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Mariner 4
Mariner 4 was the 4th spacecraft in the Mariner series. It was the first successful Mariner and the first successful spacecraft to go to Mars and return pictures of the surface. Mariner 4 was launched on November 28, 1964 and kept transmitting images of the Mars environment to Earth. These pictures were one of the first pictures that scientists have of Mars. -
Mars 2
The Mars 2 was a space probe of the Mars program, a series of Mars landers and orbiters launched by the Soviet Union in the early 1970s. Identical to Mars 3, this probe launched on May 19, 1971 and made 362 successful orbits until August 22, 1972. This spacecraft blasted when it crash-landed into Mars during its 363rd orbit and that was the end of the mission. -
Mariner 9
The Mariner 9 was a NASA space probe. Mariner 9 was launched from Earth on May 30th, 1971, and landed on Mars on November 14th, 1971. The probe returned 7329 images over the course of its mission, which concluded in October 1972. The Mariner 9 is still orbiting Mars and will be until it burns up or crashes into Mars’ surface. -
Viking 2
The Viking 2 mission was part of the American Viking program to Mars. It was made of an orbiter and a lander. These 2 parts were identical to the Viking 1 spacecraft. The Viking 2 lander operated on the surface for 1316 days and was turned off on April 11, 1980, when its batteries failed. It returned over 16 000 images of Mars’ atmosphere in 706 orbits. -
Mars Express
The Mars Express is a space exploration mission that is being conducted by the European Space Agency. The launch date for this mission was June 2nd, 2003, and landed on Christmas of the same year. Arriving at Mars in 2003, it is the second longest still surviving, continually active spacecraft in orbit around a planet other than Earth, behind only NASA's still active 2001 Mars Odyssey. It is one of 14 active machines in orbit around Mars. -
Rosetta
Rosetta was a space probe built by the European Space Agency launched on 2 March 2004. It made its closest approach to Mars on February 25th, 2007 at 250 km away from the surface. On 12 November, 2007, its lander module Philae performed the first successful landing on a comet. On 30 September 2016, the Rosetta spacecraft ended its mission by landing on the comet in the Ma'at region (its hometown). -
Phoenix
Phoenix was a robotic spacecraft on a mission to Mars. Phoenix was NASA's sixth successful landing out of seven attempts and was the first successful landing in a Mars polar region – the North and South poles. This probe’s launch date was August 4, 2007 and landed on May 25, 2008. The date NASA lost contact with this probe was November 2nd, 2008 - meaning it was only operational for 456 days. -
Mangalyaan
The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also called Mangalyaan is a space probe that is orbiting Mars since September 24th, 2014. It was launched on 5 November 2013 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It is India’s first spacecraft to be launched. Mangalyaan is the first Asian nation to reach Mars orbit, and the first nation in the world to do so in its first attempt. The mission is a project to develop technologies for designing, planning, etc. -
ExoMars
ExoMars (Exobiology on Mars) is an astrobiology project to search for any evidence of life on Mars. It consists of 2 parts, the first part, launched on 14 March, 2016, and the second part, planned to launch in 2020. The first part put a trace gas research and communication satellite into orbit around Mars. The second part will land a rover on the Martian surface. ExoMars will search for signs/traces of life – past or present – on Mars. -
Mars One
The Mars One is an organization that aims to “establish a permanent human settlement on Mars.” They will try to establish a permanent human colony there by 2032. Mars One’s first crew will launch in 2031 and land on Mars in 2032. This company was founded in 2011 when they started making plans for living on Mars. Astronauts had to go to the stages of tryouts to see who was selected as the “Mars One crew”
