On this day in 1964, the Spacecraft Mariner 4 was launched into its 228 day mission that would bring the spacecraft within about 6,000 miles of Mars. That mission resulted in the first close-up photos of the Red Planet.
In celebration of that historic mission, November 28th is known as Red Planet Day.
"At first, all we wanted to do was learn more about the environment, but now, of course we want to get [to Mars]. We want to send a person there," says astronomy contributor and director of the Manfred Olson Planetarium at UW-Milwaukee, Jean Creighton.
She joined Lake Effect’s Bonnie North in the studio to talk more about Mars, how far we’ve come in its exploration and NASA's timeframe to send astronauts to the planet:
