Mars has been explored by several uncrewed spacecraft. "Mariner 4" was the first spacecraft to visit Mars; launched by NASA on 28 November 1964, it made its closest approach to the planet on 15 July 1965. "Mariner 4" detected the weak Martian radiation belt, measured at about 0.1% that of Earth, and captured the first images of another planet from deep space. The Soviet "Mars 3" mission included a lander, which achieved a soft landing in December 1971; however, contact was lost seconds after touchdown. On 20 July 1976, "Viking 1" performed the first successful landing on the Martian surface.
Introduction
Mars
Mars | Introduction
Yes, "Mariner 4", "Viking 1", etc Mars Global Surveyor mission Yes, Viking. "2001 Mars Odyssey", "Mars Express", "Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter", “MAVEN” and "Mars Orbiter Mission” to name a few.
what is the location of mars in the solar system
user
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun
assistant
is it known by any other names?
user
Yes, "Red Planet" in English
assistant
are there any volcanoes there?
user
Yes, Olympus Mons
assistant
who named it?
user
Named after observations made by Mariner 9
assistant
what was that?
user
From Nix Olympica; a volcano. Astronomers adopted the name "Olympus Mons" for the albedo feature known as Nix Olympica
assistant
was that a spaceship that made the observations?
user
It was a robotic space probe
assistant
have any other space probes landed on the planet discussed above?
user
The lander encountered the atmosphere of Mars at 09:05:53 UTC, slowing from as it passed through the upper atmosphere. A parachute was then deployed to further slow the probe's descent, and retrorockets were intended to fire during the last seconds before the probe reached the ground. The spacecraft returned data for 224 seconds during its descent through the Martian atmosphere. However, at 09:11:05 UTC, with the spacecraft about to fire its retrorockets in preparation for landing, all contact was lost. Due to a design flaw, a chip aboard the spacecraft had degraded during the mission, and a large amount of the data which had been returned was unusable.
Mars 6 | Launch
Starting in 1960, the Soviets launched a series of probes to Mars including the first intended flybys and hard (impact) landing (Mars 1962B). The first successful flyby of Mars was on 14–15 July 1965, by NASA's Mariner 4. On November 14, 1971, Mariner 9 became the first space probe to orbit another planet when it entered into orbit around Mars. The amount of data returned by probes increased dramatically as technology improved. The first to contact the surface were two Soviet probes: Mars 2 lander on November 27 and Mars 3 lander on December 2, 1971Mars 2 failed during descent and Mars 3 about twenty seconds after the first Martian soft landing.
Exploration of Mars | Past and current missions
First soft landing on Mars (December 2, 1971) The lander began transmitting to the Mars 3 orbiter 90 seconds after landing. After 20 seconds, transmission stopped for unknown reasons.
Space probe | <a href="Mars%203">Mars 3</a>
On June 10, 2018, "Opportunity" rover fell silent, leaving "Curiosity" of the Mars Science Laboratory mission the only operational probe on the ground with six orbiters surveying the planet: "Mars Odyssey", "Mars Express", "Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter", "Mars Orbiter Mission", MAVEN, and the Trace Gas Orbiter, which have contributed massive amounts of information about Mars. The stationary lander "InSight" is investigating the deep interior of Mars. No sample return missions have been attempted for Mars and an attempted return mission for Mars' moon Phobos ("Fobos-Grunt") failed at launch in 2011. The next missions expected to arrive at Mars are:
Exploration of Mars | Current status
Mars has been explored by several uncrewed spacecraft. "Mariner 4" was the first spacecraft to visit Mars; launched by NASA on 28 November 1964, it made its closest approach to the planet on 15 July 1965. "Mariner 4" detected the weak Martian radiation belt, measured at about 0.1% that of Earth, and captured the first images of another planet from deep space. The Soviet "Mars 3" mission included a lander, which achieved a soft landing in December 1971; however, contact was lost seconds after touchdown. On 20 July 1976, "Viking 1" performed the first successful landing on the Martian surface.
Mars | Introduction
Each probe weighed and was encased in a protective aeroshell. They rode to Mars aboard another spacecraft, the Mars Polar Lander. Upon arrival near the south polar region of Mars on December 3, 1999, the basketball-sized shells were released from the main spacecraft, plummeting through the atmosphere and hitting the planet's surface at over . On impact, each shell was designed to shatter, and its grapefruit-sized probe was to punch through the soil and separate into two parts. The lower part, called the forebody, was designed to penetrate as far as into the soil. The upper part of the probe, or aftbody, was designed to remain on the surface in order to radio data to the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft in orbit around Mars.
Deep Space 2 | Spacecraft
Mars 3 was a robotic automatic interplanetary station of the Soviet Mars program, launched May 28, 1971, nine days after its twin spacecraft Mars 2. The probes were identical robotic spacecraft launched by Proton-K rockets with a Blok D upper stage, each consisting of an orbiter and an attached lander. After the Mars 2 lander crashed on the Martian surface, the Mars 3 lander became the first spacecraft to attain a soft landing on Mars, on December 2, 1971. It failed 110 seconds after landing, having transmitted only a gray image with no details. The Mars 2 orbiter and Mars 3 orbiter continued to circle Mars and transmit images back to Earth for another eight months.
Mars 3 | Introduction
space probes have landed on all three bodies other than Earth that have solid surfaces and atmospheres thick enough to make aerobraking possible: Mars, Venus, and Saturn's moon Titan. These probes were able to leverage the atmospheres of the bodies on which they landed to slow their descent using parachutes, reducing the amount of fuel they were required to carry. This in turn allowed larger payloads to be landed on these bodies for a given amount of fuel. For example, the 900-kg "Curiosity" rover was landed on Mars by a craft having a mass (at the time of Mars atmospheric entry) of 2400 kg, of which only 390 kg was fuel.
Lunar lander | Lack of atmosphere
Numerous scientific exploration missions were begun in 2011. In March 2011, the "MESSENGER" probe became the first artificial satellite of the planet Mercury. In July, the "Dawn" spacecraft became the first artificial satellite of the asteroid 4 Vesta. The Mars Science Laboratory – at the time, the largest Mars rover ever constructed – was launched in November, conducting a successful landing on Mars in August 2012.
2011 in spaceflight | Robotic exploration
The Mars 2 lander failed to land and impacted Mars. The Mars 3 lander became the first probe to successfully soft-land on Mars, but its data-gathering had less success. The lander began transmitting to the Mars 3 orbiter 90 seconds after landing, but after 14.5 seconds, transmission ceased for unknown reasons. The cause of the failure may have been related to the extremely powerful Martian dust storm taking place at the time. These space probes each contained a Mars rover although they were never deployed.
Mars landing | Mars probe program
The probe New Horizons encountered the Kuiper belt object 486958 Arrokoth on 1 January. This is the farthest object from the Sun ever to have a close encounter with a spacecraft. The Japanese asteroid exploration mission Hayabusa2 made a second touchdown with 162173 Ryugu to collect samples, and departed for Earth on 12 November. NASA declared the Mars rover "Opportunity"'s mission over on 13 February. The InSight lander observed the first recorded Marsquake in April.
2019 in spaceflight | Exploration of the Solar System
However, the 2M probes ended significantly heavier than intended and engineers also ran out of time to conduct drop tests of the lander, so that part was abandoned which left only the orbiter. If successful, this would still be a major propaganda success for the Soviets as NASA was nearly three years away from attempting a Mars orbiter.
Mars 2M No.521 | Introduction
When space probes have landed on Mars, individual small features such as rocks, dunes, and hollows have often been given informal names. Many of these are frivolous: features have been named after ice cream (such as Cookies N Cream); cartoon characters (such as SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick); and '70s music acts (such as ABBA and the Bee Gees).
Planetary nomenclature | <a href="Mars">Mars</a>
The Soviet Union's Mars 1962B became the first Earth-based mission intended to impact on Mars in 1962. In 1971, the lander of the Mars 3 probe conducted the first soft landing on Mars, but communication was lost within a minute after touchdown, which occurred during one of the worst global dust storms since the beginning of telescopic observations of the Red Planet. Three other landers, Mars 2 in 1971 and Mars 5 and Mars 6 in 1973, either crashed or failed to even enter the planet's atmosphere. All four landers used an aeroshell-like heat shield during atmospheric entry. Mars 2 and Mars 3 landers carried the first small skis-walking Mars rovers that did not work on the planet.
Lander (spacecraft) | Mars
The lander carried a digging device and the smallest mass spectrometer created to date, as well as a range of other devices, on a robotic arm in order to accurately analyze soil beneath the dusty surface to look for biosignatures and biomolecules. The orbiter entered Mars orbit on December 25, 2003, and Beagle 2 entered Mars' atmosphere the same day. However, attempts to contact the lander failed. Communications attempts continued throughout January, but Beagle 2 was declared lost in mid-February, and a joint inquiry was launched by the UK and ESA. The Mars Express Orbiter confirmed the presence of water ice and carbon dioxide ice at the planet's south pole, while NASA had previously confirmed their presence at the north pole of Mars.
Exploration of Mars | Mars Odyssey and Mars Express
"Curiosity" landed in the Gale Crater at 05:17 UTC on August 6, 2012. Upon reaching Mars, an automated precision landing sequence took over the entire landing events. A cable cutter separated the cruise stage from the aeroshell and then the cruise stage was diverted into a trajectory for burn-up in the atmosphere. Landing was confirmed simultaneously by 3 monitoring Mars orbiters. "Curiosity" landed on target and only from its center. The coordinates of the landing site (named "Bradbury Landing") are: . Some low resolution Hazcam images were beamed to Earth by relay orbiters confirming the rover's wheels were deployed correctly and on the ground.
Timeline of Mars Science Laboratory | Landing (2012)
The first probe intended to be a Mars impact lander was the Soviet "Mars 1962B", unsuccessfully launched in 1962. In 1970 Soviet Union began the design of "Mars 4NM" and "Mars 5NM" missions with super-heavy uncrewed Martian spacecraft. First was "Marsokhod", with a planned date of early 1973, and second was the Mars sample return mission planned for 1975. Both spacecraft were intended to be launched on the "N1" rocket, but this rocket never flew successfully and the Mars 4NM and Mars 5NM projects were cancelled. In 1971 the Soviet Union sent probes "Mars 2" and "Mars 3", each carrying a lander, as part of the Mars probe program M-71.
Mars landing | Mars probe program
Mars 7 probe separated prematurely from the carrying vehicle due to a problem in the operation of one of the onboard systems (attitude control or retro-rockets) and missed the planet by .
Exploration of Mars | 1970s
The mission would have also returned images of Mars' surface.
Nozomi (spacecraft) | Introduction
The images revealed that the spacecraft landed where it had access to digging down a polygon across the trough and digging into its center. The lander's robotic arm touched soil on Mars for the first time on May 31, 2008 (sol ). It scooped dirt and started sampling the Martian soil for ice after days of testing its systems.
Phoenix (spacecraft) | Communications from the surface
The probe reached Mars on 12 February. At 14:44:25 the spacecraft's engines ignited to begin its orbit insertion burn, which successfully placed it into an Areocentric orbit with a periapsis of , an apoapsis of , and 35.3 degrees inclination. The spacecraft's pressurised instrument compartment began to leak as soon as the spacecraft entered orbit around Mars, which controllers believed to be the result of a micrometeoroid impact during orbital insertion. It ceased operations on 28 February, having returned 180 photographic frames, 43 of which were of usable quality. The probe's original planned lifetime in mars orbit has been 3 months.
Mars 5 | Mars orbit
On 4 July 1997, the "Mars Pathfinder" spacecraft landed on Mars and on 5 July released its rover, "Sojourner", the first robotic rover to operate on Mars. The "Mars Express" orbiter, the first European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft to visit Mars, arrived in orbit on 25 December 2003. In January 2004, the Mars Exploration Rovers, named "Spirit" and "Opportunity", both landed on Mars. "Spirit" operated until 22 March 2010 and "Opportunity" lasted until 10 June 2018. On 24 September 2014, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) became the fourth space agency to visit Mars when its maiden interplanetary mission, the Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft, arrived in orbit.
Mars | Introduction
The Mars Observer spacecraft, also known as the Mars Geoscience/Climatology Orbiter, was a robotic space probe launched by NASA on September 25, 1992, to study the Martian surface, atmosphere, climate and magnetic field. During the interplanetary cruise phase, communication with the spacecraft was lost on August 21, 1993, three days prior to orbital insertion. Attempts to re-establish communication with the spacecraft were unsuccessful.
Mars Observer | Introduction
The problem was traced to a software error, which deactivated attitude thrusters causing the spacecrafts' solar arrays to no longer point at the Sun, depleting Phobos 1 batteries. Phobos 2 operated normally throughout its cruise and Mars orbital insertion phases on January 29, 1989, gathering data on the Sun, interplanetary medium, Mars, and Phobos. Shortly before the final phase of the mission – during which the spacecraft was to approach within 50 m of Phobos' surface and release two landers, one a mobile 'hopper', the other a stationary platform – contact with Phobos 2 was lost. The mission ended when the spacecraft signal failed to be successfully reacquired on March 27, 1989.
Exploration of Mars | Probing difficulties
The Mars Exploration Rovers, "Spirit" and "Opportunity" landed on Mars to explore the Martian surface and geology, and searched for clues to past water activity on Mars. They were each launched in 2003 and landed in 2004. Communication with "Spirit" stopped on sol 2210 (March 22, 2010). JPL continued to attempt to regain contact until May 24, 2011, when NASA announced that efforts to communicate with the unresponsive rover had ended. "Opportunity" arrived at Endeavour crater on 9 August 2011, at a landmark called "Spirit Point" named after its rover twin, after traversing from Victoria crater, over a three-year period.
Space probe | "Spirit" and "Opportunity"
The planet Mars has been explored remotely by spacecraft. Probes sent from Earth, beginning in the late 20th century, have yielded a large increase in knowledge about the Martian system, focused primarily on understanding its geology and habitability potential. Engineering interplanetary journeys is complicated and the exploration of Mars has experienced a high failure rate, especially the early attempts. Roughly sixty percent of all spacecraft destined for Mars failed before completing their missions and some failed before their observations could begin. Some missions have met with unexpected success, such as the twin Mars Exploration Rovers, which operated for years beyond their specification.
Exploration of Mars | Introduction
The majority of the probes to the other planets in our solar system have been remote control vehicles, although some of the more recent ones were partially autonomous. The sophistication of these devices has fueled greater debate on the need for manned spaceflight and exploration. The Voyager I spacecraft is the first craft of any kind to leave the solar system. The explorers Spirit and Opportunity have provided continuous data about the surface of Mars since January 3, 2004.
Remote control vehicle | Space probes
The Deep Space 2 impactor probe was to be the first spacecraft to penetrate below the surface of another planet. However, the mission failed with the loss of its mother ship, "Mars Polar Lander", which lost communication with Earth during entry into Mars' atmosphere on 3 December 1999.
Lander (spacecraft) | Deep Space 2
At the close of the scene the camera pans back to show a larger view of the probe's landing area, with what appears to be indigenous Martian settlements in the surrounding terrain, with the narrator noting that, "If the probe had landed just a few miles further on, things might have been different." Afterwards the opening credits roll. The next scene places the viewer at the Kennedy Space Center in January 1999 when the first "Zeus I" manned spacecraft to Mars is carried into orbit by a Saturn V rocket. The Zeus project represents the beginning of a major effort by NASA and NATO to explore and eventually colonize the outer planets.
The Martian Chronicles (miniseries) | The Expeditions
The telescope tracked Mars 1 in 1962–3, and Mars 2 and Mars 3 in 1971 (amidst the upgrade of the telescope to the Mark IA). In more recent years, it has also searched for several lost Mars spacecraft, including NASA's Mars Observer spacecraft in 1993, Mars Polar Lander in 2000, and the Beagle 2 lander on Mars in 2003. However, it did not succeed in locating any of them.
Lovell Telescope | Mars probes
This was the first planetary mission to use precision landing techniques. The rover was folded up within an aeroshell that protected it during the travel through space and during the atmospheric entry at Mars. Ten minutes before atmospheric entry the aeroshell separated from the cruise stage that provided power, communications and propulsion during the long flight to Mars. One minute after separation from the cruise stage thrusters on the aeroshell fired to cancel out the spacecraft's 2-rpm rotation and achieved an orientation with the heat shield facing Mars in preparation for Atmospheric entry. The heat shield is made of phenolic impregnated carbon ablator (PICA).
Mars Science Laboratory | Guided entry
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Express continued exploring with new instruments, and supporting lander missions. NASA provides two online tools: Mars Trek, which provides visualizations of the planet using data from 50 years of exploration, and Experience Curiosity, which simulates traveling on Mars in 3-D with Curiosity.
Mars | Spacecraft visitation
Neither launch was successful. The Mars 2M probes were originally intended to consist of both an orbiter and a lander. Time constraints did not permit the development of a soft lander, so engineers decided to simply use a hard lander that would crash into the Martian surface but gather data during its descent. At first, a modified Luna E-8 bus was to be used for the spacecraft, however it had a number of limitations that made it unsuitable for the long journey to Mars. Halfway through the project, Lavochkin Bureau design chief Georgi Babakin decided to simply discard the Luna E-8 derived probe and design a completely new one from scratch.
Mars 2M No.521 | Introduction
Spacecraft that have not been precisely located include "Mars 2", "Mars 3", "Mars 6", Mars Polar Lander, and the two Deep Space 2 probes.
List of artificial objects on Mars | Table of objects
First successful rover on Mars.
Space probe | "<a href="Sojourner%20%28rover%29">Sojourner</a>"
While many Martian probes provided images and other data about Phobos and Deimos, only few were dedicated to these satellites and intended to perform a flyby or landing on the surface. Two probes under the Soviet Phobos program were successfully launched in 1988, but neither conducted the intended jumping landings on Phobos and Deimos due to failures (although "Phobos 2" successfully photographed Phobos). The post-Soviet Russian "Fobos-Grunt" probe was intended to be the first sample return mission from Phobos, but a rocket failure left it stranded in Earth orbit in 2011. In 1997 and 1998, the Aladdin mission was selected as a finalist in the NASA Discovery Program.
Moons of Mars | Exploration
The first extraterrestrial planetary surface to be explored was the lunar surface by Luna 2 in 1959. The first and only human exploration of an extraterrestrial surface was the Moon, the Apollo program included the first moonwalk on July 20, 1969 and successful return of extraterrestrial surface samples to Earth. Venera 7 was the first landing of a probe on another planet on December 15, 1970. Mars 3 "soft landed" and returned data from Mars on August 22, 1972, the first rover on Mars was Mars Pathfinder in 1997, the Mars Exploration Rover has been studying the surface of the red planet since 2004.
Planetary surface | Past missions
Several sample-return missions to asteroids and comets are currently in the works. More samples from asteroids and comets will help determine whether life formed in space and was carried to Earth by meteorites. Another question under investigation is whether extraterrestrial life formed on other Solar System bodies like Mars or on the moons of the gas giants, and whether life might even exist there. The result of NASA's last "Decadal Survey" was to prioritize a Mars sample-return mission, as Mars has a special importance: it is comparatively "nearby", might have harbored life in the past, and might even continue to sustain life.
Sample-return mission | Scientific use
While several flybys conducted by Mars orbiting probes have provided images and other data about the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos, only few of them intended to land on the surface of these satellites. Two probes under the Soviet Phobos program were successfully launched in 1988, but in 1989 the intended landings on Phobos and Deimos were not conducted due to failures in the spacecraft system. The post-Soviet Russian Fobos-Grunt probe was an intended sample return mission to Phobos in 2012 but failed after launch in 2011. In 2007 European Space Agency and EADS Astrium proposed and developed the mission to Phobos to 2016 with lander and sample return, but it stayed as a project.
Lander (spacecraft) | Martian moons
Some examples of spacecraft that have attempted to land on the surface of Mars:
Mars atmospheric entry | List of spacecraft
"Episode 1, 27 January 1980" The first episode starts at the scene of "Viking 1" unmanned probe landing on the surface of the planet Mars in July 1976. A narrator explains that the purpose of the probe is to determine whether Mars is inhabited. As the narrator is speaking, the viewer becomes aware that there are two viewpoints at NASA amongst the scientists who launched the probe: One group obviously believes Mars is uninhabited, the other is open to the possibility of indigenous life on the planet. Each has its convincing arguments, but ultimately the probe indicates that Mars does not harbour life.
The Martian Chronicles (miniseries) | The Expeditions
Mars 1 (1962 Beta Nu 1), an automatic interplanetary spacecraft launched to Mars on November 1, 1962, was the first probe of the Soviet Mars probe program to achieve interplanetary orbit. Mars 1 was intended to fly by the planet at a distance of about 11,000 km and take images of the surface as well as send back data on cosmic radiation, micrometeoroid impacts and Mars' magnetic field, radiation environment, atmospheric structure, and possible organic compounds. Sixty-one radio transmissions were held, initially at 2-day intervals and later at 5-day intervals, from which a large amount of interplanetary data was collected.
Exploration of Mars | The first success
He was also a member of the Mars ISPP Propellant Precursor experiment team for the Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander mission, an experiment package to demonstrate manufacture of oxygen from the Martian atmosphere (which was cancelled after the failure of the Mars Polar Lander). He has also done work on analyzing concepts for future robotic and human mission to Mars. These include the Mars Geyser Hopper spacecraft, a Discovery-class mission concept that would investigate the springtime carbon dioxide Martian geysers found in regions around the south pole of Mars, the Human Exploration using Real-time Robotic Operations ("HERRO") concept for telerobotic Mars exploration, and concepts for use of In-situ resource utilization for a Mars Sample Return mission.
Geoffrey A. Landis | Mars
The spacecraft was expected to remain on Martian orbit for one year. Yinghuo-1 would have focused mainly on the study of the external environment of Mars. Space center researchers expected to use photographs and data to study the magnetic field of Mars and the interaction between ionospheres, escape particles and solar wind. A second Chinese payload, the Soil Offloading and Preparation System (SOPSYS), was integrated in the lander. SOPSYS was a microgravity grinding tool developed by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Fobos-Grunt | Partners
At the time it took up to 4 days on the fastest available computers to compute one improved image from five 1000 by 2000 pixel images. Imaging analysis appears to show the probe on the surface and partially deployed, in the expected landing area, with objects that have been interpreted as being its parachute and back cover nearby. Although several interpretations of the image are possible, all involve, at most, incomplete deployment of the probe's solar panels. Images suggest that one of the "petals" on which the solar panels of the lander are mounted failed to fully open, preventing deployment of its radio antenna and blocking communication.
Beagle 2 | Discovery of "Beagle 2" spacecraft on Mars
The Mars 2 was an uncrewed space probe of the Mars program, a series of uncrewed Mars landers and orbiters launched by the Soviet Union 19 May 1971. The Mars 2 and Mars 3 missions consisted of identical spacecraft, each with an orbiter and an attached lander. The orbiter is identical to the Venera 9 bus or orbiter. The type of bus/orbiter is the 4MV. They were launched by a Proton-K heavy launch vehicle with a Blok D upper stage. The lander of Mars 2 became the first human-made object to reach the surface of Mars, although the landing system failed and the lander was lost.
Mars 2 | Introduction
Both probes were lost in launch-related complications with the newly developed Proton rocket.
Exploration of Mars | The first success
Fobos-Grunt, a sample return mission to Mars' natural satellite Phobos, would have carried the first Chinese planetary probe, Yinghuo-1.
2009 in spaceflight | Space exploration
The images and data enabled creation of surface relief maps, and gave information on the Martian gravity and magnetic fields. In 1973, the Soviet Union sent four more probes to Mars: the Mars 4 and Mars 5 orbiters and the Mars 6 and Mars 7 flyby/lander combinations. All missions except Mars 7 sent back data, with Mars 5 being most successful. Mars 5 transmitted just 60 images before a loss of pressurization in the transmitter housing ended the mission. Mars 6 lander transmitted data during descent, but failed upon impact. Mars 4 flew by the planet at a range of 2200 km returning one swath of pictures and radio occultation data, which constituted the first detection of the nightside ionosphere on Mars.
Exploration of Mars | 1970s
"Mars Observer" was scheduled to perform an orbital insertion maneuver on August 24, 1993, but contact with the spacecraft was lost on August 21, 1993. The likely reason for the spacecraft failure was the leakage of fuel and oxidizer vapors through the improperly designed PTFE check valve to the common pressurization system. During interplanetary cruise, the vapor mix had accumulated in feed lines and pressurant lines, resulting in explosion and their rupture after the engine was restarted for routine course correction. A similar problem later crippled the Akatsuki space probe in 2010. Although none of the primary objectives were achieved, the mission provided interplanetary cruise phase data, collected up to the date of last contact.
Mars Observer | Encounter with Mars
In this listing, it is implied that each mission left debris according to its design. For example, the "Schiaparelli" EDM lander likely exploded on impact, creating an unknown number of fragments at one location. At another location, there may be a lower heat shield, and at another location, a parachute and upper heat shield. Another example is the counterweights ejected by MSL during its descent. In some cases, the nature and location of this additional debris has been determined and, in other cases, even the location of the main spacecraft has remained unknown. The identification of "Beagle 2" after 11 years is one of the greatest breakthroughs yet, since prior to that, it could not be confirmed what had happened.
List of artificial objects on Mars | Table of objects
According to original plans, Mars orbit arrival had been expected during September 2012 and the return vehicle was scheduled to reach Earth in August 2014. Following what would have been the planned end of the first burn, the spacecraft could not be located in the target orbit. The spacecraft was subsequently discovered to still be in its initial parking orbit and it was determined that the burn had not taken place. Initially, engineers had about three days from launch to rescue the spacecraft before its batteries ran out. It was then established that the craft's solar panels had deployed, giving engineers more time to restore control.
Fobos-Grunt | Post-launch
The ESA "Rosetta" space probe mission to the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko flew within 250 km of Mars on February 25, 2007, in a gravitational slingshot designed to slow and redirect the spacecraft. The NASA "Dawn" spacecraft used the gravity of Mars in 2009 to change direction and velocity on its way to Vesta, and tested out "Dawn" cameras and other instruments on Mars.
Exploration of Mars | "Rosetta" and "Dawn" swingbys
This is a list of all spacecraft landings on other planets and bodies in the Solar System, including soft landings and both intended and unintended hard impacts. The list includes orbiters that were intentionally crashed, but not orbiters which later crashed in an unplanned manner due to orbital decay. For a list of all planetary missions, including orbiters and flybys, see List of Solar System probes.
List of landings on extraterrestrial bodies | Introduction
Mars 6 failed during descent but did return some corrupted atmospheric data in 1974. The 1975 NASA launches of the Viking program consisted of two orbiters, each with a lander that successfully soft landed in 1976. "Viking 1" remained operational for six years, "Viking 2" for three. The Viking landers relayed the first color panoramas of Mars. The Soviet probes Phobos 1 and 2 were sent to Mars in 1988 to study Mars and its two moons, with a focus on Phobos. Phobos 1 lost contact on the way to Mars. Phobos 2, while successfully photographing Mars and Phobos, failed before it was set to release two landers to the surface of Phobos.
Exploration of Mars | Past and current missions
On 2 June 2003, the European Space Agency's "Mars Express" set off from Baikonur Cosmodrome to Mars. The Mars Express craft consisted of the "Mars Express Orbiter" and the lander "Beagle 2". Although the landing probe was not designed to move, it carried a digging device and the smallest mass spectrometer created to date, as well as a range of other devices, on a robotic arm in order to accurately analyse soil beneath the dusty surface. The orbiter entered Mars orbit on 25 December 2003, and "Beagle 2" should have entered Mars' atmosphere the same day. However, attempts to contact the lander failed.
Mars landing | Mars Express and "Beagle 2"
It was, however, a very ambitious mission and the heaviest interplanetary probe launched up to that time. The mission included an orbiter, surface stations and surface penetrators. The mission included a large complement of instruments provided by India, France, Germany, other European countries and the United States. Similar instruments have since been flown on Mars Express, launched in 2003. Its project scientist was Alexander Zakharov.
Mars 96 | Introduction
NASA's Launch Services Program managed the launch of both spacecraft. The probes landed in January 2004 in widely separated equatorial locations on Mars. On January 21, 2004, the Deep Space Network lost contact with "Spirit", for reasons originally thought to be related to a flare shower over Australia. The rover transmitted a message with no data, but later that day missed another communications session with the Mars Global Surveyor. The next day, JPL received a beep from the rover, indicating that it was in fault mode. On January 23, the flight team succeeded in making the rover send. The fault was believed to have been caused by an error in the rover's flash memory subsystem.
Mars Exploration Rover | History
In early 2004, the "Mars Express" Planetary Fourier Spectrometer team announced the orbiter had detected methane in the Martian atmosphere, a potential biosignature. ESA announced in June 2006 the discovery of aurorae on Mars by the "Mars Express". In January 2004, the NASA twin Mars Exploration Rovers named "Spirit" (MER-A) and "Opportunity" (MER-B) landed on the surface of Mars. Both have met and exceeded all their science objectives. Among the most significant scientific returns has been conclusive evidence that liquid water existed at some time in the past at both landing sites. Martian dust devils and windstorms have occasionally cleaned both rovers' solar panels, and thus increased their lifespan.
Exploration of Mars | Recent missions
The Mars Climate Orbiter (formerly the Mars Surveyor '98 Orbiter) was a robotic space probe launched by NASA on December 11, 1998 to study the Martian climate, Martian atmosphere, and surface changes and to act as the communications relay in the Mars Surveyor '98 program for Mars Polar Lander. However, on September 23, 1999, communication with the spacecraft was lost as the spacecraft went into orbital insertion, due to ground-based computer software which produced output in non-SI units of pound-force seconds (lbf·s) instead of the SI units of newton-seconds (N·s) specified in the contract between NASA and Lockheed. The spacecraft encountered Mars on a trajectory that brought it too close to the planet, and it was either destroyed in the atmosphere or re-entered heliocentric space after leaving Mars' atmosphere.
Mars Climate Orbiter | Introduction
The aim of the Mars Science Laboratory mission, and its surface robotic payload "Curiosity" rover, is to search for signs of ancient life. It is hoped that a later mission could then return samples that the laboratory identified as probably containing remains of life. To safely bring the craft down, a 12 mile wide, smooth, flat circle was needed. Geologists hoped to examine places where water once ponded and to examine sedimentary layers. On August 6, 2012, the Mars Science Laboratory landed on Aeolis Palus near Aeolis Mons in Gale Crater. The landing was from the target (), closer than any previous rover landing and well within the target area.
Aeolis quadrangle | Mars Science Laboratory discoveries
If it did succeed in following its automatic programming, and attempted the manoeuvre, however, there is a chance it crashed on Mars. Three landers have had hard landings on Mars. These are "Schiaparelli EDM lander", the "Mars Polar Lander", and "Deep Space 2". These were all sterilized for surface missions but not for special regions (Viking pre-sterilization only). "Mars Polar Lander", and "Deep Space 2" crashed into the polar regions which are now treated as special regions because of the possibility of forming liquid brines.
Planetary protection | Issues with impact prevention
A Mars landing is a landing of a spacecraft on the surface of Mars. Of multiple attempted Mars landings by robotic, unmanned spacecraft, ten have had successful soft landings. There have also been studies for a possible human mission to Mars, including a landing, but none have been attempted. The most recent landing took place on 26 November 2018 by the NASA probe InSight.
Mars landing | Introduction
Landing a large mass on Mars is particularly challenging as the atmosphere is too thin for parachutes and aerobraking alone to be effective, while remaining thick enough to create stability and impingement problems when decelerating with retrorockets. Although some previous missions have used airbags to cushion the shock of landing, "Curiosity" rover is too heavy for this to be an option. Instead, "Curiosity" was set down on the Martian surface using a new high-accuracy entry, descent, and landing (EDL) system that was part of the MSL spacecraft descent stage. The mass of this EDL system, including parachute, sky crane, fuel and aeroshell, is .
Mars Science Laboratory | EDL spacecraft system
The spacecraft carried one large and three small atmospheric probes, designed to collect data as they descended into the atmosphere of Venus. The probes did not carry photographic instruments, and were not designed to survive landing – the smaller probes were not equipped with parachutes, and the larger probe's parachute was expected to detach as it neared the ground. All four probes continued transmitting data until impact; however, one survived and continued to transmit data from the surface.
Pioneer Venus Multiprobe | Probes
American interplanetary probes continued in the 1980s, the Voyager duo being the most known. After making a flyby of Jupiter in 1979, they went near Saturn in 1980–1981. Voyager 2 reached Uranus in 1986 (just a few days before the "Challenger" disaster), and Neptune in 1989 before the probes exited the solar system. No American probes were launched to Mars in the 1980s, and the Viking probes, launched there in 1975, completed their operations by 1982. The Soviets launched two Mars probes in 1988, but they failed. The arrival of Halley's Comet in 1986 was met by a series of Soviet, Japanese and European Space Agency (ESA) probes, namely Halley Armada.
1980s | Space exploration
Mars and Comet Siding Spring were visible to the STEREO-A spacecraft during the 2014 encounter. In orbit around Mars were the spacecraft Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, 2001 Mars Odyssey, ESA's Mars Express, MAVEN, and the Indian Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan). The last two missions had arrived less than one month before the closest approach of C/2013 A1 to Mars. All these artificial satellites may have been exposed to potentially damaging particles. The level of exposure will not be known for months, but NASA had taken several "precautionary measures" as it prepared to study C/2013 A1. Two key strategies to lessen the risk were to place the orbiters on the opposite side of Mars at the time of the highest risk and to orient the orbiters so that their most vulnerable parts were not in the line of impact.
C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) | Observation
It is designed to assess the past and present habitability on Mars using a variety of scientific instruments. The rover landed on Mars at Gale Crater in August 2012.
Extraterrestrial life | Direct search
Dozens of crewless spacecraft, including orbiters, landers, and rovers, have been sent to Mars by the Soviet Union, the United States, Europe, and India to study the planet's surface, climate, and geology. , Mars is host to eight functioning spacecraft: six in orbit — "2001 Mars Odyssey", "Mars Express", "Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter", "MAVEN", "Mars Orbiter Mission" and "ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter" — and two on the surface — Mars Science Laboratory "Curiosity" (rover) and "InSight" (lander). The public can request images of Mars via the "Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter" HiWish program. The Mars Science Laboratory, named "Curiosity", launched on 26 November 2011, and reached Mars on 6 August 2012 UTC.
Mars | Exploration
The Venera 3 to 6 probes were similar. Weighing approximately one ton, and launched by the Molniya-type booster rocket, they included a cruise "bus" and a spherical atmospheric entry probe. The probes were optimised for atmospheric measurements, but not equipped with any special landing apparatus. Although it was hoped they would reach the surface still functioning, the first probes failed almost immediately, thereby disabling data transmission to Earth. Venera 3 became the first human-made object to impact another planet's surface as it crash-landed on March 1, 1966. However, as the spacecraft's data probes had failed upon atmospheric penetration, no data from within the Venusian boundary were retrieved from the mission.
Venera | Venera 3 to 6
NASA's "Mars Odyssey" orbiter entered Mars orbit in 2001. "Odyssey" Gamma Ray Spectrometer detected significant amounts of hydrogen in the upper metre or so of regolith on Mars. This hydrogen is thought to be contained in large deposits of water ice. The "Mars Express" mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) reached Mars in 2003. It carried the "Beagle 2" lander, which was not heard from after being released and was declared lost in February 2004. "Beagle 2" was located in January 2015 by HiRise camera on NASA's "Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter" (MRO) having landed safely but failed to fully deploy its solar panels and antenna.
Exploration of Mars | Recent missions
Deep Space 2 was a NASA probe part of the New Millennium Program. It included two highly advanced miniature space probes that were sent to Mars aboard the Mars Polar Lander in January 1999. The probes were named "Scott" and "Amundsen", in honor of Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Amundsen, the first explorers to reach the Earth's South Pole. Intended to be the first spacecraft to penetrate below the surface of another planet, after entering the Mars atmosphere DS2 was to detach from the Mars Polar Lander mother ship and plummet to the surface using only an aeroshell impactor, with no parachute.
Deep Space 2 | Introduction
Mars 1, also known as 1962 Beta Nu 1, Mars 2MV-4 and Sputnik 23, was an automatic interplanetary station launched in the direction of Mars on November 1, 1962, the first of the Soviet Mars probe program, with the intent of flying by the planet at a distance of about . It was designed to image the surface and send back data on cosmic radiation, micrometeoroid impacts and Mars' magnetic field, radiation environment, atmospheric structure, and possible organic compounds. After leaving Earth orbit, the spacecraft and the Molniya (rocket) booster fourth stage separated and the solar panels were deployed. Early telemetry indicated that there was a leak in one of the gas valves in the orientation system so the spacecraft was transferred to gyroscopic stabilization.
Mars 1 | Introduction
As the probe's antenna is beneath the last panel, it would have been unable to transmit or receive in such a configuration, so it would have been beyond recovery even if its systems were still operational, which is not known. Possible failure scenarios include mechanical damage during landing, fouling the deployment mechanism, or obstruction of the panels by an airbag. Eleven years after the landing, the ESA had this to say about the finding:
Beagle 2 | Discovery of "Beagle 2" spacecraft on Mars
In 1966, the Moon became the first Solar System body beyond Earth to be orbited by an artificial satellite ("Luna 10"), followed by Mars in 1971 ("Mariner 9"), Venus in 1975 ("Venera 9"), Jupiter in 1995 ("Galileo"), the asteroid 433 Eros in 2000 ("NEAR Shoemaker"), Saturn in 2004 ("Cassini–Huygens"), and Mercury and Vesta in 2011 ("MESSENGER" and "Dawn" respectively). "Dawn" is orbiting the asteroid–dwarf planet Ceres as of 2015. The first probe to land on another Solar System body was the Soviet "Luna 2" probe, which impacted the Moon in 1959. Since then, increasingly distant planets have been reached, with probes landing on or impacting the surfaces of Venus in 1966 ("Venera 3"), Mars in 1971 ("Mars 3", although a fully successful landing didn't occur until "Viking 1" in 1976), the asteroid 433 Eros in 2001 ("NEAR Shoemaker"), and Saturn's moon Titan ("Huygens") and the comet Tempel 1 ("Deep Impact") in 2005.
Discovery and exploration of the Solar System | Orbiters, rovers and landers
Phobos 2 was the last space probe designed by the Soviet Union. It was designed to explore the moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos. It was launched on 12 July 1988, and entered orbit on 29 January 1989. "Phobos 2" operated nominally throughout its cruise and Mars orbital insertion phases on 29 January 1989, gathering data on the Sun, interplanetary medium, Mars, and Phobos. "Phobos 2" investigated Mars surface and atmosphere and returned 37 images of Phobos with a resolution of up to 40 meters. Shortly before the final phase of the mission, during which the spacecraft was to approach within of Phobos' surface and release two landers (One, a mobile , the other, a stationary platform) contact with "Phobos 2" was lost.
Phobos 2 | Introduction
NASA describes the spacecraft as: nearly identical to the Venera 1 design, a cylindrical body about 2 meters high with two solar panel wings, a 2.33 meter high-gain net antenna, and a long antenna arm, and had a mass of about 650 kg. It carried a 10 kg science payload consisting of a magnetometer on a boom, cosmic ray counter, plasma-ion trap, a radiometer, a micrometeorite detector, and a spectroreflectometer to study the CH band, a possible indicator of life on Mars. These instruments were mounted on the outside of the spacecraft. A photo-television camera was held in a sealed module in the spacecraft and could take pictures through a viewport when a sensor indicated the Sun-illuminated martian surface was in view.
Mars 1M | Spacecraft and subsystems
The cause of the failure was determined to be a malfunction of the on-board computer. Just a few years later in 1992 Mars Observer, launched by NASA, failed as it approached Mars. Mars 96, an orbiter launched on November 16, 1996 by Russia failed, when the planned second burn of the Block D-2 fourth stage did not occur.
Exploration of Mars | Probing difficulties
Almost every unmanned space probe ever launched was a robot. Some were launched in the 1960s with very limited abilities, but their ability to fly and land (in the case of Luna 9) is an indication of their status as a robot. This includes the Voyager probes and the Galileo probes, among others.
Robot | Space probes
The spacecraft measured 3.6 meters wide and 1.06 meters tall with the legs and solar arrays fully deployed. The base was primarily constructed with an aluminum honeycomb deck, composite graphite–epoxy sheets forming the edge, and three aluminum legs. During landing, the legs were to deploy from stowed position with compression springs and absorb the force of the landing with crushable aluminum honeycomb inserts in each leg. On the deck of the lander, a small thermal Faraday cage enclosure housed the computer, power distribution electronics and batteries, telecommunication electronics, and the capillary pump loop heat pipe (LHP) components, which maintained operable temperature.
Mars Polar Lander | Spacecraft design
Several close-up pictures (close-up 1) (close-up 2) were taken of the object and preliminary interpretations by scientists suggest the object to be "debris from the spacecraft". Nonetheless, further images in the nearby sand have detected other bright particles (image) (close-up 1). These newly discovered objects are presently thought to be native Martian material.
Rocknest (Mars) | Introduction
Between 1960 and 1969, the Soviet Union launched nine probes intended to reach Mars. They all failed: three at launch; three failed to reach near-Earth orbit; one during the burn to put the spacecraft into trans-Mars trajectory; and two during the interplanetary orbit. The Mars 1M programs (sometimes dubbed Marsnik in Western media) was the first Soviet unmanned spacecraft interplanetary exploration program, which consisted of two flyby probes launched towards Mars in October 1960, Mars 1960A and Mars 1960B (also known as "Korabl 4" and "Korabl 5" respectively). After launch, the third stage pumps on both launchers were unable to develop enough pressure to commence ignition, so Earth parking orbit was not achieved.
Exploration of Mars | 1960s
This is the only landing accomplished in the outer Solar System. It was also the first landing on a moon other than Earth's Moon. "Huygens" touched down on land, although the possibility that it would touch down in an ocean was also taken into account in its design. The probe was designed to gather data for a few hours in the atmosphere, and possibly a short time at the surface. It continued to send data for about 90 minutes after touchdown.
Huygens (spacecraft) | Introduction
NASA successfully lands a robotic surveyor on Mars. The rover begins to explore, but after just a few minutes it is completely destroyed by what appears to be a high energy surge. At exactly the same instant back at mission control, Dr. Dave Fielding (Kent Taylor), in charge of the project, suddenly feels oddly disconnected and not himself; he shakes it off and then goes to face the crowd of expectant reporters. Right after he leaves, his exact body double is sitting at his desk. Dave then leaves for a vacation and flies to California to be with his family; they are now staying in the guest house of a lavish mansion belonging to his wife's family.
The Day Mars Invaded Earth | Plot
According to NASA, an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 heat-resistant bacterial spores were on "Curiosity" at launch, and as much as 1,000 times that number may not have been counted.
Mars Science Laboratory | Landing site
Mariner 9 (Mariner Mars '71 / Mariner-I) was a robotic space probe that contributed greatly to the exploration of Mars and was part of the NASA Mariner program. Mariner 9 was launched toward Mars on May 30, 1971 from LC-36B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, and reached the planet on November 14 of the same year, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit another planet – only narrowly beating the Soviet probes "Mars 2" (launched May 19) and "Mars 3" (launched May 28), which both arrived at Mars only weeks later. After the occurrence of dust storms on the planet for several months following its arrival, the orbiter managed to send back clear pictures of the surface.
Mariner 9 | Introduction
In October 1999, Deep Space 1 made observations of Mars after its flyby of asteroid Braille. Although this was a very distant flyby it did succeed in taking multiple infrared spectra with its MICAS instrument of the planet. In 2018, Mars Cube One (MarCO), two flyby CubeSats to relay communication from "InSight" lander during its EDL were launched towards Mars with the cruise stage. Both MarCOs reached Mars and successfully relayed data during the entry, descent, and landing phase of "Insight" on November 26, 2018.
Mars flyby | History
Remotely guided space probes have flown by all of the planets of the Solar System from Mercury to Neptune, with the "New Horizons" probe having flown by the dwarf planet Pluto and the "Dawn" spacecraft currently orbiting the dwarf planet Ceres. The most distant spacecraft, "Voyager 1" and "Voyager 2" have left the Solar System as of while "Pioneer 10", "Pioneer 11", and "New Horizons" are on course to leave it. In general, planetary orbiters and landers return much more detailed and comprehensive information than fly-by missions. Space probes have been placed into orbit around all the five planets known to the ancients: The first being Venus (Venera 7, 1970), Jupiter ("Galileo", 1995), Saturn ("Cassini/Huygens", 2004), and most recently Mercury ("MESSENGER", March 2011), and have returned data about these bodies and their natural satellites.
Interplanetary spaceflight | Current achievements in interplanetary travel
The "Galileo" orbiter also dropped a probe into Jupiter's atmosphere in 1995; because Jupiter has no physical surface, it was destroyed by increasing temperature and pressure as it descended. To date, only two worlds in the Solar System, the Moon and Mars, have been visited by mobile rovers. The first robotic rover to visit another celestial body was the Soviet "Lunokhod 1", which landed on the Moon in 1970. The first to visit another planet was Sojourner, which travelled 500 metres across the surface of Mars in 1997. The only manned rover to visit another world was NASA's Lunar Roving Vehicle, which traveled with Apollos 15, 16 and 17 between 1971 and 1972.
Discovery and exploration of the Solar System | Orbiters, rovers and landers
On December 3, 1999, "Mars Polar Lander" encountered Mars while mission operators began preparing for landing operations. At 14:39:00 UTC, the cruise stage was jettisoned, beginning a planned communication dropout until the spacecraft had touched down on the surface. Six minutes prior to atmospheric entry, a programmed 80-second thruster firing turned the spacecraft to the proper entry orientation, with the heat shield oriented to absorb the 1,650 °C heat that would be generated as the descent capsule passed through the atmosphere. Traveling at 6.9 kilometers per second, the entry capsule entered the Martian atmosphere at 20:10:00 UTC and was expected to land in the vicinity of in a region known as Planum Australe.
Mars Polar Lander | Landing attempt
The Mars 6 spacecraft carried an array of instruments to study Mars. The lander was equipped with a thermometer and barometer to determine the surface conditions, an accelerometer and radio altimeter for descent, and instruments to analyse the surface material including a mass spectrometer. The coast stage, or bus, carried a magnetometer, plasma traps, cosmic ray and micrometeoroid detectors, and an instrument to study proton and electron fluxes from the Sun. Built by Lavochkin, Mars 6 was the first of two 3MP spacecraft launched to Mars in 1973 and was followed by Mars 7. Two orbiters, Mars 4 and Mars 5, were launched earlier in the 1973 Mars launch window and were expected to relay data for the two landers.
Mars 6 | Spacecraft
Marpost would be launched to Mars together with a fleet of robotic spacecraft designed to study the planet both from its orbit and on its surface, while the crew would remain in Mars orbit. The station would reach Mars orbit from where its crew would research Mars by operating the robots; for this reason the mission is called a 'hybrid'. Since the robots would be controlled by Marpost crewmembers from Martian orbit it would eliminate one of the basic problems of robotic Mars missions, the 14 minutes delay for radio signals to reach the Earth. Samples of Martian soil would then be delivered by these robots to Marpost and later brought back to Earth.
Mars Piloted Orbital Station | Mission scenario
If funded by the Russian space agency Roscosmos, it would be developed by the Russian Space Research Institute and NPO Lavochkin, based on Fobos-Grunt technology. Designs show a dome-shaped lander would separate from the orbiter and would enter the Martian atmosphere protected within an inflatable rubber braking cone and fire retrorockets for a soft landing. Once a robotic arm selects and retrieves the samples (mass about ), a small rocket in the top of the lander would blast the ascent vehicle for rendezvous and docking with the orbiter for the soil sample transfer into the return vehicle.
Mars-Grunt | Lander
The NASA Mars Science Laboratory mission with its rover named "Curiosity", was launched on November 26, 2011, and landed on Mars on August 6, 2012 on Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater. The rover carries instruments designed to look for past or present conditions relevant to the past or present habitability of Mars.
Exploration of Mars | "Curiosity" rover
Mars 7 spacecraft carried an array of instruments to study Mars. The lander was equipped with a thermometer and barometer to determine the surface conditions, an accelerometer and radio altimeter for descent, and instruments to analyse the surface material including a mass spectrometer. The coast stage, or bus, carried a magnetometer, plasma traps, cosmic ray and micrometeoroid detectors, stereo antennae, and an instrument to study proton and electron fluxes from the Sun. Built by Lavochkin, Mars 7 was the second of two 3MP spacecraft launched to Mars in 1973, having been preceded by Mars 6. Two orbiters, Mars 4 and Mars 5, were launched earlier in the 1973 Mars launch window and were expected to relay data for the two landers.
Mars 7 | Spacecraft
On November 27, 1971 the lander of Mars 2 crash-landed due to an on-board computer malfunction and became the first man-made object to reach the surface of Mars. On 2 December 1971, the Mars 3 lander became the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing, but its transmission was interrupted after 14.5 seconds. The Mars 2 and 3 orbiters sent back a relatively large volume of data covering the period from December 1971 to March 1972, although transmissions continued through to August. By 22 August 1972, after sending back data and a total of 60 pictures, Mars 2 and 3 concluded their missions.
Exploration of Mars | 1970s
The Russian Space Agency launched a sample return mission to Phobos in November 2011, called "Fobos-Grunt". The return capsule also included a life science experiment of The Planetary Society, called Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment, or LIFE. A second contributor to this mission was the China National Space Administration, which supplied a surveying satellite called "Yinghuo-1", which would have been released in the orbit of Mars, and a soil-grinding and sieving system for the scientific payload of the Phobos lander. However, after achieving Earth orbit, the "Fobos–Grunt" probe failed to initiate subsequent burns that would have sent it to Mars. Attempts to recover the probe were unsuccessful and it crashed back to Earth in January 2012.
Phobos (moon) | Launched missions
The spacecraft reached an altitude of 120 km before reentry. Mars 1962A was a Mars flyby mission, launched on October 24, 1962 and Mars 1962B an intended first Mars lander mission, launched in late December of the same year (1962). Both failed from either breaking up as they were going into Earth orbit or having the upper stage explode in orbit during the burn to put the spacecraft into trans-Mars trajectory.
Exploration of Mars | 1960s
The Mars Polar Lander carried two small, identical impactor probes known as "Deep Space 2 A and B". The probes were intended to strike the surface with a high velocity at approximately to penetrate the Martian soil and study the subsurface composition up to a meter in depth. However, after entering the Martian atmosphere, attempts to contact the probes failed. Deep Space 2 was funded by the New Millennium Program, and their development costs was US$28 million.
Mars Polar Lander | Deep Space 2 Probes
"Phoenix" launched on 4 August 2007, and touched down on the northern polar region of Mars on 25 May 2008. It is famous for having been successfully photographed while landing, since this was the first time one spacecraft captured the landing of another spacecraft onto a planetary body (the Moon not being a planet, but a satellite). "Phoenix" was followed by the Mars Science Laboratory, a rover more capable than "Spirit" and "Opportunity". Originally the Mars Science Laboratory was intended for a launch during 2009 however, it was launched on 26 November 2011. Russia launched Fobos-Grunt, a sample return mission to Phobos, along with the joint Chinese Yinghuo-1 Mars orbiter in November 2011, which went into Earth orbit successfully, but failed to launch to Mars.
Mars landing | "Phoenix"