Here's why:
* Ancient Observations: People have been observing Mars with the naked eye for millennia. It's a bright, reddish object in the night sky that was named after the Roman god of war.
* Telescopic Observations: After the invention of the telescope, observations of Mars became more detailed. Astronomers like Galileo Galilei made early sketches of the planet in the 17th century.
* Space Exploration: NASA has played a crucial role in exploring Mars through robotic missions like Mariner 4 (the first successful flyby in 1965), Viking (the first landers in 1976), and the current rovers like Curiosity and Perseverance.
So, while NASA has made incredible contributions to our understanding of Mars, the planet itself has been known for a very long time.
