Atlas-Agena

Launch of Mariner 4 probe by an Atlas-Agena rocket on 11/28/1964. This probe sent back the first close-up views of Mars.

When people saw this cratered picture of Mars, they immediately remembered the cratered pictures of the Moon. Away went the agricultural canals of Percival Lowell and the epic battles of Edgar Rice Burroughs leaving a dead world like our Moon.

BUT - LOOK - There's more! This image shows a linear feature and later pictures would show ice caps and volcanoes and landslides and eroded canyons and bizare pyramids and what looks like a face - gasp - I have to catch my breath. Umm, people, we have to go to Mars and find out what is going on.

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