Life on Mars life were found. Mariner 4 probe performed the first successful flyby of the planet Mars, returning the first pictures of the Martian surface in 1965. The photographs showed an arid Mars without rivers, oceans, or any signs of life. Further, it revealed that the surface (at least the parts that it photographed) was covered in craters, indicating a lack of plate tectonics and weathering of any kind for the last 4 billion years. The probe also found that Mars has no global magnetic field that would protect the planet from potentially life-threatening cosmic rays. The probe was able to calculate
Mars Terahertz Microsatellite landing the instrument on the surface. The probe is being developed by Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), and the University of Tokyo Intelligent Space Systems Laboratory (ISSL).The project is based on a past proposal named FIRE (Far InfraRed Experiment), which was a sensor intended for JAXA's cancelled MELOS Mars orbiter. ISSL has previously developed two deep space probes: the PROCYON asteroid probe and the EQUULEUS CubeSat mission to Earth–Moon L Lagrangian point. NICT will put into use their experience developing the SMILES (Superconducting Submillimeter-Wave Limb-Emission Sounder) instrument on board the ISS Kibo module, and SWI (Sub-millimeter