Mariner 9: first spacecraft in orbit around another planet
Mariner 9: primera nave en órbita de otro planeta
- Date
- 14 de noviembre de 1971 · confidence high
- Place
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, United States
- Credited to
- JPL / NASA
- Field
- Movement
What was discovered
After waiting for a global dust storm to end, Mariner 9 mapped nearly the whole surface of Mars with about 7,000 images. It revealed giant volcanoes such as Olympus Mons, the Valles Marineris canyon and dry river channels.
The Soviet probes Mars 2 and 3 arrived weeks later and, because of the dust storm, offered no comparable data. Mariner 9 was the first to orbit another planet; Mars 2 and 3 entered orbit a few days later.
What it led to
- selection of the Viking landing sites
- the idea of a Martian past with liquid water
- the first close study of the moons Phobos and Deimos