Ever Since the space age started back in the 1950s we have been sending probes beyond
Earths atmosphere on a mission to answer some of the solar systems most tantalising questions.
Each planet and moon is remarkable in its own way and over the course of the last 60 years or so,
we have launched numerous space probes designed to explore these neighbouring worlds.
Juno, Galileo, Pioneer 10, the Voyager probes plus many more have travelled through the cold,
dark expanse of space to reach these celestial targets and send back groundbreaking data that
is fundamental in answering questions about the history of our solar system.
But, arguably the most spectacular data, is the visual data, the images that allow us to see
first hand what these mysterious worlds really look like.
Although many of our space probes have intentionally
and unintentionally crash-landed onto numerous worlds over the years, most
of them were unable to capture images directly from the surface, instead, they transmitted a
bird's eye view as the approached the ground. But within the history of space exploration,
many successful intended soft landings have been achieved,
providing us with the ability to look across a specific alien landscape like never before.
Probably the most famous images captured from the surface of another world came from the
Apollo missions when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first walked on the moon back in 1969.
However, these extraordinary black and white pictures were not the first time we had seen the
moons surface up close, because In February 1966 an un-crewed Soviet Union spacecraft called Luna 9
successfully soft-landed on the moon and sent back the first-ever images of its barren landscape.
These almost eerie images were captured after Luna 9 had landed in an area called
the western Oceanus procellarum, which is one of the largest dark lowlands on the moon.
For three days Luna 9 transmitted never seen before images of its surroundings.
Revealing scattered rocks, the rims of dark craters and our desolate moons sharp horizon.
At the time the Soviet authorities did not immediately release the images to the public,
but scientists at the Jodrell Bank observatory in England where secretly monitoring the craft
during its mission, decoding its signals and later publishing the images worldwide, for all to see.
Since March 1966, 18 probes have attempted to plunge through the thick,
hot Venusian atmosphere and land on the shrouded planets mysterious surface.
10 of those probes successfully achieved a soft landing, while transmitting fascinating
data about our neighbouring planets intense, harsh environment. None of the probes, however,
managed to survive for longer than a few hours, before being crushed and melted.
This pixelated, black and white image is the first-ever taken from the surface of Venus
and was captured by the soviet unions Venera 9 probe that successfully transmitted
data for 53 minutes in October 1975. You can see angular and partly weathered rocks
dominating the landscape, many of which are partly buried by
soil and a slight glimpse of the Venusian horizon in the upper left and right corners.
The most impressive images, however, came from the Venera 13 landing probe,
that successfully landed on Venus in March 1982 and lasted for 127 minutes before
going silent. Venera 13 captured this 170-degree panorama of the ground around it,
revealing what appears to be a smooth but broken landscape of rock slabs and dry, black soil.
When it comes to Mars we have been very successful in photographing its surface
ever since NASA's Viking 1 probe soft-landed on the red planet in July 1976.
Viking 1 was able to capture this extremely clear black and white image of the ground around it
just minutes after landing, and then just a day later
transmitted the first-ever colour image of the Martian surface.
The slightly blurred colour enhanced image was taken during the Martian noon
and reveals a vibrant orange landscape that is covered with scattered rocks and sand.
But it wasn't until NASA began to send roving probes that we really got to see Mars in all
its glory, especially when NASA's Curiosity rover arrived there back in August 2012.
Since its arrival, Curiosity has captured over 700 thousands images of the Martian landscape
as it slowly travels across its rocky terrain. This hi resolution panoramic image was taken
over the course of 8 days in late 2019 and contains nearly 650 million pixels.
It showcases an area on Mars called "Glen Torridon" which
is a region on the side of Mount sharp, that is located in a giant ancient impact crater.
But it's not just magnificent landscape shots that Curiosity has transmitted back to Earth during
its time on Mars, because the rolling science laboratory has also captured amazing footage
of dust carrying whirlwinds, called dust devils. This fascinating black and white, hazy time-lapse
sequence reveals a dust devil swirling past small hills over a period of 4 minutes and 15 seconds.
The Curiosity Rover also managed to capture a short time-lapse showcasing a Martian sunset
in April 2015. Only four images make up the sequence but it was the first sunset ever observed
by the Rover in colour and was viewed from within Gale crater the place where Curiosity
is still actively exploring. The last world on our list
to be successfully landed upon was Saturn's large mysterious moon, Titan.
The probe that made the ambitious journey to the moon's surface, was the European space agencies
Huygens probe, which travelled to Saturn aboard the Cassini spacecraft.
The Huygens probe soft-landed on Titan in January 2005 after a two hour and 27-minute descent
and captured this small but impressive view of the moons smog covered surface.
This is the first-ever coloured view of Titan from ground level,
following an enhancing process that provides a better indication
of actual surface colour. We can see what seems to be pebble-sized rocks or ice blocks scattered
across a dry riverbed, however, the liquid that once flowed here was not water but methane.
Space exploration is extremely important, not only does it help to address fundamental questions
about our place in the universe and the history of our solar system, but it also creates new
industries and expands new technologies, while forging peaceful connections between nations.
But with every new image that is transmitted back to Earth by our distant robotic probes,
a possibility is presented, the possibility to connect the entire planet.