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This Week in Tech History: Searching for Life on Mars

On this edition of "This Week in Tech History", Chris tells us of NASA's spaceships that landed on the red planet searching for, among other things, signs of life.

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Apollo15LunarRover2This week in 1971 – The first men to ride in a vehicle on the moon did so in the LRV (lunar rover vehicle). This example of a lunar dune buggy carried Apollo 15 astronauts David R. Scott and James B. Irwin for five miles on the lunar surface. Their first stop at the rim of Elbow Crater was televised back to Earth to millions of viewers. That was 45 years ago.trs80-i

1977 – Tandy Corporation announced the TRS-80, one of the world’s first mass-produced personal computers. It was sold by Tandy Corporation through their Radio Shack stores. The name is an abbreviation of Tandy/Radio Shack, Z-80 microprocessor.

1991 – Tim Berners-Lee released files describing his idea for the World Wide Web. 25 years later, it is a part of our everyday life.

2007 – NASA’s Phoenix spaceship is launched. Mission scientists used instruments aboard the lander to search for environments suitable for microbial life and to research the history of water on Mars.

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And this week in 2012 – NASA’s Curiosity rover landed on the surface of Mars. It’s job was to investigate Martian climate and geology; including the role of water; and planetary habitability studies in preparation for future human exploration.

Written by Chris Graveline

Chris has covered consumer technology for over 20 years. He is the host of This Week in Tech History as well as a regular co-host on "Into Tomorrow with Dave Graveline" and our Technical Director.

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