NASA's Perseverance rover has captured stunning new images from Mars, but the Jet Propulsion Laboratory recently highlighted a historic milestone: the very first close-up of the Martian surface from 1965, meticulously hand-colored by engineers aboard the Mariner 4 probe.
NASA's Perseverance rover has dominated headlines and social media for weeks, especially with its parachute bearing a hidden message. During the reveal of its first transmitted images (watch the video at the end), JPL Director Mike Watkins reflected on decades of progress by showcasing the pioneering 1965 image from the Mariner 4 probe—the fourth in NASA's series studying Mars, Mercury, and Venus. Remarkably, this groundbreaking photo was hand-colored by engineers.
This wasn't a digital photo as we know it today. Mariner 4's real-time data translator converted digital signals into printed numbers on paper strips. Eager JPL engineers arranged these strips side-by-side and colored them manually, akin to a color-by-numbers activity, to visualize progress. The result was shared with then-JPL Director William Hayward and remains the first recognized image of Mars' surface.
Launched in 1965, Mariner 4 orbited Mars for 228 days, equipped with the Mars Television Camera Experiment and six other instruments to analyze the atmosphere and terrain. It captured about 20 iconic images, unveiling a cratered desert landscape that reshaped our view of the Red Planet.
Watch this video where Mike Watkins recounts the fascinating story behind that first Martian surface image:
