Title: The First Image of Mars: A Colorful and Serendipitous Journey
Subtitle: The groundbreaking “color by numbers” image from Mariner 4 inspires wonder and captures the spirit of exploration.
Date: [Current Date]
Pasadena, California CNN — Tucked away in the corner of the second floor of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, a small exhibit holds an extraordinary piece of history — the first image of Mars ever seen on television. This groundbreaking depiction, taken from space by NASA’s Mariner 4 spacecraft in 1965, continues to captivate all who lay eyes on it.
Unlike traditional photographs, this famous image is a “color by numbers” representation of data captured by Mariner 4 during its closest approach to Mars on July 15, 1965. The hand-colored image, which marked the first photo of another planet taken from space, holds a special place at JPL.
“The first time I encountered this was almost right when I started working here at JPL, which was 17 years ago,” said David Delgado, cultural strategist in The Studio at JPL. “It’s just this object of curiosity and wonder. You can’t just walk by it. The story is so powerful.”
Mariner 4’s mission was part of a series of pioneering robotic missions that changed the way we perceive and study our planetary neighbors. Prior to Mariner 4, the best maps and images of Mars were observations made in the late 1800s and mid-1900s using telescopes from Earth, limiting our understanding of the Red Planet’s surface.
The journey of Mariner 4 was not without challenges. Its twin spacecraft, Mariner 3, had failed earlier due to technical difficulties. However, with a redesigned payload shroud, Mariner 4 successfully launched on November 28, 1964, embarking on a 228-day trip to reach Mars.
Equipped with a television camera and six scientific instruments, Mariner 4 flew over 6,000 miles above the Martian surface on the night of July 14, capturing a series of 22 images. The spacecraft employed the first digital imaging system used outside of Earth, transmitting data back to Earth at a rate of 8 1/3 bits per second, making it a slow process that took 10 hours to relay a single image.
As the anxious wait for the first photo continued, the team at JPL devised a unique solution to validate whether the tape recorder, which was not intended for use, was capturing light reflected off the planet. They converted the digital data into ones and zeros on ticker tape and hand-colored the numbers based on the brightness of each pixel using pastels.
The meticulous effort resulted in a fascinating image that accurately depicted the edge of Mars, the void of space, and even clouds in the Martian atmosphere. It was this hand-colored version that journalists glimpsed before the release of the actual photograph, becoming the first shot of Mars from space seen on TV.
Despite capturing only a small portion of the Martian surface, Mariner 4’s images astounded scientists by revealing craters and clouds, reminiscent of the moon’s heavily cratered landscape. Although subsequent missions would later uncover more diverse features on the planet’s surface, Mariner 4’s groundbreaking documentation kick-started our relentless pursuit of understanding Mars.
Today, as rovers like Perseverance and Curiosity, along with the Ingenuity helicopter and a fleet of orbiters, continue their exploration of Mars, the spirit of discovery ignited by Mariner 4 lives on.
“The ability to see something for the first time, it changes the way that I think we feel about ourselves,” Delgado expressed. “The process of being able to reach out is to understand what’s out there, and it also feels like the process of understanding who we are within the context of it all.”
As we continue to unlock the secrets of the Red Planet, the “color by numbers” image from Mariner 4 remains an enduring symbol of human curiosity and the boundless possibilities of scientific exploration.