The first images NASA took of Mars pale in comparison to the ones we have now

Mars, in a composite photo of 24 images NASA's Mars Global Surveyor took one day in 1999.
Mars even has its own postage stamp now. USPS

While the US and the Soviet Union were locked in fierce competition to send humans into space, the two superpowers were also racing to launch spacecraft to study other planets.

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Before these space probes reached the planets, often all we had were grainy, black-and-white images of them from telescopes here on Earth.

Today, Mars is the most studied planet in the universe (after Earth). The world has collectively launched 43 missions to the Red Planet, about half of which have been successful.

It's remarkable to see how much better the images got when spacecraft got up close, on flybys or landings.

Watch how our view of Mars improved as NASA got closer and closer to it — and finally landed on its dusty surface:

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Before we sent any spacecraft to Mars, these were the best images we had of the Red Planet, taken from the Mount Wilson Observatory in California.

Mars history telescope view mount wilson 1956 100 inch full
Astronomers took these images of planet Mars through the 100-inch telescope at the Mount Wilson Observatory in California. They used a red filter to take images a, b, and c, to show surface features and the effect of Mars' rotation. They used a blue filter for image d, which shows the atmosphere only. The Carnegie Institution for Science

The USSR and the US launched six unsuccessful probes to Mars before NASA finally succeeded with Mariner 4 in 1964. The probe took 21 images as it flew by the planet. This was the very first one it beamed back.

first mars image
NASA
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The twin probes Mariner 6 and 7 reached Mars in 1969, and took a total of 201 photos, including these ones of the entire planet.

Mars Mariner 6 full disk Mars PIA02981 full
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mariner 9 became the first probe to orbit another planet with its turn around Mars in 1971. It took a whopping 7,329 images, including this one of the Olympus Mons crater in the middle of a massive dust storm.

Olympus Mons mariner 9 mars
NASA/JPL
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Touchdown! The first successful lander, Viking 1, reached the surface in 1975. This was the first image it took.

first mars lander image viking 1
NASA

Viking 1 also took the first color image from the surface, just a day after it landed. We were right — Mars is red!

viking 1 first color image mars surface
NASA/JPL
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In 1996, the Mars Global Surveyor was the first successful NASA mission to the planet since Viking. The probe provided the first images of possible water on Mars, like this one of the polar ice caps.

mars ice cap
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Source: NASA

The Spirit and Opportunity landers that arrived on the surface in 2003 operated over 15 times longer than their original warranty. This is the first color image Spirit took after landing, and was the highest resolution photo ever taken on another planet at the time.

spirit mars
NASA/JPL
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Opportunity is still operating 13 years later. It's driven 25 miles in that time, inside several craters, including Marathon Valley, seen here.

mars opportunity
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell Univ./Arizona State Univ.

After a few more probes and rovers, Curiosity landed in 2012. The selfie-snapping robot has taken the most incredible images of Mars to date.

mars curiosity rover selfie
NASA-JPL
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The breathtaking 360-degree vistas, like this one of the Namib Dune, make you feel like you're there.

Full Circle Panorama Beside 'Namib Dune' on Mars
NASA

The panoramas give you a sense of the remarkable discontinuity of the landscape, with its many peaks and valleys.

Full Circle Vista from 'Naukluft Plateau' on Mars
NASA
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Curiosity can even show us Martian sunsets!

MARS Sunset Sequence in Mars' Gale Crater

Even images taken today from what is arguably our best view of the solar system from Earth, the Hubble Telescope, don't quite compare to going there.

mars hubble may 2016
The Hubble Space Telescope snapped this portrait of Mars on May 12, 2016. NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), J. Bell (ASU), and M. Wolff (Space Science Institute)
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Just imagine what we'll see once humans land.

evolution of a martian nasa
NASA
NASA Space
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