Do you know what planets have we landed on? Long before written history, people, not only scientists, have noticed the 5 “stars” that seemed to wander at each other’s every night. Some even recorded their movements – which they later learned to predict them. Many are wondering what these stars mean.
Just think about the prospects humans have ever watched on another world. It was found that these points of light are known as Venus, Mercury, Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter. Well, these are only a small subsection of different worlds that humans and even robots have landed since the start of the so-called Space Age.
And even if spaceflights and telescopes have greatly changed our understanding of the planets, it’s amazing to know how the mind and engineering of humans have succeeded to get to these places.
Humans understanding and exploration of the planets have changed from time to time. How can we ever notice the celestial bodies in the sky and call them planets? From planets to moons, to comets and even asteroids – all of these made everyone so fascinated and curious about the planets in outer space. So, what are the planets we have landed on? That’s what you’re going to know here.
Mars
Mars has been a prevalent destination for astronauts and spacecraft. However, only a part of the machines tried to get there safely and made to the surface. In fact, the first-ever successful landing was in 1971, when Soviet Union’s robotic space probe, Mars 3, got to Mars’ surface.
The spacecraft, though, transmitted for about 20 seconds only. This is perhaps because of dust storms on the surface of the planets. About 5 years later, only NASA’s Viking 1 made it to Chryse Planitia, a circular plain in the northern region of Mars. Later, Viking 2 followed.
Of course, NASA has always made soft landings and even expanded its search by using rovers in moving around the surface. In 2004, NASA sent Mars Exploration Rovers. It conveyed information back to Earth until the year 2010. This is during the Opportunity was roving the surface.
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Titan
The first-ever landing that the humans made on Titan was on January 2005. The European Space Agency’s Huygens probe likely did not rest immediately when it arrived on the surface. It bounced and skidded for like 10 seconds after its landing. This was shown about a decade later.
The probe even sent back information even through its 2.5-hour descent, and it continued to transmit data for like an hour and 12 minutes after it landed. Other than pictures, it even sent information about the moon’s surface and wind.
Also, Saturn has come under study because it is believed to come with elements in the atmosphere and its surface that could be predecessors to life. It even comes with lakes of methane and ethane on the surface, showing the liquid cycle similar to our planet.
Venus
The Venera 7 – is among the sequence of Soviet probes that were sent in the 1960s and 1970s. It lasted for about twenty-three minutes on the surface and was weakly transmitted towards the Earth. It was actually the first one to make it to Venus’ surface and later sent the data back on Dec. 15, 1970.
The first pictures of the surface were actually released courtesy of the Venera 9. It actually made it to Venus on October 1975. This may actually be because it came to rest on the side after bouncing through the landing. The Venera 10 was also a successful one that landed and, three days later, was sent back from Venus as they planned.
Some Venera probes later followed most particularly the Venera 13, which sent the first-ever color images and continued to be active for about 127 minutes.
Mercury
Known as the innermost planet of the Solar system, the Sun would appear to be 3x larger than it really does from Earth. But, compared to the intensity of the radiation that reaches the Earth, it could be 7x the amount of sunlight that washes throughout Mercury during daytime.
But despite the heat on Mercury’s surface, could humans land on it?
Well, the thing is, despite being so close to the Sun and its extremely wild swings in temperature, humans could still walk on Mercury’s surface. This is mainly because of the slow rotation, as it takes about 59 Earth days for the planet to turn around.
However, its short year of about 88 days only means it would take under 176 days to complete the cycle day and night. So, if you just follow the terminator line, the shifting of the Twilight zone would be slower as the Sun goes down. That said, it is possible to avoid roasting from the sunlight and even the insane cold.
It was in 1973-1975 when the first Mission of Mariner 10 was sent to Mercury. It was actually the first-ever mission, and its goal was to test the theory of gravity assist. This was called a travelling technique that usually used Mercury’s gravity.
Another spacecraft, Messenger, orbited Mercury for about four years. It gathered data on magnetism, geology, and even the planet’s chemical composition. In 2018, the BepiColombo launched and was expected to reach Mercury in 2025. By that time, we will understand more about Mercury.
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What Planets Have We Landed on? Wrapping Up
Planets were once thought of as lights in the sky that mysteriously moved until people realized that they were not just lights as they saw them through telescopes and with the help of technology. Space exploration could be quite an early adventure if you could only compare the human existence age.
With the enhancement of artificial and robotics intelligence technology, it allows us to reach and discover further. Our hopes to get better data with new missions and even sending men to space could bring new promises and learn about how we can learn about the planets in the solar system. Hope we can get better information about planets in the future.
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