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
Space probe comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in November 2014. First probe to Jupiter. Radio communications were lost with Pioneer 10 on January 23, 2003, because of the loss of electric power for its radio transmitter, with the probe at a distance of 12 billion kilometers (80 AU) from Earth. First probe to fly by Saturn. (Communications were later lost due to power constraints and vast distance.) "Voyager 1" is a 733-kilogram probe launched September 5, 1977. It visited Jupiter and Saturn and was the first probe to provide detailed images of the moons of these planets. "Voyager 1" is the farthest human-made object from