Mars: Will We Ever Return?

Mars: Will We Ever Return?
Mars: Will We Ever Return? The United States has scheduled the Mars Observer for a 1992 launch; the Soviet Union plans to send spacecraft to the Red Planet in 1994 and 1996. But these missions were well under way before the political upheavals of late 1989 effectively ended the Cold War and removed much of the competitive impulse that drove space exploration. Will telescopic views from Earth orbit, such as this image from the Hubble Space Telescope, become the future of planetary studies? Or will we find new reasons to explore the solar system? Space Telescope Science Institute