10 Facts About Mariner program

Mariner program was conducted by the American space agency NASA to explore other planets.

Between 1962 and late 1973, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory designed and built 10 robotic interplanetary probes named Mariner program to explore the inner Solar System - visiting the planets Venus, Mars and Mercury for the first time, and returning to Venus and Mars for additional close observations.

Later Mariner program-based spacecraft include Galileo and Magellan, while the second-generation Mariner program Mark II series evolved into the Cassini–Huygens probe.

Mariner program began in 1960 with a series of JPL mission studies for small-scale, frequent exploration of the nearest planets.

Each of the Mariner program projects was designed to have two spacecraft launched on separate rockets, in case of difficulties with the nearly untried launch vehicles.

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All Mariner program spacecraft were based on a hexagonal or octagonal bus, which housed all of the electronics, and to which all components were attached, such as antennae, cameras, propulsion, and power sources.

All Mariner program-based probes after Mariner program 10 used the Titan IIIE, Titan IV unmanned rockets or the Space Shuttle with a solid-fueled Inertial Upper Stage and multiple planetary flybys.

The mission was a success, and Mariner program 2 became the first spacecraft to have flown by another planet.

Mariner program 9 was launched in May 1971 and became the first artificial satellite of Mars.

The Mariner program's name was changed to Voyager just before launch in 1977, and after Voyager 1 successfully completed its Titan encounter, Voyager 2 went on to visit the two ice giants.