Mariner 7In 1969, Mariner 7 flew past Mars. It had been launched 27 Mar1969, and was now 3430-km above the Martian surface. Its 7.7 square meter area of photocell solar panels provided 800 W of power. The probe took 22 near-encounter images across 20% of the planet's surface. They showed the Martian and Moon surfaces were very different, and also varied from the earlier Mariner 4 images. These added to the far-encounter sequence of 93 images taken since 2 Aug 1969 during the approach. Other instruments took atmospheric measurements, and revealed that the south polar ice cap composition was mostly frozen carbon dioxide. Radio telemetry provided improved estimates of the planet's size, shape and mass.« |
