In 1965, the first images of Mars were sent to Earth as a series of numbers that indicated the brightness of a single pixel. It was supposed to take more than 8 hours to receive all the pixels needed for a complete image. But one tape recorder engineer on the Mariner IV mission figured out a short cut and accidentally created the first picture of the Red planet.

Check out my new film “The Picture Taking Experiment” at L.A. Times Short Docs.