About the session
Mars has been a subject of fascination and active study since at least the 19th Century, and its surface and atmosphere have been analysed remotely by optical and spectroscopic methods. The two Viking landers, launched in 1975, ushered in a new era of in situ exploration of Mars, which has continued sporadically since that time. Studies of the surface of Mars culminated in two very successful landed missions, the Mars Exploration Rovers (landed in 2004) and Mars Science Laboratory (landed in 2012). Tremendous technological innovations have come from these missions, but our advances are far greater than these and include new ways to look at our own Earth.
