Right now, rovers are rolling on the Red Planet. Spacecraft are flying around Mars as well. A helicopter just flew in the Martian air. But 50 years ago, none of those objects were there. Our exploration of Mars changed on May 30, 1971. On that day, a rocket took off from Florida carrying Mariner 9. That was the first spacecraft to another planet!
A few craft had flown past Mars in the 1960s. But they just zipped by. Mariner 9 was different. After flying through space for months, it had to begin circling the planet. How do we get a spacecraft to do that? “It has to slow down,” said Joe Nieberding. He was one of the mission leaders for Mariner 9 when it launched 50 years ago.
Nieberding told News-O-Matic about the challenges with this mission. “An orbiter has to carry a lot more ,” he explained. It was his job to “make sure we did not run out of fuel.” Nieberding joked: “That’s always bad when you run out of fuel halfway there!” Then he had to figure out the right speed for Mariner 9. “If you slow down too much, you fall into the planet,” he explained.
“It had never been accomplished before,” said Nieberding. “But we figured we could calculate it — and we did.” He added with a laugh: “It worked!” Indeed, Mariner 9 made history when it began circling Mars on November 14, 1971.
NASA won the race to orbit another planet. But it was close! A spacecraft from the Soviet Union began orbiting Mars just 13 days later. That craft was Mars 3. Nieberding said he “didn’t feel the pressure” to beat the Soviets. “We just tried to do the best we could for the United States.”
Indeed, Nieberding and his team did very well. Mariner 9 worked for nearly a year, flying around the Red Planet. It mapped most of the surface of Mars. It took 7,329 pictures — including many of Mars’ moons, Phobos and Deimos. The craft also changed what we knew about Mars.
Mariner 9 showed that Mars was once an active place. Its detailed photos showed huge canyons, riverbeds, and about 20 volcanoes. Those include Olympus Mons, the largest mountain in the solar system. Mariner 9 also helped prove that water once flowed on Mars.
Mariner 9 stopped sending signals on October 27, 1972. Its fuel ran out, but the craft keeps zipping around Mars. It will likely crash soon. Still, Mariner 9 led the way for many more spacecraft to Mars — including 18 orbiters, six rovers, and a helicopter.
“We’ve accomplished some remarkable things with robotics missions,” said Nieberding. “But we have barely scratched the surface of what’s out there and what there is to learn.” Nieberding said “today’s students” will explore it further. Maybe one will be the first person to go to Mars.
He added: “The opportunities are endless.”
Updated May 27, 2021, 5:02 P.M. (ET)
By Russell Kahn (Russ)
