• Humanity's interest in the heavens has been universal and enduring.

• Humans are driven to explore the unknown, discover new worlds, push the boundaries of our scientific and technical limits, and then push further.

• Protecting and Understanding our World.

• Inspiration and Exploration.

• New Technology.

• Answering Unknown Questions.

• International Collaboration.

• Long-term Survival.

• The first steps of putting a man-made object into space were taken

by German scientists during World War II.

• The first scientific exploration from space was the cosmic

radiation experiment launched by the U.S.

• The first images of Earth taken from space in the year 1946.

• The first successful orbital launch was of

the Soviet unmanned Sputnik 1 mission on 4 October 1957. The

satellite weighed about 83 kg (183 lb), and is believed to have

orbited Earth at a height of about 250 km .

Sputnik-1 Launching sputnik-1

• Laika was a Soviet space dog who became one of the

first animals in space, and the first animal to orbit the Earth.

• Laika, a stray dog from the streets of Moscow, was selected to be

the occupant of the Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 2 that was launched

into outer space on November 3, 1957.

• The first successful human spaceflight was Vostok 1 carrying 27

year old Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on 12 April 1961. The

spacecraft completed one orbit around the globe, lasting about 1

hour and 48 minutes.

Yuri Gagarin Alan Shephard John Glenn

• Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, orbited the

Earth 48 times aboard Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963.

• Apollo 11 was the first spaceflight that landed the first humans

on the other celestial body, Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz

Aldrin, on July 20, 1969.

Neil Armstrong Buzz Aldrin Michael Collins

• Mars has always been a source of inspiration for explorers and

scientists. Robotic and scientific robotic missions have shown that

Mars has characteristics and a history similar to Earth's, but we

know that there are striking differences that we have yet to begin

to understand.

• Between 1960 and 1969, the Soviet Union, launched nine probes

intended to reach Mars. They all failed, three at launch, three

failed to reach near-Earth orbit.

• In 1973, the Soviet Union sent four more probes to Mars:

the Mars 4 and Mars 5 orbiters and the Mars 6 and Mars 7.

• In 1964, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory made two attempts at

reaching Mars. Mariner 3 and Mariner 4 were identical spacecraft

designed to carry out the first flybys of Mars. Mariner 3 was

launched on November 5, 1964.

Mars crater seen from Mariner 4

• Mars Pathfinder was a U.S. spacecraft that landed a base station

with a roving probe on Mars on July 4, 1997. It consisted of a

lander and a small 10.6 kilograms wheeled robotic rover named

Sojourner, which was the first rover to operate on the surface of

Mars.

• NASA retooled and launched Mars Global Surveyor (MGS).

• This mission was the first successful United States mission, to the

red planet in two decades when it launched November 7, 1996,

and entered orbit on September 12, 1997.

• The mission studied the entire Martian surface, atmosphere, and

interior, and returned more data about the red planet than all

previous Mars missions combined.

Martian Surface

• In 2001 NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter arrived at Mars. Its mission

is to use spectrometers and imagers to hunt for evidence of past or

present water and volcanic activity on Mars.

• In 2002, it was announced that the probe's gamma ray spectrometer

had detected large amounts of hydrogen, indicating that there are vast

deposits of water ice in the south pole of Mars.

• On June 2, 2003, the European Space Agency's Mars Express set

off to Mars. The Mars Express craft consists of the Mars Express

Orbiter and the lander Beagle 2.

• The Mars Express Orbiter confirmed the presence of water ice and

carbon dioxide ice at the planet's south pole.

• NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission (MER) is an ongoing

robotic space mission involving two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity,

exploring the planet Mars. It began in 2003 with the sending of

the two rovers—MER-A Spirit and MER-B Opportunity—to

explore the Martian surface and geology.

Spirit Rover Opportunity Rover

• The NASA Mars Science Laboratory mission with its rover

named Curiosity, was launched on November 26, 2011.

Curiosity Rover Selfie of Curiosity Rover

• The rover carries instruments designed to look for past or present

conditions relevant to the past or present habitability of Mars.

The Curiosity rover landed on Mars on Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater,

between Peace Vallis and Aeolis Mons on August 6, 2012.

• NASA's MAVEN is an orbiter mission to study the atmosphere of

Mars. It will also serve as a communications relay satellite for

robotic landers and rovers on the surface of Mars. MAVEN was

launched 18 November 2013 and reached Mars on 22 September

2014.

• The Mars Orbiter Mission, also called Mangalyaan, was launched

on 5 November 2013 by the Indian Space Research

Organisation(ISRO). It was successfully inserted into Martian

orbit on 24 September 2014.

• The mission is a technology demonstrator, it will also study the

Martian atmosphere. It also made India the first country to reach

Mars orbit on its first attempt and also the first Asian country to

successfully send an orbiter to Mars.

• The future of manned space exploration is bright, according to

some space experts.

• Humans may one day tread across some of the alien worlds that

today can be studied only at a distance.

Colonies on Mars City on Mars

• Private companies are planning their own trips to the Red Planet. Mars

One is planning on sending a group of people to colonize the planet on

a one-way mission in 2022.

A House on Mars Shopping centre on Mars