--- title: Mars Photography: See the First Mariner IV Picture of the Red Planet description: It was 50 years ago—on July 15, 1965—that NASA was able to see the first-ever close-up photo of Mars canonical: https://time.com/3949257/mars-photos-mariner-iv/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-15T11:00:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:41:21.242Z article:section: History og:title: Mars Photography: See the First Mariner IV Picture of the Red Planet og:description: Each image from NASA's Mariner IV mission was composed of 40,000 dots og:url: https://time.com/3949257/mars-photos-mariner-iv/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt789b7eba7319443b/69885a0cf887dc499de91489/150708-mars-mariner-iv.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1209 og:image:height: 680 og:image:alt: First TV Image of Mars 1965 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mars Photography: See the First Mariner IV Picture of the Red Planet twitter:description: Each image from NASA's Mariner IV mission was composed of 40,000 dots twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt789b7eba7319443b/69885a0cf887dc499de91489/150708-mars-mariner-iv.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See the First Close-Up Photo of Mars Ever Taken > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Curiotisty Rover: One Year on Mars [Watch (HLS stream): Curiotisty Rover: One Year on Mars](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/eVfZ9UKE.m3u8) (3:59)  _Published 2013-08-05. It's been one year since the Curiosity Rover touched down on the red plantet._  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jul 15, 2015 11:00 AM UTC  An enhanced contrast version of the first Mars photograph released on July 15, 1965 An enhanced contrast version of the first Mars photograph released on July 15, 1965 NASA/JPL  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Jul 15, 2015 11:00 AM UTC Almost exactly 50 years before the New Horizons probe brought us a [new view of Pluto](http://time.com/3957077/pluto-image-instagram/), the world got its first close-up glimpse of Mars. Human beings had been looking at the planet forever—first as a distant reddish light in the sky, later with telescopes that presented a tantalizing view of what seemed like canals, weather and frost. But it wasn’t until July 15, 1965, when NASA’s Mariner IV mission made its first photo transmissions, that mankind got its first zoomed-in view of Mars. Though the mission also relayed important information about Mars’ atmosphere and radiation, it was the photography—from a mission that set a new record for long-distance communication—that got the most attention back on Earth. The unmanned mission had been plagued by malfunctions early in its months-long journey and even on “encounter day,” July 14, there was a false alarm when it appeared that the recorder capturing the photographs wasn’t working right. Even taking the pictures was a difficult process—but it proved worth the trouble. After all, these were no simple digital photos, easily snapped and transmitted. Rather, each image was composed of 40,000 dots, the way a dot-matrix image works, as shown in the NASA archival footage above. Each dot was coded to be one of 64 shades between pure white and pure black, and each number—from zero to 63—was represented in binary. It took nearly 9 hours to transmit the code for a single photo out of the 21 total that were taken. Because of the Earth’s rotation during that time, a team of different antennae had to be deployed to pick up different pieces of the Mariner’s transmission. Those pieces were then patched back together so that, by the next day, the first picture could be seen:  An enhanced contrast version of the first Mars photograph released on July 15, 1965 NASA/JPL The fact that the photo wasn’t much to look at didn’t make it any less important, as TIME explained: --- > “” --- **_Read the full story from 1965, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Portrait of a Planet](http://time.com/vault/issue/1965-07-23/page/38/) ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] That great things take many people working together to make them happen is one of the fantastic things of human existence. We've not only driven the Rover, we've moved its arms, put it all through its paces, but it's been in a thermal vacuum chamber and kept very cold. Parts of it have been in a centrifuge. We've done drop tests, pull tests, drive tests, load tests, stress tests. Just amazing amount of testing this vehicle has gone through. We've tried every way of operating of the vehicle using the software. Literally thousands and thousands of hours of software testing. It's been just a, an amazing several years, really, of constant testing and development. Finding problems, fixing those problems and going on to the next problem. I, I think she's ready to go. LC this is the LD on channel one. LC you have permission to launch. Roger. Proceeding with the count. Minus ten, nine, eight. Seven, six, five, four. Three, two. One. [ NOISE ]. Am I confident that she's gonna go and she's gonna be successful? Absolutely. It, it's gonna go and she'll be good. Vehicle? [ MUSIC ] We should have parachute deploy around Mach 1. 7. Parachute is deployed. We are decelerating. Heat shield has separated, we're on the ground, standing by for back shield separation. We are at hard flight. We're at altitude of one kilometer, descending. Standing by for sky crane. Sky crane has started. [ NOISE ]. Touchdown confirmed. We're safe on Mars. Whoohoo! Whoa! [ INAUDIBLE ] Curiosity. [ MUSIC ] [ NOISE ] What a fantastic demonstration of what our nation and what our agency can do. I could only think of the words of Teddy Roosevelt as I was sitting there. It is far better to dare mighty things even though we might fail, than to stay in the twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat. And the team brought us victory today. Today, right now, the wheels of Curiosity have begun to blaze the trail for human footprints on Mars. This is an amazing achievement. Well, today on Mars, history was made on Earth. The successful landing of Curiosity marks what is really an unprecedented technological tour de force. It will stand as an American point of pride far into the future. We've got a long mission ahead of us and, and because of that and the capabilities of this rover, we have this possibility for just monumental science accomplishments. Within two months the team found an ancient river bed, evidence of flowing water. We have found a habitable environment, that is so benign and supportive of life that probably if this water was around and you had been on the planet, you would have been able to drink it. 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