Mars in fiction the past; Mars is a setting rather than a goal. Mariner 4 in July 1965 found that Mars—contrary to expectations—is heavily cratered, with a very thin atmosphere. No canals were found; while scientists did not believe that Mars was a moist planet, the lack of surface water surprised them. Science fiction had so influenced real explorations of the planet, however—Carl Sagan was among the many fans who became scientists—that after Mariner 9 in 1971-1972, craters were named after Wells, Burroughs, and other authors. The Mariner and Viking space probes confirmed that the Martian environment is extremely hostile to life. By
ISIS (space probe instrument) ISIS (space probe instrument) Integrated Science Investigation of the Sun, stylized IS☉IS, is an instrument aboard the Parker Solar Probe, a space probe designed to study the Sun. IS☉IS is focused on measuring energetic particles from the Sun, including electrons, protons, and ions. The parent spacecraft was launched in early August 2018, and with multiple flybys of Venus will study the heliosphere of the Sun from less that 4 million kilometers or less than 9 solar radii. IS☉IS consists of two detectors, EPI-Lo and EPI-Hi, corresponding to detection of relatively lower and higher energy particles. EPI-Lo is designed to detect