The Viking lander, launched on 20 August 1975 and arrived at Mars on 19 June 1976

Image: AP Photo

THE FIRST DETAILED images of the surface of Mars were captured by the Mariner 4 in 1965.

NASA’s Mariner 4 was the first man-made object to successfully travel past the planet. The grainy black and white images transmitted back to Earth show heavily cratered areas on the planet.

Exploring the Red Planet has met numerous technical difficulties and setbacks over the years. Aside from a number of Mars mission launch failures, spacecraft have also lost contact with Earth before the expected expiration of their mission, such as NASA’s Mars Observer. Communication with its controllers ended abruptly shortly before it was scheduled to enter Martian orbit in August 1993.

The first man-made objects to successfully land on Mars were the Soviet Mars 2 and 3 unmanned probes launched in 1971.

Later successful landings on the Martian surface saw soil samples taken for analysis and the discovery of ice water under the surface, as well as the transmission of much more detailed and dramatic images of the planet. Studies of soil samples taken by the Opportunity rover, which landed on Mars in 2004, suggested that the planet could have had an environment hospitable to life in the past.