Mariner 4

[Flyaway]

New Scott Manley video.

Computers Were So Slow Scientists 'Painted' The First Close Up Image Of Mars

View: https://youtu.be/nSQlM6yGh7k

Nov 19, 2022
Mariner 4 would https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/Themes/nsf2019/images/bbc/quote.gifbe the first successful deep space spacecraft to fly by another planet and take a close-up image of the surface. The data rates were so low that it would take 8 hours to downlink the 200x200 images to Earth before the computers could start processing the image and printing them out.
Engineers who had been working on the camera system famously short-circuited the process and began assembling their own image using strips of telemetry printout and coloring them with pastels bought from a local art store.

 

[Grey Havoc]

Beat me to it!

 

[Grey Havoc]

Before what became Mariner 1 & 2, the original Mariner R proposal:

Mariner R

Mariner R

www.astronautix.com

 

[gwiz]

Before what became Mariner 1 & 2, the original Mariner R proposal:

Mariner R

Mariner R

www.astronautix.com

Mariner 1 & 2 were launched in 1962. Mariner 1 was lost in a launch vehicle failure, Mariner 2 successfully flew by Venus 1962 December 14 and discovered the planet's high surface temperature.