For the first time ever, live broadcasting to Mars gives you the opportunity to “get as close as you can currently” to the Red Planet

For the first time on Friday, people had a chance to get a close look at Mars thanks to the European Space Agency.

for one hour on Friday an agency It broadcast live images of the Red Planet back to Earth on its surface YouTube channelstarting around 12 p.m. ET.

Until Friday, all images seen of the planet were technically from its past, the agency said, as those previously taken showed it only “once light has been bounced off it or sent by orbiters and landers exploring it, and traveling to Earth.”

Friday’s event, which was part of a celebration of the 20th birthday of the agency’s Mars Express mission, was an opportunity.To get as close as possible now“To Mars,” the agency said. During the live broadcast, new pictures The agency’s Visual Surveillance Camera was transmitted about every 50 seconds, taking about 18 minutes between the time the images were taken from orbit until they finally appeared on the screen.

The European Space Agency said, “It takes 17 minutes for light to travel from Mars to Earth in its current configuration, and about one minute to pass through wires and servers on Earth.” “Note that we haven’t tried anything like this before, so the exact travel times of the signals on Earth remain somewhat uncertain.”

There were some kinks along the way. The Associated Press reported that transmissions were sometimes disrupted by rainy weather at the Deep Teleportation Antenna in Spain.

The Visual Surveillance Camera, also known as the Mars Webcam, has been used for decades to help search for the planet. It lies more than 1.8 million miles from Earth and, as one researcher put it simply, is “ancient.”

“This hasn’t been tried before,” spacecraft operations manager James Godfrey said before the event. “And to be honest, we’re not 100% sure it will work.”

However, Godfrey was “optimistic” things would work out.

“Normally, we see pictures from Mars and we know they were taken a few days ago,” he said. “I’m excited to see Mars as it is now — as close to Mars ‘now’ as we can get!”

European Space Agency Mars Express It has been orbiting the planet since 2003, taking pictures and mapping its materials and Explore its atmosphere and configuration since then. The agency says the mission has helped create “a more complete and accurate understanding” than ever before.