When is the next rover heading to Mars?
Mars 2020
The mission will seek signs of habitable conditions on Mars in the ancient past, and will also search for evidence —or biosignatures— of past microbial life. The rover is planned for launch in 2020 on an Atlas V-541, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will manage the mission. The mission is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program.
2016 in spaceflight
The ExoMars mission, a collaboration between the European and Russian space agencies, was launched on 14 March and reached Mars on 19 October. Dedicated to astrobiology investigations, this flight carried the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, which reached Mars orbit, and the Schiaparelli EDM lander, which crashed upon landing. A subsequent flight scheduled for 2020 will carry the ExoMars rover along with four static surface instruments. 
Meanwhile, the Japanese space probe Akatsuki started its observations of Venus in May after spending five months gradually adjusting its orbit. 
Planetary exploration activities took center stage with the orbit insertion of NASA's Juno probe at Jupiter on 4 July, followed by the launch of NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission to asteroid 101955 Bennu on 8 September. Finally, on 30 September, the Rosetta probe executed a slow crash-landing on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
Hope Mars Mission
This spacecraft orbiter is a planned uncrewed mission to Mars by the United Arab Emirates to study the Martian atmosphere and climate. The "Hope" probe is expected to be launched from Japan in the summer of 2020 and it will take seven to nine months to arrive at Mars.
Large Strategic Science Missions
The 2020s decade will see two planetary launches, the Mars 2020 rover and the "Europa Clipper", and a third, a Europa Lander has been studied for possible launch as early as 2024.
Mars aircraft
A small scout drone, launching from a Mars rover has been in development in the late 2010s, including US$23 million for a helicopter demonstration in 2018. The program for the Mars Helicopter Scout possibly for the Mars 2020 rover would high resolution downward-looking camera for navigation, landing, and science surveying of the terrain, and a communication system to relay data back to the rover.Mars Express HRSC and MRO's HiRISE data can provide virtual Mars flyovers by draping surface pictures over 3D terrain models.
Mars One
Mars One's original concept includes launching a robotic Mars lander and Mars orbiter as early as 2020, to be followed by a human crew of four in 2024, and one in 2026 which would not be returning to Earth. Although the announcement garnered much international publicity, the concept has been criticized by scientists, engineers, and those in the aerospace industry. Mars One is noted as being very short on funding, lacking critical concepts about hardware, life support, electrical power supply, and has been criticized as glossing over logistics, medical concerns, and protection against space radiation. The concept has been called a suicide mission both in academia, spaceflight, and international news. 
By February 2015, two conceptual studies were done by contractors. Despite the criticism and lack of funding, about 2,700 people applied to become one of the 24 finalists "to settle Mars".
Mars Micro Orbiter
The orbiter study will undergo a preliminary design review in March 2018, potentially launching as a secondary payload on another mission in 2020.
Exploration of Mars
The Mars Orbiter Mission, also called "Mangalyaan", was launched on 5 November 2013 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was successfully inserted into Martian orbit on 24 September 2014. The mission is a technology demonstrator, and as secondary objective, it will also study the Martian atmosphere. This is India's first mission to Mars, and with it, ISRO became the fourth space agency to successfully reach Mars after the Soviet Union, NASA (USA) and ESA (Europe). It also made ISRO the second space agency to reach Mars orbit on its first attempt (the first national one, after the international ESA), and also the first Asian country to successfully send an orbiter to Mars. It was completed in a record low budget of $71 million, making it the least-expensive Mars mission to date.
Rover (space exploration)
"Opportunity" is a robotic rover on the planet Mars, active since 2004. It is the remaining rover in NASA's ongoing Mars Exploration Rover Mission. Launched from Earth on July 7, 2003, it landed on the Martian Meridiani Planum on January 25, 2004 at 05:05 Ground UTC (about 13:15 local time), three weeks after its twin "Spirit" (MER-A) touched down on the other side of the planet. On July 28, 2014, NASA announced that "Opportunity", after having traveled over on the planet Mars, has set a new "off-world" record as the rover having driven the greatest distance, surpassing the previous record held by the Soviet Union's Lunokhod 2 rover that had traveled . ()
Mars 2020
In November 2018, NASA announced that Jezero crater on Mars will be the landing site for the Mars 2020 rover, which is to launch on 17 July 2020, and touch down on Mars on 18 February 2021.
ExoMars
Since its inception, ExoMars has gone through several phases of planning with various proposals for landers, orbiters, launch vehicles, and international cooperation planning, such as the defunct 2009 Mars Exploration Joint Initiative (MEJI) with the United States.
Originally, the ExoMars concept consisted of a large robotic rover being part of ESA's Aurora Programme as a "Flagship mission" and was approved by the European Space Agency ministers in December 2005. Originally conceived as a rover with a stationary ground station, ExoMars was planned to launch in 2011 aboard a Russian Soyuz Fregat rocket.
Adam Steltzner
As of 2017, Steltzner is the chief engineer of the Mars 2020 project, which will launch a "Curiosity"-class rover to Mars in 2020. The mission will take Martian surface samples and rock cores for potential return to Earth by a later mission.
Astrobiology
The European Space Agency is currently collaborating with the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and developing the ExoMars astrobiology rover, which is to be launched in July 2020. Meanwhile, NASA is developing the Mars 2020 astrobiology rover and sample cacher for a later return to Earth.
Hope Mars Mission
The rocket will be launched during a brief launch window in July 2020. If the launch opportunity is missed, the mission would have to wait two years for the next window. The spacecraft will be launched from Japan using a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries H-IIA launcher, and is set to arrive at Mars in 2021.
2020s in spaceflight
In 2020, NASA plans to launch the Mars 2020 rover, as well as carry out the maiden launch of the Space Launch System; in 2022, NASA plans to carry out the first crewed flight of the Space Launch System.
2021 in spaceflight
Two spaceflights to the Moon are planned to take place in 2021. Japan plans to launch the SLIM lunar lander, and Russia will resume its Luna-Glob exploration programme with the Luna 25 lander. NASA plans a return to the Moon sometime in the 2020s, and following that a manned exploration of Mars in the mid 2030s.
Timeline of Mars Science Laboratory
Having completed its mobility tests, the rover's first drive began on August 29, 2012 to a place called Glenelg about to the east. Glenelg is a location where three types of terrain intersect, and is the mission's first major driving destination. The drive across may take up to two months, after which "Curiosity" will stay at Glenelg for a month.
Mars sample-return mission
In October 2009, NASA and ESA established the Mars Exploration Joint Initiative to proceed with the ExoMars mission, whose ultimate aim is "the return of samples from Mars in the 2020s". A first step in this was one particular proposal, a joint project between NASA and ESA called ExoMars, would launch in 2018 with unspecified missions to return the sample itself expected in the 2020–2022 time frame. The cancellation of the caching rover MAX-C and later NASA withdrawal from ExoMars, pushed back a sample-return mission to an undetermined date.
SpaceX reusable launch system development program
SpaceX intended (from at least 2014) to develop technology to extend reusable flight hardware to second stages, a more challenging engineering problem because the vehicle is travelling at orbital velocity,
which is considered paramount to the plans Elon Musk is championing to enable the settlement of Mars. It is thus planned to be developed for all of the flight hardware for the new SpaceX vehicles planned to transit to Mars, with initial test flights expected no earlier than 2020. SpaceX will also experiment with second stage recovery on a few select Falcon 9 flights or Falcon Heavy flights. 
After 2017, much of the reusable technology development work and testing turned substantially toward advances in reusable second-stage-with-integrated-spaceship technology to support BFR use not merely in Earth's atmosphere, but also as intended to be used on Solar system celestial bodies such as the Moon and Mars with very diverse atmospheric characteristics.
Mars 2020
The three major components of the Mars 2020 spacecraft are the cruise stage for travel between Earth and Mars; the Entry, Descent, and Landing System (EDLS) that includes the aeroshell, parachute, descent vehicle, and sky crane; and the rover.
List of Mars orbiters
Contact with all eight Mars orbiters launched during the 20th century has been lost. NASA's four spacecraft are conjectured to remain in Mars' orbit. Mariner 9, "Viking 1" and "Viking 2" are expected to lower down into the Martian atmosphere by 2022 and either burn up or crash into the planet's surface. "Mars Global Surveyor" is expected to crash onto the surface of the planet by 2047. The fate of the Soviet's three Mars program orbiters and Phobos 2 remains unclear, but they are still presumed to be in orbit.
Scientific information from the Mars Exploration Rover mission
The ongoing unmanned Mars exploration mission, commenced in 2003 sent two robotic rovers, "Spirit" and "Opportunity", to explore the Martian surface and geology. The mission was led by Project Manager Peter Theisinger of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Principal Investigator Steven Squyres, professor of astronomy at Cornell University.
MAVEN
MAVEN reached Mars and maneuvered into orbit around the planet on September 21, 2014. The Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite on board the Curiosity rover was scheduled to make similar surface measurements from Gale crater by that date. The data from Curiosity will help guide the interpretation of MAVEN's upper atmosphere measurements. MAVEN's measurements will also provide additional scientific context with which to test models for current methane formation in Mars.
2020 in spaceflight
NASA plans to launch the Mars 2020 rover, as well as carry out the maiden launch of the Space Launch System. China plans to begin construction of the Chinese large modular space station with the launch of the Tianhe Core Cabin Module. SpaceX hopes to begin orbital testing of its fully reusable two-stage-to-orbit vehicle BFR.
Mars rover
There have been four successful robotically operated Mars rovers. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory managed the "Sojourner" rover, the "Opportunity" rover, "Spirit" rover, and, now the "Curiosity" rover. On January 24, 2016 NASA reported that current studies on Mars by the "Curiosity" and "Opportunity" rovers would be searching for evidence of ancient life, including a biosphere based on autotrophic, chemotrophic or chemolithoautotrophic microorganisms, as well as ancient water, including fluvio-lacustrine environments (plains related to ancient rivers or lakes) that may have been habitable. The search for evidence of habitability, taphonomy (related to fossils), and organic carbon on Mars is now a primary NASA objective. Since June 2018, the "Opportunity" rover has been out of contact after going into hibernation mode in a dust storm. NASA has stated they are unsure if they will ever be able to regain contact.
Timeline of Mars Science Laboratory
On December 13, 2011, the rover began monitoring space radiation to aid in planning for future manned missions to Mars.
Lander (spacecraft)
Mars 96 was the first complex post-Soviet Russian mission with an orbiter, lander and penetrators. Planned for 1996, it failed at launch. A planned repeat of this mission, Mars 98, was cancelled due to lack of funding.
The U.S. Mars Pathfinder was launched in December 1996 and released the first acting rover on Mars, named "Sojourner", in July 1997. It failed in September 1997, probably due to electronics failure caused by the cold temperatures. Mars Pathfinder was part of the cancelled Mars Environmental Survey program with a set of 16 landers planned for 1999–2009.
The Mars Polar Lander ceased communication on 3 December 1999, prior to reaching the surface, and is presumed to have crashed.
The European Beagle 2 lander deployed successfully from the Mars Express spacecraft but the signal confirming a landing which should have come on 25 December 2003 was not received. Indeed, no communication was ever established and "Beagle 2" was declared lost on 6 February 2004. The proposed 2009 British Beagle 3 lander mission to search for life, past or present was not adopted.
Rover (space exploration)
The Mars Pathfinder mission included "Sojourner", the first rover to successfully deploy on another planet. NASA, the space agency of the United States, launched Mars Pathfinder on 4 December 1996; it landed on Mars in a region called Chryse Planitia on 4 July 1997. From its landing until the final data transmission on 27 September 1997, Mars Pathfinder returned 16,500 images from the lander and 550 images from "Sojourner", as well as data from more than 15 chemical analyses of rocks and soil and extensive data on winds and other weather factors.
ExoMars
ExoMars (Exobiology on Mars) is a two-part astrobiology project to search for evidence of life on Mars, a joint mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian space agency Roscosmos. The first part, launched in 2016, placed the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter into Mars orbit and released the Schiaparelli EDM lander (which crashed). The second part is planned to launch in 2020 and to land the ExoMars rover on the surface, supporting a science mission that is expected to last into 2022 or beyond.
Curiosity (rover)
"Curiosity" has an advanced payload of scientific equipment on Mars. It is the fourth NASA unmanned surface rover sent to Mars since 1996. Previous successful Mars rovers are "Sojourner" from the Mars Pathfinder mission (1997), and "Spirit" (2004–2010) and "Opportunity" (2004–present) rovers from the Mars Exploration Rover mission.
Mars One
In December 2013, Mars One announced its concept of a robotic precursor mission. Originally scheduled for launch in 2020, the roadmap calls for the launch to occur in 2022. If funded, the robotic lander would be "built by Lockheed Martin based on the design used for NASA's "Phoenix" and "InSight" landers, as well as a communications orbiter built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd." In February 2015, Lockheed Martin and Surrey Satellite Technology confirmed that contracts on the initial study phase begun in late 2013 had run out and additional contracts had not been received for further progress on the robotic missions. Plans were set in motion to raise the needed to support the initial robotic mission, but some critics do not find the economic plans to raise money from private investors and exclusive broadcasting rights to be sufficient to support the initial, or follow-on, mission(s).
Mars Global Remote Sensing Orbiter and Small Rover
The Mars Global Remote Sensing Orbiter and Small Rover (HX-1) is a planned project by China to deploy an orbiter and rover on Mars. The mission is planned to be launched in July or August 2020 with a Long March 5 heavy lift rocket. Its stated objective is to search for evidence of both current and past life, and assessing the planet's environment.
Timeline of Mars Science Laboratory
On November 27, 2013, an overview (titled, "The World of Mars") of current and proposed Mars exploration by John Grotzinger, chief scientist of the "Curiosity" rover mission, was published in the New York Times.
Mars 2020
Based on the scientific objectives, nearly 60 proposals for rover instrumentation were evaluated and, on 31 July 2014, NASA announced the payload for the rover.
Mars Astrobiology Explorer-Cacher
The Mars Astrobiology Explorer-Cacher (MAX-C), also known as Mars 2018 mission was a NASA concept for a Mars rover mission, proposed to be launched in 2018 together with the European ExoMars rover. The MAX-C rover concept was cancelled in April 2011 due to budget cuts.
Lander (spacecraft)
The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) plans to launch the Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) in 2024, a sample return mission targeting Phobos. MMX will land and collect samples from Phobos multiple times, along with deploying a rover jointly developed by CNES and DLR. By using a corer sampling mechanism, the spacecraft aims to retrieve a minimum 10 g amount of samples. MMX will return to Earth in 2029.
Exploration of Mars
The Mars Science Laboratory mission was launched on November 26, 2011 and it delivered the "Curiosity" rover on the surface of Mars on August 6, 2012 UTC. It is larger and more advanced than the Mars Exploration Rovers, with a velocity of up to 90 meters per hour (295 feet per hour). Experiments include a laser chemical sampler that can deduce the composition of rocks at a distance of 7 meters.
ExoMars
After landing on Mars in 2021, the rover will descend from the platform via a ramp. The platform is expected to image the landing site, monitor the climate, investigate the atmosphere, analyse the radiation environment, study the distribution of any subsurface water at the landing site, and perform geophysical investigations of the internal structure of Mars. Following a March 2015 request for the contribution of scientific instruments for the landing system, there will be 13 instruments. Examples of the instruments on the lander include the package, the METEO meteorological package, the MAIGRET magnetometer, and the LaRa (Lander Radioscience) experiment.
Malin Space Science Systems
In July 2014, NASA announced the selection of the Mastcam-Z proposal for the upcoming Mars 2020 rover mission, to be provided by MSSS. It is an improved zoom version of the original MastCam.
Mount Sharp
As of 02, 2022, "Curiosity" has been on the planet Mars for sols ( total days; ) since landing on August 6, 2012. Since September 11, 2014, "Curiosity" has been exploring the slopes of Mount Sharp, where more information about the history of Mars is expected to be found. As of late January 2019, the rover has traveled over and climbed over in elevation to, and around, the mountain base since landing at "Bradbury Landing" in August 2012.
BFR (rocket)
The aspirational goal in 2017 was to send the first two cargo missions to Mars in 2022, with the goal to "confirm water resources and identify hazards" while putting "power, mining, and life support infrastructure" in place for future flights, followed by four ships in 2024, two crewed BFR spaceships plus two cargo-only ships bringing additional equipment and supplies with the goal of setting up the propellant production plant.
CLUPI
CLUPI (Close-UP Imager) is a miniaturized camera system on board the planned European Space Agency ExoMars rover. CLUPI was designed to acquire high-resolution close-up images in colour of soils, outcrops, rocks, drill fines and drill core samples, as well as and the search for potential biosignature structures and patterns. This camera assembly is part of the science payload on board the European Space Agency ExoMars rover, tasked to search for biosignatures and biomarkers on Mars. The rover is planned to be launched in July 2020 and land on Mars in March 2021.
Mars 2020
In September 2013 NASA launched an Announcement of Opportunity for researchers to propose and develop the instruments needed, including the Sample Caching System. The science instruments for the mission were selected in July 2014 after an open competition based on the scientific objectives set one year earlier. The science conducted by the rover's instruments will provide the context needed for detailed analyses of the returned samples. The chairman of the Science Definition Team stated that NASA does not presume that life ever existed on Mars, but given the recent "Curiosity" rover findings, past Martian life seems possible.
Future of space exploration
The Mars 2020 rover, part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, is scheduled to launch in July/August 2020. This mission will collect samples for future return to Earth to provide insight on the possibility of life on Mars. It will seek for signs of past microbial life and habitable conditions while also collecting information on resources for future astronauts.The Mars 2020 rover will collect core samples and put them in a cache for future missions to retrieve for testing. Furthermore, the rover will test a method for producing oxygen from the atmosphere on Mars, characterize environmental conditions, and identify other resources for future astronauts.
Mars landing
Additional future missions are the Mars 2020 rover, the Chinese Mars Global Remote Sensing Orbiter and Small Rover, and the Indian Mars Orbiter Mission 2 orbiter. The ESA ExoMars rover, also planned for launch in 2020, should obtain soil samples from up to 2 meters depth and make an extensive search for biosignatures and biomolecules.
Human mission to Mars
In September 2016 at the International Astronautical Congress, Elon Musk announced the ITS launch vehicle design (informally discussed earlier as the Mars Colonial Transporter), that comprised a large reusable booster topped by a spaceship or a tanker for in-orbit refueling, as well as a propellant plant to be built on Mars, at a base referred to as Mars Base Alpha.
The aspirational objective is to advance the technology and infrastructure such that the first humans to Mars could potentially depart as early as 2024.
Martian Moons Exploration
The Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) is a robotic space probe set for launch in 2024 to bring back the first samples from Mars' largest moon Phobos. Developed by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and announced in 9 June 2015, MMX will land and collect samples from Phobos once or twice, along with conducting Deimos flyby observations and monitoring Mars' climate.
Manned Venus flyby
As a "Plan B" in case the proposed Inspiration Mars fly-by of Mars misses its 2018 launch window, in November 2013 Dennis Tito proposed a different mission architecture whereby the mission craft would first fly-by Venus, using Venus in a gravitational slingshot to speed the craft's onward journey to Mars. The proposed mission, which would launch in 2021, would take the Inspiration Mars craft to within 800 kilometres of the Venusian surface.
History of women in Puerto Rico
In 2006, Genoveva Negrón, a native of Mayaquez, was a member of the 53rd crew of the Spaceward Bound program at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah. The program is designed to train astronauts to travel to travel to the moon between 2018 and 2020. The program also serves to train astronauts for the exploration of the planet Mars in future missions. She had to spend two weeks (15 days) in an environment in Utah that NASA scientists believe to be similar to that of Mars and work up to 15 hours a day. Negron is also an educator and author who in 2015, began to conduct research on digital simulation with virtual reality.
Next Mars Orbiter
The orbiter is conceptually similar to the Mars Telecommunications Orbiter, canceled in 2005, and could be a technology precursor for a future round-trip sample return mission and human expeditions to Mars. Robert Lock is leading the concept studies for the 2022 orbiter.
Mars Exploration Joint Initiative
Regardless of the final outcome by the House Appropriations subcommittee, NASA will continue with its own Mars exploration projects: Mars Science Laboratory, "MAVEN" orbiter, Mars 2020 rover, and "InSight" lander.
Curiosity (rover)
In December 2012, "Curiosity" two-year mission was extended indefinitely. On August 5, 2017, NASA celebrated the fifth anniversary of the "Curiosity" rover landing and related exploratory accomplishments on the planet Mars. The rover is still operational, and as of , "Curiosity" has been on Mars for sols ( total days) since landing on August 6, 2012. "(See current status.)"
ExoMars
The second mission, scheduled for launch in July 2020, will have an 1800 kg Russian-built landing platform system derived from the 2016 Schiaparelli EDM lander, to place the ExoMars rover on the surface of Mars. This lander platform will be built 80% by the Russian company Lavochkin, and 20% by ESA. Lavochkin will produce most of the landing system's hardware, while ESA will handle elements such as the guidance, radar and navigation systems. Lavochkin's current landing strategy is to use two parachutes; one will open while the module is still moving at supersonic speed, and another will deploy once the probe has been slowed down to subsonic velocity. The heat shield will eventually fall away from the entry capsule to allow the ExoMars rover, riding its retro-rocket-equipped lander, to come for a soft landing on legs or struts. The surface platform lander will then deploy ramps for the rover to drive down.
SpaceX Mars transportation infrastructure
In 2016, SpaceX announced plans to fly its earliest missions to Mars using its Falcon Heavy launch vehicle prior to the completion, and first launch, of any ITS vehicle. Later missions utilizing this technology—the "ITS launch vehicle" and "Interplanetary Spaceship" with on-orbit propellant refill via "ITS tanker"—were to begin no earlier than 2022. At the time, the company was planning for launches of research spacecraft to Mars using Falcon Heavy launch vehicles and specialized modified Dragon spacecraft, called "Red Dragon". Due to planetary alignment in the inner Solar System, Mars launches are typically limited to a window of approximately every 26 months. As announced in June 2016, the first launch was planned for Spring 2018, with an announced intent to launch again in every Mars launch window thereafter. In February 2017, however, the first launch to Mars was pushed back to 2020, and in July 2017, SpaceX announced it would not be using a propulsively-landed "Red Dragon" spacecraft at all for the early missions, as had been previously announced.
Opportunity (rover)
Opportunity, also known as MER-B (Mars Exploration Rover – B) or MER-1, is a robotic rover active on Mars since 2004. Launched on July 7, 2003 as part of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover program, it landed in Meridiani Planum on January 25, 2004, three weeks after its twin "Spirit" (MER-A) touched down on the other side of the planet. With a planned 90 sol duration of activity (slightly more than 90 earth days), "Spirit" functioned until getting stuck in 2009 and ceased communications in 2010, while "Opportunity" was active as of June 10, 2018 when a dust storm forced it to hibernation. It has operated sols since landing, having exceeded its operating plan by (in Earth time). "Opportunity" has operated for over 55 times its designed lifespan. As of June 10, 2018 when contact was lost, the rover had traveled a distance of .
Kobie Boykins
Kobe Boykins and his team allowed, the solar array system out lived its projected life expectancy by a more than a factor of 20. The Mar rover landed on January 25th2004 which was only supposed to last approximately 90 days but the rover system is still online and adventuring mars to this day. Boykins then had the opportunity to design the actuators on the Mars rover "Curiosity". The system is attached to the updated Mars Rover and is used for many research activities. He also is currently the supervisor of the mobility and remote sensing teams for "Curiosity". has also been involved in other projects like, projects like Mars Pathfinder mission and the Ocean Surface Topography Mission. As of 2018 Kobie Boykins is still working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on new projects furthering his search in space
Large Strategic Science Missions
In December 2012, the Mars 2020 sample-caching rover, built on the same architecture as the Mars Science Laboratory ("Curiosity" rover), was announced on a proposed budget of $1.5 billion. In June 2015, the Europa Clipper was approved by NASA and entered the formulation stage.
Mars Orbiter Mission 2
Mars Orbiter Mission 2 (MOM 2), also called Mangalyaan 2 ("Mars-craft", from "mangala", "Mars" and यान "yāna", "craft, vehicle"), is India's second interplanetary mission planned for launch to Mars by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in the 2022-2023 time frame. The orbiter will use aerobraking to lower its initial apoapsis and enter into an orbit more suitable for observations.
Exploration of Mars
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.
Viking lander biological experiments
The question of life on Mars will probably not be resolved entirely until future missions to Mars either conclusively demonstrate the presence of life on the planet, identify the chemical(s) responsible for the Viking results, or both. The Mars Science Laboratory mission landed the "Curiosity" rover on August 6, 2012, and its goals include investigation of the Martian climate, geology, and whether Mars could have ever supported life, including investigation of the role of water and planetary habitability. Astrobiology research on Mars will continue with the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter in 2016, ExoMars rover on 2018, and the Mars 2020 rover in 2020.
Mars sample-return mission
Some years later, a Mars orbiter would be launched, followed by the lander including the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV). The lander would bring a small and simple "fetch rover", whose sole function would be to retrieve the sample containers from the caches left on the surface or directly from the Mars 2020 rover, and return them to the lander where it would be loaded onto the MAV for delivery to the orbiter and then be sent to Earth.
Human mission to Mars
The Deep Space Transport (DST) is a spacecraft meant to be launched on top of NASA's SLS launch vehicle in 2027. It was announced by NASA in March 2017. It is to dock with the Lunar Orbital Platform Gateway (LOP-G) station, which would be in cis-lunar space after its construction, in 2027. Current plans show it to be sent with a crew of 4 to Mars in 2033. It would not, however, land, but merely remain in Martian orbit until there is a launch window for a return. The mission is expected to take about 2 years if all missions in the DSG and DST from 2021–2030 are successful. This mission would use the SLS rocket for launches, and the Orion MPCV to transport the crew to and from the Earth and the DSG and DST.
Rover (space exploration)
The Mars 2020 rover mission is a Mars rover under development by NASA with a launch planned for 2020. It is intended to investigate an astrobiologically relevant ancient environment on Mars, investigate its surface geological processes and history, including the assessment of its past habitability and potential for preservation of biosignatures within accessible geological materials.
Bethany Ehlmann
Ehlmann has also collaborated on mission development and mission operations for NASA, including the Mars Science Laboratory's Curiosity rover and developing the Mastcam-Z and the Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (SHERLOC) imaging instruments for the upcoming Mars 2020 rover. Using samples collected by the Mars Curiosity rover, Ehlmann and her colleagues have planned experiments to interpret the sandstone layers of dunes that have since turned into rock on the Martian surface to search for clues of life on Mars, as well as how Mars' environment has evolved over the years. She was part of the team that proposed the Jezero crater, where rivers once fed into a lake, as the landing site for the Mars 2020 mission, citing that the crater was also an excellent landing site to look for signs of life underground, collecting river and lake sediments that might retain signs of past life. She is also one of several scientists advocating that the 2020 mission be a "mega mission" to find ancient life on Mars, visiting the maximum number of sites possible to ensure the likelihood that samples with signs of life are collected.
List of agencies affected by the United States federal government shutdown of 2013
An extended shutdown initially threatened to force a 26-month postponement of NASA's MAVEN mission to Mars. The spacecraft was scheduled to launch on November 18. If it did not launch by December 7, Mars would have moved too far out of alignment with the Earth. The next launch window occurred in 2016. Bruce Jakosky, who was to direct the mission, said that a 2016 launch would be less useful scientifically because the timing would correspond with a low point in the solar cycle. On October 3, Jakosky reported that NASA had deemed a 2013 MAVEN launch essential to ensuring future communication with current NASA assets on Mars—namely the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers—and that spacecraft processing had already been restarted in preparation for an on-time launch.
Spirit (rover)
Spirit, also known as MER-A (Mars Exploration Rover – A) or MER-2, is a robotic rover on Mars, active from 2004 to 2010. It was one of two rovers of NASA's ongoing Mars Exploration Rover Mission. It landed successfully on Mars at 04:35 Ground UTC on January 4, 2004, three weeks before its twin, "Opportunity" (MER-B), which landed on the other side of the planet. Its name was chosen through a NASA-sponsored student essay competition. The rover became stuck in late 2009, and its last communication with Earth was sent on March 22, 2010.
Infrared Spectrometer for ExoMars
Infrared Spectrometer for ExoMars (ISEM) is an infrared spectrometer for remote sensing that is part of the science payload on board the European Space Agency ExoMars rover, tasked to search for biosignatures and biomarkers on Mars. The rover is planned for launch in July 2020 and land on Mars in March 2021.
Mars Next Generation
A budget envelope of $700 million USD, including a launch vehicle, would probably limit the next mission to an orbiter. Near-term ideas will be taken into consideration for early mission planning in the 2018-2024 timeframe, while mid- to longer-term ideas will inform program-level architecture planning for 2026 and beyond.
Autonomous robot
The Mars rovers MER-A and MER-B (now known as Spirit rover and Opportunity rover) can find the position of the sun and navigate their own routes to destinations on the fly by:The planned ESA Rover, ExoMars Rover, is capable of vision based relative localisation and absolute localisation to autonomously navigate safe and efficient trajectories to targets by:During the final NASA Sample Return Robot Centennial Challenge in 2016, a rover, named Cataglyphis, successfully demonstrated fully autonomous navigation, decision-making, and sample detection, retrieval, and return capabilities. The rover relied on a fusion of measurements from inertial sensors, wheel encoders, Lidar, and camera for navigation and mapping, instead of using GPS or magnetometers. During the 2 hour challenge, Cataglyphis traversed over 2.6 km and returned five different samples to its starting position.
Human spaceflight
NASA is developing a plan to land humans on Mars by the 2030s. The first step in this mission begins sometime during 2020, when NASA plans to send an uncrewed craft into deep space to retrieve an asteroid. The asteroid will be pushed into the moon’s orbit, and studied by astronauts aboard Orion, NASA’s first human spacecraft in a generation. Orion’s crew will return to Earth with samples of the asteroid and their collected data. In addition to broadening America’s space capabilities, this mission will test newly developed technology, such as solar electric propulsion, which uses solar arrays for energy and requires ten times less propellant than the conventional chemical counterpart used for powering space shuttles to orbit.
Astrobiology
"Mars 2020" rover mission is under development by NASA for a launch in 2020. It will investigate environments on Mars relevant to astrobiology, investigate its surface geological processes and history, including the assessment of its past habitability and potential for preservation of biosignatures and biomolecules within accessible geological materials. The Science Definition Team is proposing the rover collect and package at least 31 samples of rock cores and soil for a later mission to bring back for more definitive analysis in laboratories on Earth. The rover could make measurements and technology demonstrations to help designers of a human expedition understand any hazards posed by Martian dust and demonstrate how to collect carbon dioxide (CO), which could be a resource for making molecular oxygen (O) and rocket fuel.
Mars Global Remote Sensing Orbiter and Small Rover
The spacecraft is being developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), and managed by the National Space Science Centre (NSSC) in Beijing. This Mars mission would be a demonstration of technology needed for a Mars sample return mission proposed for the 2030s. The lander carrying the rover will use a parachute, retrorockets, and an airbag to achieve landing.
Human mission to Mars
On 29 September 2017, Elon Musk announced an updated vehicle design for the Mars mission at the International Astronautical Congress. The replacement vehicle for this mission is called BFR (Big Falcon Rocket). BFR will provide the on-orbit activity like satellite delivery, servicing the International Space Station, Moon mission, as well as Mars mission. There are two phases for the human mission to Mars via BFR:
Ride Report
In "Humans to Mars" the ambitious goal of manned Mars landings is proposed to happen as soon as 2010. Preparations for these missions include robotic exploration of Mars, with orbiters, rovers and sample return missions. The Space Station was to be used for study of the human body during long space flights. The construction of an outpost on Mars could begin during the 2020s.
ExoMars (rover)
The plan calls for a Russian launch vehicle, an ESA carrier module and a Russian lander that will deploy the rover to Mars' surface, scheduled to launch in July 2020. Once safely landed, the solar powered rover would begin a seven-month (218-sol) mission to search for the existence of past life on Mars. The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, launched in 2016, will operate as the rover's data-relay satellite.
Mars
The United Arab Emirates' "Mars Hope" orbiter is planned for launch in 2020, reaching Mars orbit in 2021. The probe will make a global study of the Martian atmosphere.
Mars One
In 2025, the landing module transporting four astronauts was proposed to land on Mars. They envisioned the crew to be met by the rover launched in 2020, and taken to the Mars One colony.
Notes:
The initial concept timeline has slipped 2 times, with a 2 year delay each time. () 
Work on robotic missions was suspended pending further review and future contract direction in February 2015.
SpaceX has no contracts with MarsOne and the project does not appear on their launch manifest.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
One of two missions considered for the 2003 Mars launch window, the MRO proposal lost against what became known as the Mars Exploration Rovers. The orbiter mission was rescheduled for launch in 2005, and NASA announced its final name, "Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter", on October 26, 2000.
Future of space exploration
ExoMars rover
Future of space exploration
Mars Base Camp
Mars One
SpaceX mentioned that they had been contacted by Mars One, but that accommodating Mars One requirements would require some additional work and that such action was not a part of the current focus of SpaceX. SpaceX has no ongoing contracts with Mars One. The first Mars One cargo mission to Mars is proposed to launch by 2022, followed by a crewed mission in 2024, but without funds, hardware, and without a launcher it is seen as unlikely to happen.
ExoMars
The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and a test stationary lander called "Schiaparelli" were launched on 14 March 2016. TGO entered Mars orbit on 19 October 2016 and will proceed to map the sources of methane () and other trace gases present in the Martian atmosphere that could be evidence for possible biological or geological activity. The TGO features four instruments and will also act as a communications relay satellite. The "Schiaparelli" experimental lander separated from TGO on 16 October and was maneuvered to land in Meridiani Planum, but it crashed on the surface of Mars. The landing was designed to test new key technologies to safely deliver the 2020 rover mission.
Timeline of Mars Science Laboratory
On September 11, 2014, a panel of NASA scientists announced (video (01:25)) the arrival of "Curiosity" at Mount Sharp and discussed future rover plans.
Next Mars Orbiter
An ion engine would give the spacecraft significant orbital flexibility for long-term support of future missions, opportunistic flybys of Phobos and Deimos, as well as the added capability of orbit support—rendezvous and capture—for a sample return mission. An ion engine would also allow access to multiple latitudes and altitudes to optimize relay contacts.The orbiter mission has been suggested by the Planetary Science Decadal Survey to be one of three missions comprising the proposed Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign. Samples would be collected and cached by the first mission, the Mars 2020 rover, and would be left on the surface of Mars for possible later retrieval. The orbiter would be launched on a medium-class vehicle, reaching Mars in about nine months and set to aerobrake down to a circular orbit over six to nine months. The third mission of the proposed MSR campaign, the lander, would nominally be launched two years after the orbiter launch. The lander would deploy a "fetch rover" to retrieve the sample caches. A container holding the samples would be launched by a Mars ascent vehicle (MAV) and placed in a 500 km orbit comparable with the new orbiter and perform a rendezvous while in Mars orbit. The container would be transferred to an Earth entry vehicle (EEV) which would bring it to Earth, enter the atmosphere under a parachute and hard-land for retrieval and analyses in specially designed safe laboratories.
Mars Orbiter Mission 2
After the successful insertion of Mars Orbiter Mission into Martian orbit, ISRO announced its intent to launch a second mission to Mars on 28 October 2014 at the Engineers Conclave conference held in Bangalore. The proposed launch vehicle for this campaign is the GSLV Mk III, which flew for the first time on 5 June 2017. Prior to the MOM 2 mission, the is expected to launch "Chandrayaan-2" to the Moon in 2019.
Next Mars Orbiter
The orbiter was initially proposed to be launched in September 2022 to link ground controllers with rovers and landers and extend mapping capabilities expected to be lost when the "Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter" and "2001 Mars Odyssey" stop functioning, but officials elected to focus on flying a sample-return mission first and incorporate a Mars telecom orbiter in that mission architecture, now envisioned for the late 2020s.
Human mission to Mars
The initial concept included an orbiter and small robotic lander in 2018, followed by a rover in 2020, and the base components in 2024. The first crew of four astronauts were to land on Mars in 2025. Then, every two years, a new crew of four would arrive. Financing was intended to come from selling the broadcasting rights of the entire training and of the flight, and that money would be used to contract for all hardware and launch services. In April 2015, Mars One's CEO Bas Lansdorp admitted that their 12-year plan for landing humans on Mars by 2027 is mostly fiction.
Northeast Syrtis
The Mars 2020 rover will launch in July 2020 with Atlas V rocket to reach the red planet in February 2021. This rover inherits from the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity, with similar entry, descent, and landing systems, and the sky crane. Besides exploring a likely habitable site and searching for signs of past life, collecting scientifically compelling samples (rock and regolith) which could address fundamental scientific questions if returned to Earth, is the main goal of the Mars 2020 mission. The landing site's selection is the key part of this mission's success.
Exploration of Mars
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission (MER), started in 2003, is an ongoing robotic space mission involving two rovers, Spirit (MER-A) and Opportunity, (MER-B) exploring the Martian surface geology. The mission's scientific objective is to search for and characterize a wide range of rocks and soils that hold clues to past water activity on Mars. The mission is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, which includes three previous successful landers: the two Viking program landers in 1976; and Mars Pathfinder probe in 1997.
Timeline of Mars Science Laboratory
Timeline of Mars Science Laboratory is a timeline of the Mars Science Laboratory mission and its rover, "Curiosity". As of 02, 2022, "Curiosity" has been on the planet Mars for sols ( total days; ) since landing on August 6, 2012. "(See Current status.)"
2020s in spaceflight
NASA plans a return to the Moon sometime in the 2020s, first by assembling a Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway in lunar orbit. A manned exploration of Mars could follow in the mid 2030s. An unmanned and then a manned trip to Jupiter and Europa have been commonly contemplated, but no space agencies or companies have yet announced definite plans to launch a manned mission further than Mars. SpaceX, a private company, has also announced plans to land humans on Mars in the mid-2020s, with the long-term goal of enabling the colonization of Mars.
JPL Mars Helicopter Scout
NASA's JPL and Caltech have been exploring the potential of sending an airborne scout robot to accompany the Mars 2020 rover, publishing the conceptual design of this helicopter in 2014. The primary objective of this helicopter is to test the technology required to explore the terrain ahead of the rover to provide overhead images with approximately ten times greater resolution than orbital images, and would display features that may be occluded from the rover cameras. It is expected that such scouting by small helicopters may enable future rovers to drive up to three times as far per sol. This helicopter will fly no more than 3 minutes per day at altitudes ranging from 3 m to 10 m above the ground, and cover a maximum distance of about daily. It will use autonomous control and communicate with the rover directly after landing.
List of unmanned NASA missions
Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is a NASA mission to land and operate a rover named "Curiosity" on the surface of Mars. It was launched by an Atlas V rocket on November 26, 2011, and landed successfully on August 6, 2012, on the plains of Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater near Aeolis Mons (formerly "Mount Sharp"). On Mars, it is helping to assess Mars' habitability. It can chemically analyze samples by scooping up soil and drilling rocks using a laser and sensor system.
Mars landing
"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 November 26, 2011.
Timeline of Mars Science Laboratory
On December 20, 2013, NASA reported that "Curiosity" has successfully upgraded, for the third time since landing, its software programs and is now operating with version 11. The new software is expected to provide the rover with better robotic arm and autonomous driving abilities. Due to wheel wear, a concern to drive more carefully over the rough terrain the rover is currently traveling on to Mount Sharp, was also reported.
Rover (space exploration)
"Spirit" is a robotic rover on Mars, active from 2004 to 2010. It was one of two rovers of NASA's ongoing Mars Exploration Rover mission. It landed successfully on Mars at 04:35 Ground UTC on January 4, 2004, three weeks before its twin, "Opportunity" (MER-B), landed on the other side of the planet. Its name was chosen through a NASA-sponsored student essay competition. The rover became stuck in late 2009, and its last communication with Earth was sent on March 22, 2010.
Mars sample-return mission
In September 2012, NASA announced its intention to further study several strategies of bringing a sample of Mars to Earth – including a multiple launch scenario, a single-launch scenario and a multiple-rover scenario – for a mission beginning as early as 2018.
Dozens of samples would be collected and cached by the Mars 2020 rover, and would be left on the surface of Mars for possible later retrieval. A "fetch rover" would retrieve the sample caches and deliver them to a Mars ascent vehicle (MAV). In July 2018 NASA contracted Airbus to produce a "fetch rover" concept. The MAV would launch from Mars and enter a 500 km orbit and rendezvous with a new Mars orbiter. The sample container would be transferred to an Earth entry vehicle (EEV) which would bring it to Earth, enter the atmosphere under a parachute and hard-land for retrieval and analyses in specially designed safe laboratories.
In this scenario, the sample-return mission would span two launches at an interval of about four years. The first launch would be for the orbiter, the second for the lander. The lander would include the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV).
ExoMars
The rover was scheduled to launch in 2018 and land on Mars in early 2019, but in May 2016 ESA announced that the launch would occur in 2020 due to delays in European and Russian industrial activities and deliveries of the scientific payload.
Future of space exploration
The Mars Global Remote Sensing Orbiter and Small Rover (HX-1) is a planned project by China to deploy an orbiter and rover on Mars. The mission is planned to be launched in July or August 2020 with a Long March 5 heavy lift rocket. Its stated objective is to search for evidence of both current and past life, and assessing the planet's environment.
John P. Grotzinger
The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover was launched on Saturday, November 26, 2011 on-board an Atlas V-541 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The rover landed in Gale Crater on August 5, 2012. Curiosity’s mission is to determine the planet’s habitability and has been doing this using a suite of sophisticated instruments including cameras, spectrometers, environmental sensors, sample collection tools, and laboratory-quality geochemical instruments.
Future of space exploration
The Hope Mars Mission is a space exploration probe mission to Mars built by the United Arab Emirates and set for launch in 2020. Upon launch, it will become the first mission to Mars by any Arab or Muslim majority country. The mission was announced by Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the President of the United Arab Emirates, in July 2014, and is aimed at enriching the capabilities of Emirati engineers and increasing human knowledge about the Martian atmosphere.