Mariner Mars 1964, Mariners 3 and 4 to Mars: imaging plans? Options

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

There was certainly little mention of this at the time.

[Bob Shaw]

Note that despite the overwhelming impression of historical press coverage and post 1970 "historical" space reporting, Mariner 6 and 7 did see some of the "best" pieces..

Yes, certainly chaotic terrain was a discovery, and the polar cap images were good too - but it remains the case that the show-stoppers were all missed. What's really frustrating is the way that so many features were almost visible during the far encounter - and then Mars turned it's face away. Olympus Mons, Valles Marineris and the rest are all just visible, but were not understood. Phil Stooke and I have both got old globes of Mars which were based on Mariner 6 & 7 data (and earlier) and on these Olympus Mons is depicted as a giant double crater (the outer aureole was interpreted as a crater wall). Mariner 6 & 7 certainly saw many interesting features, but it was Mariner 9 which breached the floodgates.

Bob Shaw

[tedstryk]

I think a lot of the reason was that the Tharsis area had long been thought of as the "boring" area - not many pronounced features visiblie in a telescope. The southern hemisphere had much more intricate features.

[ljk4-1]

The famous August, 1970 issue of National Geographic Magazine discusses
Mars pre-Mariner 9. They make it very clear that - at least for the scientists
they interviewed - Mars was a dull place, mainly craters and some rough
terrain at best.

Amazingly different talk from just a few years earlier, when most of them
assumed Mars was enough like Earth to at least have simple life forms
(lichen and such). Even the infamous canals were thought to at least be
natural water channels.

http://www.aliensonearth.com/catalog/detai...4219.html#image

Here is an image of an old Mars globe with Mariner 6 and 7 photos pasted
across it:

http://beacon.jpl.nasa.gov/Histphotos/hpom/241-267.html

[Phil Stooke]

Bruce said "There was certainly little mention of this at the time", but actually it was reported as early as the Mariner 6/7 Mission Report MR-6, dated 10/29/69, and in Science, vol. 166, 3 Oct. 1969, p. 62... chaotic terrain was well seen and described. The real problem was the high sun angle which made it harder to interpret. With hindsight small channels can be seen too (frame 6N16). But hindsight is the big help here. If you expect another moon that's what you see.

Phil

[peter59]

Little bit of history.
Mariner IV - voyage through Earth's magnetosphere.

For the first 16 2/3 hours of flight, the Mariner IV spacecraft was programmed to roll at a rate of about 1 revolution every 30 min. Since the magnetic field of the Earth was known, it was possible to correct the magnetometer data for any bias caused by the small remnant field of the spacecraft itself. The roll calibration insured that later data taken from the instrument in the very small field of interplanetary space could be assigned absolute values.

Source : Mariner 4 Master Data Records
Tape : K-0141
5400 frames extracted
Transmision rate - 33 1/3 bps
Time period: 28 november 15:20 - 29 november 10:10, year 1964
Averaging - 12,6 sec per pixel (4 measurements from 1 frame)
Z - axis top
X - axis middle
Y - axis bottom

[peter59]

Little bit of history.
Mariner IV - significant proton event February 5, 1965

The class 2 solar flare of February 5 started at 17:50 U.T., reached a maximum near 18:10 U.T., and ended near 20:00 U.T. An X-ray burst was detected at 18:09 U.T. Type IV radiation was observed at meter wavelengths at Ford Davies, Texas, from 18:00 U.T. to 19:40 U.T. and at decameter wavelengths at Boulder from 18:10 U.T. to 19:05 U.T. Solar protons and possibly electrons started arriving at Mariner IV at 18:40 U.T. which, at the time , was 3500 Earth radii downstream from Earth. The optical flare consisted of double filaments which slowly drifted apart, first at 6 km/sec and later at 2 km/sec. The flare associated with this event was responsible for the largest proton event of 1964 and 1965.

Proton event detected by Mariner 4's Ion Chamber

Diagram description:
Tape : K-0126
2400 frames extracted
Transmision rate - 8 1/3 bps
Time period: 05 feb 10:00 - 06 feb 19:00, year 1965
Ion Chamber experiment - 2400 measurements extracted
Averaging - three frames per pixel (151,2 sec per pixel)


Diagram description:
Tape : K-0126
8000 frames extracted
Transmision rate - 8 1/3 bps
Time period: 05 feb - 09 feb, year 1965
Ion Chamber experiment - 8000 measurements extracted
Averaging - ten frames per pixel (504 sec per pixel)


Proton event detected by Mariner 4's Geiger-Muller B tube

Tapes : K-0125,K-0126
9600 frames extracted
Transmision rate - 8 1/3 bps
Time period: 05 feb - 10 feb, year 1965
Geiger-Muller B tube - 2400 measurements extracted
Averaging - three measurements from 12 frames per pixel (604,8 sec per pixel)


Proton event detected by Mariner 4's Geiger-Muller/Ion Chamber tube
Tapes : K-0125,K-0126
9600 frames extracted
Transmision rate - 8 1/3 bps
Time period: 05 feb - 10 feb, year 1965
Geiger-Muller/Ion Chamber tube - 2400 measurements extracted
Averaging - three measurements from 12 frames per pixel (604,8 sec per pixel)


Proton event detected by Mariner 4's solid-state detectors


Tapes : K-0125,K-0126
19200 frames extracted
Transmision rate - 8 1/3 bps
Time period: 02 feb - 14 feb, year 1965
Solid-state detectors - 2400 measurements extracted
Averaging - three measurements from 24 frames per pixel (1209,6 sec per pixel)


Proton event detected by Mariner 4's Geiger-Muller A and C tube

Tapes : K-0125,K-0126
19200 frames extracted
Transmision rate - 8 1/3 bps
Time period: 02 feb - 14 feb, year 1965
Geiger-Muller A tube - 2400 measurements extracted
Geiger-Muller C tube - 2400 measurements extracted
Averaging - three measurements from 24 frames per pixel (1209,6 sec per pixel)

[peter59]

Mariner 4's picture #1 is about 350 km parallel to the limb; from the limb to the lower edge of photograph is about 1290 km.
Image source: NSSDC - 35 mm microfilm
Used scanner: Drum scanner - CROSFIELD CELSIS 6250 CASC



Source: NSSDC - 35 mm microfilm
Used scanner: Drum scanner - CROSFIELD CELSIS 6250 CASC
Processing:
Image - scanned, contrasted and blurred
Inset - original digital data with contrast enhancement factor four.

[peter59]

Van Allen belts detected by Mariner 4's Ion Chamber.

The ionization chamber instrument performed nominally through the first 70 days of the mission (through February 5). A profile of radiation intensity was faithfully recorded by the instrument as the spacecraft passed through each of the Van Allen radiation belts on November 28, 1964

Source: Mariner 4 Master Data Records (Tape K-0141)
900 frames extracted
Transmision rate - 33 1/3 bps
Time period: 28 nov. 15:20 - 28 nov 18:00, year 1964
Ion Chamber experiment - 900 measurements extracted
No Averaging - 12,6 sec per pixel



Van Allen belts detected by Mariner 4's Geiger-Muller/Ion Chamber tube

The Geiger-Muller tube counts individual particles, the Ion Chamber yield a measurement related to the average energy and amount of radiation. Results from the two intruments can be correlated to yield data on the density of cosmic rays and their energy levels.

Source: Mariner 4 Master Data Records (Tape K-0141)
3200 frames extracted
Transmision rate - 33 1/3 bps
Time period: 28 nov. 15:20 - 29 nov 02:30, year 1964
Geiger-Muller/Ion Chamber tube - 800 measurements extracted
No Averaging - 50,4 sec per pixel (2 measurements from 8 frames)

[robspace54]

For those who were born after 1970, you have to realize what an incredible undertaking that Mariner IV was. I remember very vidily the grainy pictures appearing in the local paper, and it was just WOW! Craters on another world, that didn't look that different, perhaps, than the Moon.

In the middle 1960s CBS had a program named "Spectrum" every Sunday night (I think at 7 PM) hosted by Walter Cronkite. The program on Mariner IV was incredible (and we watched it on our black and white RCA TV). The program (was it 30 minutes long?) covered the mission, spacecraft and the findings.

The info about the transmission power from Mars to Earth was 8 1/3 watts just blew my mind away. The Mariner IV mission had a huge influence on me, and the whole Space Race led to me becoming an engineer. Those 22 grainy smeary pictures changed more lives than my own...

Rob

[peter59]

Those 22 grainy smeary pictures changed more lives than my own...

Rob

Of course you are right.

Picture #3


Picture #5


Picture #7


Picture #8


Picture #9



Picture #10


Picture #11


Picture #12


Picture #13



Picture #14


Picture #15

[Paolo]

wow! I really like those context images!

[dvandorn]

Yes -- I never realized before that one of the Mariner IV images included one of the major outflow channels, but at such a resolution and sun angle as to be unrecognizable for what it was.

-the other Doug

[JRehling]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Gl_iRDdIUc

Part one of a short film on Mariner 4. Link to part two should appear somewhere on the page.

[peter59]

Today is the 43 anniversary of the first Mars flyby.

I would like propose you a very interesting article written by Doug Rickard.
Memoirs of a space engineer.

Doug Rickard was a very unusual man, with very unusual biography. Doug worked on the British Atomic Weapons Tests at Maralinga in South Australia in the late 1950s, and was victim of incident known as "Maralinga Cobalt 60 incident". I emailed with him a few times maybe eight years ago.