A graphical timeline of humanities exploration of the solar system, showing the dates that each planet (and dwarf planet) had a close encounter with a probe from Earth.
Our first probe encounter with a planet was our own. Sputnik was placed in orbit in 1957, followed a couple of years later by a successful probing of our Moon. It has taken 58 years for us to send a probe to each individual planet (when this whole space exploration thing began, Pluto was still classed as a planet.
Originally we looked inward; probes from the USSR were sent to Venus but failed along the way. In 1962, the Mariner 2 probe managed to make it.
Mars quickly followed and soon after the Pioneer and Voyager probes were sent out on a tour of the outer planets; Mariner 10 was also sent to neglected Mercury.
And now, New Horizons has completed its flyby of the dwarf planet Pluto (following asteroid and comet encounters).
Congratulations NASA!
Steve Davidson is the publisher of Amazing Stories.
Steve has been a passionate fan of science fiction since the mid-60s, before he even knew what it was called.
