Birds on the Brain

bandh:

This Week in Photography History: The Mariner 4 mission to Mars takes the first close-up photos of the planet on July 14, 1965. Much speculation had been made until that time on the possibility of extraterrestrial life on Mars, and the close-up photos of this mission dealt a fatal blow to that possibility. The moon-like vision of Mars’ surface, etched by craters and near-flat rugged surfaces, left no hope of an Earth-like planet. In the words of President Johnson at the time, “It just may be that life as we know it with its humanity is more unique than many have thought.” The process for shooting, processing, transmitting and enhancing the images was developed by Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Television cameras with f8 Cassegrain reflecting telescopes and Schott green and red filters captured 21 images on a vidicon tube at .08 and .2 second shutter speeds and the equivalent of 200x200 pixels.