOL Wait til tonight. Looks like Charlemagne is owning you in this fake spam thread.

YOURE WELCOME

LOL Wait til tonight. Looks like Charlemagne is owning you in this fake spam thread.

YOURE WELCOME

BISH! Keep yo mess in yo mess! Dumb muh FUCKA! Up in here tryna make life HARD fo a cupcakea witcho tomfoolery!

.

 

[blackfoot NAP]

jack said:

LOL Wait til tonight. Looks like Charlemagne is owning you in this fake spam thread.

YOURE WELCOME

.

 

[Charlemagne]

And once again, Blackfoot proves that he's a semi-illiterate 'tard. This time, by spamming a thread in a sub-forum that's EXPLICITLY a spam-free zone. This is just like when he tried advertising his own sub-forum in The Godforsaken Hell Holes - a sub-forum meant for bitching about non-TK boards.

 

[blackfoot NAP]

*laughing*



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,

 

[blackfoot NAP]

"mange"!.... "vappooper" liked you in all those messages. 18 overall.... sock-puppppppet

*tee-hee*


*laughing*

jack said:

LOL Wait til tonight. Looks like Charlemagne is owning you in this fake spam thread.

YOURE WELCOME

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[jack]

Poor Chuckie. Owned by rep and post count. Must be tough

You're welcome !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1