information about our planet and the human race with them. Probes Pioneer 10 and 11 carry engraved plaques with the image of a man and a woman on them and also a map, showing where the probe came from. As the Pioneer s journey onward into deep space, they may one day encounter an alien civilization!
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The Voyager probes took photographs of cities, landscapes, and people on Earth with them, as well as a recorded greeting in many different Earth languages. In the incredibly unlikely event of these probes being picked up by another civilization, these greetings assure any aliens who manage to decode them that we are a peaceful planet and we wish any other beings in our Universe well.
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There are different types of space probes, and the type used for a particular mission will depend on the question that the probe is attempting to answer. Some probes fly by planets and take pictures for us, passing by several planets on their long journeys. Others orbit a specific planet to gain more information about it and its moons. Another type of probe is designed to land and send back data from the surface of another world. Some of these are rovers, others remain fixed wherever they land.
The first rover, Lunokhod 1 , was part of a Russian probe, Luna 17, which landed on the Moon in 1970. Lunokhod 1 was a robotic vehicle that could be steered from Earth, in much the same way as a remote control car.
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NASAâs Mars landers, Viking 1 and Viking 2 , which touched down on the red planet in 1976, gave us our first pictures from the surface of the planet, which had intrigued people on Earth for millennia. The Viking landers showed the reddish-brown plains scattered with rocks, the pink sky of Mars, and even frost on the ground in winter. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to land on Mars, and several probes sent to the red planet have crashed onto the surface.
Later missions to Mars sent the two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity . Designed to drive around for at least three months, they lasted for far longer and also, like other spacecraft sent to Mars, found evidence that Mars had been shaped by the presence of water. In 2007, NASA sent the Phoenix Mars Mission. Phoenix could not drive around Mars, but it had a robotic arm to dig into the soil and collect samples. It had an onboard laboratory to examine the soil and work out what it contains. Mars also has three operational orbiters around itâthe Mars Odyssey, Mars Express, and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter , showing us in detail the surface features.
Robotic space probes have also shown us the hellish world that lies beneath the thick atmosphere of Venus. It was once thought that dense tropical forests might lie under the Venusian clouds, but space probes have revealed the high temperatures, heavy carbon dioxide atmosphere, and dark brown clouds of sulfuric acid. In 1990 NASAâs Magellan entered orbit around Venus. Using radar to penetrate the atmosphere, Magellan mapped the surface of Venus and found 167 volcanoes more than seventy miles wide! ESAâs Venus Express has been in orbit around Venus since 2006. This mission is studying the atmosphere of Venus and trying to find out how Earth and Venus developed in such different ways. Several landers have returned information from the surface of Venus, a tremendous achievement given the challenges of landing on this most hostile of planets.
Robotic space probes have braved the scorched world of Mercury, a planet even closer to the Sun than Venus. Mariner 10 , which flew by Mercury in 1974 and again in 1975, showed us that this bare little planet looks very similar to our Moon. It is a gray, dead planet with very little atmosphere. In 2008 the MESSENGER mission returned a space probe to Mercury and sent back the first new pictures of the Sunâs nearest planet in thirty years.
Flying close to the Sun presents huge challenges for a robotic spacecraft, but probes sent to the Sunâ Helios 1, Helios 2, SOHO,
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The Voyager probes took photographs of cities, landscapes, and people on Earth with them, as well as a recorded greeting in many different Earth languages. In the incredibly unlikely event of these probes being picked up by another civilization, these greetings assure any aliens who manage to decode them that we are a peaceful planet and we wish any other beings in our Universe well.
Â
There are different types of space probes, and the type used for a particular mission will depend on the question that the probe is attempting to answer. Some probes fly by planets and take pictures for us, passing by several planets on their long journeys. Others orbit a specific planet to gain more information about it and its moons. Another type of probe is designed to land and send back data from the surface of another world. Some of these are rovers, others remain fixed wherever they land.
The first rover, Lunokhod 1 , was part of a Russian probe, Luna 17, which landed on the Moon in 1970. Lunokhod 1 was a robotic vehicle that could be steered from Earth, in much the same way as a remote control car.
Â
NASAâs Mars landers, Viking 1 and Viking 2 , which touched down on the red planet in 1976, gave us our first pictures from the surface of the planet, which had intrigued people on Earth for millennia. The Viking landers showed the reddish-brown plains scattered with rocks, the pink sky of Mars, and even frost on the ground in winter. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to land on Mars, and several probes sent to the red planet have crashed onto the surface.
Later missions to Mars sent the two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity . Designed to drive around for at least three months, they lasted for far longer and also, like other spacecraft sent to Mars, found evidence that Mars had been shaped by the presence of water. In 2007, NASA sent the Phoenix Mars Mission. Phoenix could not drive around Mars, but it had a robotic arm to dig into the soil and collect samples. It had an onboard laboratory to examine the soil and work out what it contains. Mars also has three operational orbiters around itâthe Mars Odyssey, Mars Express, and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter , showing us in detail the surface features.
Robotic space probes have also shown us the hellish world that lies beneath the thick atmosphere of Venus. It was once thought that dense tropical forests might lie under the Venusian clouds, but space probes have revealed the high temperatures, heavy carbon dioxide atmosphere, and dark brown clouds of sulfuric acid. In 1990 NASAâs Magellan entered orbit around Venus. Using radar to penetrate the atmosphere, Magellan mapped the surface of Venus and found 167 volcanoes more than seventy miles wide! ESAâs Venus Express has been in orbit around Venus since 2006. This mission is studying the atmosphere of Venus and trying to find out how Earth and Venus developed in such different ways. Several landers have returned information from the surface of Venus, a tremendous achievement given the challenges of landing on this most hostile of planets.
Robotic space probes have braved the scorched world of Mercury, a planet even closer to the Sun than Venus. Mariner 10 , which flew by Mercury in 1974 and again in 1975, showed us that this bare little planet looks very similar to our Moon. It is a gray, dead planet with very little atmosphere. In 2008 the MESSENGER mission returned a space probe to Mercury and sent back the first new pictures of the Sunâs nearest planet in thirty years.
Flying close to the Sun presents huge challenges for a robotic spacecraft, but probes sent to the Sunâ Helios 1, Helios 2, SOHO,
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