The One
28th November 2011, 09:59
http://www.cosmonline.co.uk/sites/default/files/pictures/Curse-of-Mars.gif
Mars has long occupied a special place in humanity’s consciousness and imagination. For millennia, it has been associated with malevolence, pestilence and disaster. Ancient cultures saw the Red Planet as the physical incarnation of various capricious and violent gods – an incarnation that demanded worship and sacrifice. For the Egyptians, it was ominously known as The Red One, for the Babylonians, it was The Star of Death and for Romans it was The God of War (Mars).
Even into the 20th century, Mars was a planet that loomed large as an object of fear. We imagined a world inhabited by a violent alien culture – little green men hell-bent on destroying humanity and claiming Earth for their own.
Then came the space age and the opportunity to visit Mars in the flesh. But, even as grainy images of a lifeless and benign world finally quenched the flames of age-old fears, a new myth, no less malevolent, was rising phoenix-like from the ashes of the old. Mars was to gain a new reputation as a technology devouring terror – a ‘Great Galactic Ghoul’ every bit as capricious as its ancient mythological forebears. In the history of Mars exploration, 37 missions have attempted to reach the Red Planet and, for one reason or another, about two-thirds of those missions ended in failure.
http://www.cosmonline.co.uk/sites/default/files/pictures/phobos-grunt.jpg
In 1961 and 1962, five missions tried and failed to reach Mars – four didn’t even manage to escape Earth’s gravity. In 1964, Nasa’s Mariner 3 failed to deploy its solar panels and its batteries went flat. The following year, Russia lost contact with its Zond 2 probe and it floated lifelessly past its objective and, in 1971, another Russian mission (this time a lander) made history for making Mars’ first man-made crater.
More recently, in 1993, Nasa’s Mars Observer went Awol after a leaking fuel tank caused the craft to spin out of control. In 1999, Nasa’s Mars Climate Orbiter burned up in the Martian atmosphere because one of the project’s contractors, Lockheed Martin, had used imperial instead of metric units to program the craft’s approach
http://www.cosmonline.co.uk/sites/default/files/pictures/Mars-science-lab.gif
In recent weeks, the Galactic Ghoul has been tempted by some tasty new treats. On November 9, Russia launched Phobos Grunt (meaning Phobos Soil) – an ambitious mission to take samples from the Martian moon, Phobos, and return them to Earth. But within hours of its launch it fell into the grip of the Ghoul and stopped communicating with its mission controllers. Despite some recent success by the European Space Agency in reopening communications with the craft, it seems that Russia’s latest attempt to break the ‘curse of Mars’ will end like so many others before it – in Earth’s atmosphere as a ball of fire.
Nasa was up next and, on Saturday, its latest Mars rover was lofted safely into space. The Mars Science Laboratory, or Curiosity as it is known, one of the largest and is certainly the most ambitious craft ever to attempt to land on an alien world. Perhaps the Ghoul’s appetite has been satiated for now but it’s a long seven-month journey to the Red Planet and, even if it makes it to the beast’s doorstep, the machine will still have to contend with the so-called ‘six-minutes of terror’ as it attempts to land its car-sized bulk safely on a planet that has a poor record for welcoming visitors
http://www.cosmonline.co.uk/sites/default/files/pictures/Curse-of-Mars-missions.gif
http://www.cosmonline.co.uk/blog/2011/11/28/long-history-failed-mars-missions
Mars has long occupied a special place in humanity’s consciousness and imagination. For millennia, it has been associated with malevolence, pestilence and disaster. Ancient cultures saw the Red Planet as the physical incarnation of various capricious and violent gods – an incarnation that demanded worship and sacrifice. For the Egyptians, it was ominously known as The Red One, for the Babylonians, it was The Star of Death and for Romans it was The God of War (Mars).
Even into the 20th century, Mars was a planet that loomed large as an object of fear. We imagined a world inhabited by a violent alien culture – little green men hell-bent on destroying humanity and claiming Earth for their own.
Then came the space age and the opportunity to visit Mars in the flesh. But, even as grainy images of a lifeless and benign world finally quenched the flames of age-old fears, a new myth, no less malevolent, was rising phoenix-like from the ashes of the old. Mars was to gain a new reputation as a technology devouring terror – a ‘Great Galactic Ghoul’ every bit as capricious as its ancient mythological forebears. In the history of Mars exploration, 37 missions have attempted to reach the Red Planet and, for one reason or another, about two-thirds of those missions ended in failure.
http://www.cosmonline.co.uk/sites/default/files/pictures/phobos-grunt.jpg
In 1961 and 1962, five missions tried and failed to reach Mars – four didn’t even manage to escape Earth’s gravity. In 1964, Nasa’s Mariner 3 failed to deploy its solar panels and its batteries went flat. The following year, Russia lost contact with its Zond 2 probe and it floated lifelessly past its objective and, in 1971, another Russian mission (this time a lander) made history for making Mars’ first man-made crater.
More recently, in 1993, Nasa’s Mars Observer went Awol after a leaking fuel tank caused the craft to spin out of control. In 1999, Nasa’s Mars Climate Orbiter burned up in the Martian atmosphere because one of the project’s contractors, Lockheed Martin, had used imperial instead of metric units to program the craft’s approach
http://www.cosmonline.co.uk/sites/default/files/pictures/Mars-science-lab.gif
In recent weeks, the Galactic Ghoul has been tempted by some tasty new treats. On November 9, Russia launched Phobos Grunt (meaning Phobos Soil) – an ambitious mission to take samples from the Martian moon, Phobos, and return them to Earth. But within hours of its launch it fell into the grip of the Ghoul and stopped communicating with its mission controllers. Despite some recent success by the European Space Agency in reopening communications with the craft, it seems that Russia’s latest attempt to break the ‘curse of Mars’ will end like so many others before it – in Earth’s atmosphere as a ball of fire.
Nasa was up next and, on Saturday, its latest Mars rover was lofted safely into space. The Mars Science Laboratory, or Curiosity as it is known, one of the largest and is certainly the most ambitious craft ever to attempt to land on an alien world. Perhaps the Ghoul’s appetite has been satiated for now but it’s a long seven-month journey to the Red Planet and, even if it makes it to the beast’s doorstep, the machine will still have to contend with the so-called ‘six-minutes of terror’ as it attempts to land its car-sized bulk safely on a planet that has a poor record for welcoming visitors
http://www.cosmonline.co.uk/sites/default/files/pictures/Curse-of-Mars-missions.gif
http://www.cosmonline.co.uk/blog/2011/11/28/long-history-failed-mars-missions