Mars: History of ExplorationMars: History of Mars ExplorationSlide 3Slide 4Slide 5Slide 6Slide 7Slide 8Slide 9Slide 10Slide 11Slide 12Slide 13Slide 14Slide 15Slide 16Slide 17Slide 18Slide 19Slide 20Slide 21Slide 22Slide 23Slide 24Slide 25Slide 26Slide 27Slide 28Slide 29Slide 30Slide 31Slide 32Slide 33Slide 34Mars: History of Mars ExplorationSlide 36Slide 37Slide 38Slide 39Slide 40Slide 41Slide 42C.M. Rodrigue, 2007Geography, CSULBMars: History of ExplorationGeography 494-01S/07Dr. Christine M. RodrigueC.M. Rodrigue, 2007Geography, CSULBMars: History of Mars ExplorationHistory of Earth-based Mars explorationThe eyeball eraAncient astronomer/astrologers noticed that five stars wandered: astra planetaMercuryVenusMarsJupiterSaturnC.M. Rodrigue, 2007Geography, CSULBMars: History of Mars ExplorationHistory of Earth-based Mars explorationThe eyeball eraIndians described a Mars retrogation in 3,010 BCEC.M. Rodrigue, 2007Geography, CSULBMars: History of Mars ExplorationHistory of Earth-based Mars explorationThe eyeball eraChaldean database: Enuma Anu Enlil, which date back to 652 BCE and continued until 60 BCE. Sample entry: "That month, the equivalent for 1 shekel of silver was: barley [something missing] kur; mustard, 3 kur ... At that time, Jupiter was in Scorpio; Venus was in Leo, at the end of the month in Virgo; Saturn was in Pisces; Mercury and Mars, which had set, were not visible."C.M. Rodrigue, 2007Geography, CSULBMars: History of Mars ExplorationHistory of Earth-based Mars explorationThe eyeball eraChinese dynastic historians Interested in planetary conjunctions, including those involving MarsTrying to correlate with events on EarthThese records go back to the fourth century BCEC.M. Rodrigue, 2007Geography, CSULBMars: History of Mars ExplorationHistory of Earth-based Mars explorationThe eyeball eraMayans developed elaborate calendarsDate back from 1800 BCE to the time of ColumbusHeyday was from 250 to 900 CESpanish destroyed most of their written records but a few of the priestly codices or handbooks surviveThe Dresden Codex includes a "Mars Beast Table" that predicts Mars' motions and retrogationsC.M. Rodrigue, 2007Geography, CSULBMars: History of Mars ExplorationHistory of Earth-based Mars explorationThe eyeball eraAncient Greeks really bugged by retrogationsHere’s one for Mars for June through November 2003C.M. Rodrigue, 2007Geography, CSULBMars: History of Mars ExplorationHistory of Earth-based Mars explorationThe eyeball eraAncient Greeks try to process the behavior of the planets:Aristotle (~384-322 BCE) saw an occultation of Mars by the Moon and figured out Mars had to be farther from Earth than the MoonAristarchus (~310-230 BCE) developed heliocentric theory of the solar system and that the fixed stars had to be really, really far awayHipparchus (~190-120 BCE) described the five planets' orbits as "deferents" around the earth Ptolemy (~90 – 168 CE) added epicycles to handle retrogationsThe collapse of Graeco-Roman civilization in the fifth century CE put an end to work on Mars or any other science for a long time: The Dark AgesC.M. Rodrigue, 2007Geography, CSULBMars: History of Mars ExplorationHistory of Earth-based Mars explorationThe eyeball eraPtolemy’s epicyclesC.M. Rodrigue, 2007Geography, CSULBMars: History of Mars ExplorationHistory of Earth-based Mars explorationThe eyeball eraRise of Islam in the 7th century CE rejuvenated Arab culture and work on math and scienceGreek and Roman classics were revived and extendedAlgebra and the Arabic numerals were developedIbn al-Haytham around the 10th century and Nasir ad-Din at-Tusi in the late 13th century revised Ptolemy’s epicycle system to make it better able to handle Mars’ and other planets’ retrogationsThese developments brought to Europe, partly due to the CrusadesC.M. Rodrigue, 2007Geography, CSULBMars: History of Mars ExplorationHistory of Earth-based Mars explorationThe eyeball eraEuropeans, inspired by rediscovery of the classics and the writings of the Arab scientists got into the swing of empirical science, tooCopernicus in 1543 revives Aristarchus’ heliocentrism: Earth rotates around a N/S axisIt and the OTHER 5 planets revolve around the Sun in perfect circlesHe had to keep Ptolemy’s epicycles to account for retrogationsTycho Brahe (1546 to 1601), instrument engineer and disciplined observer of the night skies, created databases of his team’s observations and focussed a lot on Mars due to its difficult pattern of motionC.M. Rodrigue, 2007Geography, CSULBMars: History of Mars ExplorationHistory of Earth-based Mars explorationThe eyeball eraJohannes KeplerWent to study with Tycho Brahe and they began to fight: Kepler was intrigued by Copernicus’ heliocentric theory and Brahe thought it was nutsBrahe withheld his database from Kepler as a result, only letting him see the Mars data, which he thought was so difficult that it would keep Kepler out of troubleKepler found that the best way to make sense of Mars' orbit was to apply Copernicus' heliocentric theory but relax the assumption about a perfectly circular orbitThere’s speculation that he might actually have offed Brahe in 1601 to get his data! He publishes his three laws of planetary motion in 1609C.M. Rodrigue, 2007Geography, CSULBMars: History of Mars ExplorationHistory of Earth-based Mars explorationThe eyeball eraKepler’s First Law of Planetary Motion: Planetary orbits are ellipses, not circles, with the Sun at one of the two foci of each ellipseC.M. Rodrigue, 2007Geography, CSULBMars: History of Mars ExplorationHistory of Earth-based Mars explorationThe eyeball eraKepler’s Second Law of Planetary Motion: The line connecting the planet to the Sun sweeps out equal areas in equal timesC.M. Rodrigue, 2007Geography, CSULBMars: History of Mars ExplorationHistory of Earth-based Mars explorationThe eyeball eraKepler’s Third Law of Planetary Motion: The ratio of the squares of two planets’ revolutionary periods is the same as the cubes of their semimajor axes. The period a planet requires to go around the Sun increases rapidly with the radius of its orbit.C.M. Rodrigue, 2007Geography, CSULBMars: History of Mars ExplorationHistory of Earth-based Mars explorationThe telescope