The unearthly collection: the surface of Mars in images of different years

Since the 1960s, launches of automatic interplanetary stations began to study Mars, first from the flight path, and then from the orbit of an artificial satellite and directly to the surface.

The most famous of them: Vikings, Mariners, Mars (a series of Soviet spacecraft), Mars Global Surveyor, Mars rovers Sojoner (1997), Spirit (from January 4, 2004 to March 22, 2010), Opportunity (from January 25, 2004 to February 15, 2019), Curiosity (from August 6, 2012 to the present), etc.

The Viking-1 orbital station is the first spacecraft to successfully land on the surface of Mars. It was launched in August 1975, and landing on Mars took place in July 1976.

In subsequent years, landing on Mars made a lot of vehicles. This allowed not only photographing the surface of the planet, but also to study it in detail. Largely due to this, Mars became the most studied planet in the solar system after the Earth.

It all started with the first image of the surface of Mars, transmitted by the Viking-1 station in 1976. This was followed by panoramic and composite shots. The craters of Gale, Gusev, the Djoko Depression and the Vdovyak Range were also captured.

Among other things, there is even a microscopic picture taken by the Opportunity rover. Pictures of volcanic rocks, Bagnold dunes near Mount Sharp, Yellowknife Bay, as well as the first color image of Mars made by the panoramic camera of the Spirit rover.