A deep space mission to Mars will require more than a few bottles of Poland Spring and water reclamation is a complicated business. Luckily, recent research is showing that liquid water may be more prevalent on the red planet than previously thought. Gathering the data that led to this discovery (amongst many others) didn’t just happen overnight. It’s the result of over 50 years’ worth of missions from Earth with sights set on Mars, not all of which were successful. We’ve collected some highlights from humankind’s long history of hurling spacecraft toward the fourth planet from the sun, and the good news is: We’re getting better at it.
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