What was the first spacecraft to land on Mars?
Blue Sky on Mars
The cover of the album features an image by Viking 1, the first spacecraft to land on Mars; the album's liner notes include additional imagery of the planet's landscape as taken by the spacecraft on July 20, 1976. The text on the cover was done by fantastic artist Roger Dean, best known for his work on album covers for bands such as Yes. The album's title comes from the tour in the film "Total Recall".
RD-0214
On 19 May 1971 a Proton launched the Mars 2 probe to Mars. The orbiter was identical to the Venera 9 bus, and the lander was the first man made object to reach the surface of Mars.
Exploration of Mars
Following the 1993 failure of the Mars Observer orbiter, the NASA Mars Global Surveyor achieved Mars orbit in 1997. This mission was a complete success, having finished its primary mapping mission in early 2001. Contact was lost with the probe in November 2006 during its third extended program, spending exactly 10 operational years in space. The NASA Mars Pathfinder, carrying a robotic exploration vehicle "Sojourner", landed in the Ares Vallis on Mars in the summer of 1997, returning many images.
Mars 1
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.
Human mission to Mars
Landed spacecraft on the surface of Mars:
Luna 16
"Luna 16" was the first robotic probe to land on the Moon and return a sample of lunar soil to Earth after five unsuccessful similar attempts. The sample was returned from Mare Fecunditatis. It represented the first lunar sample return mission by the Soviet Union and was the third lunar sample return mission overall, following the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 missions.
Mars landing
NASA's "Mars Pathfinder" spacecraft, launched one month after Global Surveyor, landed on July 4, 1997. Its landing site was an ancient flood plain in Mars' northern hemisphere called Ares Vallis, which is among the rockiest parts of Mars. It carried a tiny remote-controlled rover called Sojourner, which was the first acting Mars rover that traveled a few meters around the landing site, exploring the conditions and sampling rocks around it. Newspapers around the world carried images of the lander dispatching the rover to explore the surface of Mars in a way never achieved before.
List of missions to minor planets
Spacecraft visits to minor planets have mostly been flybys, and have ranged from dedicated missions to incidental flybys and targets of opportunity for spacecraft that have already completed their missions. The first spacecraft to visit an asteroid was "Galileo", which flew past 951 Gaspra in October 1991; an incidental encounter while the probe was en route to Jupiter. The first dedicated mission was "NEAR Shoemaker", which was launched in February 1996, and entered orbit around 433 Eros in February 2000, having first flown past 253 Mathilde. "NEAR" was also the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid, surviving what was intended to be an impact with Eros at 20:01 on 12 February 2001 at the planned end of its mission. As a result of its unexpected survival, the spacecraft's mission was extended until 1 March to allow data to be collected from the surface.
Timeline of Mars Science Laboratory
"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: .
Mars Direct
Upon reaching Mars, the upper stage would be jettisoned, with the Habitat Unit aerobraking into Mars orbit before soft-landing in proximity to the "Earth Return Vehicle". Precise landing would be supported by a radar beacon started by the first lander. Once on Mars, the crew would spend 18 months on the surface, carrying out a range of scientific research, aided by a small rover vehicle carried aboard their Mars Habitat Unit, and powered by the methane produced by the Earth Return Vehicle.
Outer space
The first spacecraft to reach escape velocity was the Soviet Luna 1, which performed a fly-by of the Moon in 1959. In 1961, Venera 1 became the first planetary probe. It revealed the presence of the solar wind and performed the first fly-by of Venus, although contact was lost before reaching Venus. The first successful planetary mission was the 1962 fly-by of Venus by Mariner 2. The first fly-by of Mars was by Mariner 4 in 1964. Since that time, unmanned spacecraft have successfully examined each of the Solar System's planets, as well their moons and many minor planets and comets. They remain a fundamental tool for the exploration of outer space, as well as observation of the Earth. In August 2012, Voyager 1 became the first man-made object to leave the Solar System and enter interstellar space.
Exploration of Mars
Mariner 4 flew past Mars on July 14, 1965, providing the first close-up photographs of another planet. The pictures, gradually played back to Earth from a small tape recorder on the probe, showed impact craters. It provided radically more accurate data about the planet; a surface atmospheric pressure of about 1% of Earth's and daytime temperatures of −100 °C (−148 °F) were estimated. No magnetic field or Martian radiation belts were detected. The new data meant redesigns for then planned Martian landers, and showed life would have a more difficult time surviving there than previously anticipated.
NASA continued the Mariner program with another pair of Mars flyby probes, Mariner 6 and 7. They were sent at the next launch window, and reached the planet in 1969. During the following launch window the Mariner program again suffered the loss of one of a pair of probes. Mariner 9 successfully entered orbit about Mars, the first spacecraft ever to do so, after the launch time failure of its sister ship, Mariner 8. When Mariner 9 reached Mars in 1971, it and two Soviet orbiters (Mars 2 and Mars 3, see "Mars probe program" above) found that a planet-wide dust storm was in progress. The mission controllers used the time spent waiting for the storm to clear to have the probe rendezvous with, and photograph, Phobos. When the storm cleared sufficiently for Mars' surface to be photographed by Mariner 9, the pictures returned represented a substantial advance over previous missions. These pictures were the first to offer more detailed evidence that liquid water might at one time have flowed on the planetary surface. They also finally discerned the true nature of many Martian albedo features. For example, Nix Olympica was one of only a few features that could be seen during the planetary duststorm, revealing it to be the highest mountain (volcano, to be exact) on any planet in the entire Solar System, and leading to its reclassification as Olympus Mons.
Mars program
The Mars 4 and Mars 5 orbiters, launched in 1973, were designed to orbit Mars and return information on the composition, structure, and properties of the Martian atmosphere and surface. The spacecraft were also designed to act as communications links to the Mars 6 and 7 landers. Like earlier heavy spacecraft, they were launched by Proton-K rockets.The Mars 4 orbiter reached Mars on February 10, 1974. Due to a flaw in the transistor 2Т-312 which resulted in its degradation during the voyage to Mars, the retro-rockets designed to slow the craft into Mars orbit did not fire, and Mars 4 flew by the planet at a range of 2200 km. It returned one swath of pictures and some radio occultation data which constituted the first detection of the nightside ionosphere on Mars. It continued to return interplanetary data from heliocentric orbit after the flyby.Mars 5 reached Mars on February 12, 1974 at 15:45 UT and was inserted into an elliptical 1755 by 32,555 km, 24 h 53 min orbit with an inclination of 35.3 degrees. Nearly synchronized with the rotation of the planet, its two phototelevision cameras could be commanded to take 12 pictures during each close approach. The Vega camera used a wide area 52mm lens with color filters, the Zulfar camera used a telescopic 350mm lens and long-pass orange filter. Images were transmitted in a rapid 220-line mode, and then selected pictures were retransmitted at 880 or 1760 line resolution. Mars 5 collected data for 22 orbits until a loss of pressurization in the transmitter housing ended the mission. About 60 images were returned over a nine-day period showing swaths of the area south of Valles Marineris, from to .
Yinghuo-1
Yinghuo-1 was a Chinese Mars-exploration space probe, intended to be the first Chinese spacecraft to orbit Mars. It was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on 8 November 2011, along with the Russian Fobos-Grunt sample return spacecraft, which was intended to visit Mars' moon Phobos. The 115-kg (250-lb) Yinghuo-1 probe was intended by the CNSA to orbit Mars for about two years, studying the planet's surface, atmosphere, ionosphere and magnetic field. Shortly after launch, Fobos-Grunt was expected to perform two burns to depart Earth orbit bound for Mars. However, these burns did not take place, leaving both probes stranded in orbit. On 17 November 2011, Chinese state media reported that Yinghuo-1 had been declared lost by the CNSA. After a period of orbital decay, Yinghuo-1 and Fobos-Grunt underwent destructive re-entry on 15 January 2012, finally disintegrating over the Pacific Ocean.
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 12
On 27 August 1962, Mariner 2 was launched by Atlas-Agena B 179D, the first spacecraft conduct a successful flyby of another planet when it flew past Venus on 14 December 1962. On 28 July 1964, Atlas-Agena B 250D launched Ranger 7, which was the first fully successful Ranger mission. On 28 November 1964, Atlas-Agena D 288D launched with Mariner 4, which provided the first close-up pictures of Mars.
Mars 6
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. However, Mars 4 failed to enter orbit, and Mars 5 failed after a few days in orbit.
Exploration of Mars
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. Mars 6 failed during descent but did return some corrupted atmospheric data in 1974.
Viking lander biological experiments
The two Viking landers each carried four types of biological experiments to the surface of Mars in 1976. These were the first Mars landers to carry out experiments to look for biosignatures of microbial life on Mars. The landers used a robotic arm to put soil samples into sealed test containers on the craft. The two landers were identical, so the same tests were carried out at two places on Mars' surface, Viking 1 near the equator and Viking 2 further north.
Lander (spacecraft)
The Soviet Union's Mars 1962B was the first Earth based mission intended to reach the surface as 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, 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 Martian rovers that did not work on the planet.
Mars Pathfinder
"Mars Pathfinder" entered the Martian atmosphere and landed using an innovative system involving an entry capsule, a supersonic parachute, followed by solid rockets and large airbags to cushion the impact.
Mars Pathfinder
Mars Pathfinder (MESUR Pathfinder) is an American robotic spacecraft that landed a base station with a roving probe on Mars in 1997. It consisted of a lander, renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station, and a lightweight (10.6 kg/23 lb) wheeled robotic Mars rover named "Sojourner", which became the first rover to operate outside the Earth–Moon system.
Lunokhod programme
After the destruction of the original Lunokhod, Soviet engineers began work immediately on another lunar vehicle. "Lunokhod 1" (vehicle 8ЕЛ№203) was the first of two unmanned lunar rovers successfully landed on the Moon by the Soviet Union as part of its Lunokhod program. The spacecraft which carried "Lunokhod 1" was named "Luna 17". "Lunokhod 1" was the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on another world.
Exploration of Mars
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 fly-by 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.
CubeSat
The May 2018 launch of the "InSight" stationary Mars lander included two CubeSats to flyby Mars to provide additional relay communications from "InSight" to Earth during entry and landing. This is the first flight of CubeSats in deep space. The mission CubeSat technology is called Mars Cube One (MarCO), each one is a six-unit CubeSat, 14.4 inches (36.6 centimeters) by 9.5 inches (24.3 centimeters) by 4.6 inches (11.8 centimeters). MarCo is an experiment, but not necessary for the "InSight" mission, to add relay communications to space missions in important time durations, in this case from the time of "InSight" atmospheric entry to its landing.
Mars landing
The "Schiaparelli" lander was intended to test technology for future soft landings on the surface of Mars as part of the ExoMars project. It was built in Italy by the European Space Agency (ESA) and Roscosmos. It was launched together with the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) on 14 March 2016 and attempted a landing on 19 October 2016. Telemetry was lost about one minute before the scheduled landing time, but confirmed that most elements of the landing plan, including heat shield operation, parachute deployment, and rocket activation, had been successful. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter later captured imagery showing what appears to be Schiaparelli's crash site.
Luna 23
"Luna 23" was the first modified lunar sample return spacecraft, designed to return a deep core sample of the Moon's surface (hence the change in index from Ye-8-5 to Ye-8-5M). While "Luna 16" and "Luna 20" had returned samples from a depth of 0.3 meters, the new spacecraft was designed to dig to 2.5 meters. After a midcourse correction on 31 October, "Luna 23" entered orbit around the Moon on 2 November 1974. Parameters were 104 × 94 kilometers at 138° inclination. Following several more changes to the orbit, the spacecraft descended to the lunar surface on 6 November and landed in the southernmost portion of Mare Crisium. Landing coordinates were 13° north latitude and 62° east longitude. During landing in "unfavorable" terrain, the lander's drilling device was evidently damaged, preventing fulfillment of the primary mission, the return of lunar soil to Earth. Scientists devised a makeshift plan to conduct a limited science exploration program with the stationary lander. Controllers maintained contact with the spacecraft until 9 November 1974.
Huygens (spacecraft)
Huygens was an atmospheric entry probe that landed successfully on Saturn's moon Titan in 2005. Built and operated by the European Space Agency (ESA), it was part of the "Cassini–Huygens" mission and became the first spacecraft ever to land on Titan and the farthest landing from Earth a spacecraft has ever made. The probe was named after the Dutch 17th-century astronomer Christiaan Huygens, who discovered Titan in 1655.
Mercury-P
"Mercury-P" would be the first lander on Mercury. A proposed flight scenario for the mission included a flyby of Venus, the insertion of the spacecraft into the orbit around Mercury and the delivery of a lander on its surface. The Institute of Space Research studied the possibility of "recycling" hardware developed for the Phobos-Grunt, Mars-NET, Mars-96, and Solar Sail spacecraft, with proposed upgrades of the hardware. As of 2012, Russian scientists have conducted a preliminary concept study of the project, and compiled a list of the required scientific payload.
Soviet space program
The Soviet space program (Russian: Космическая программа СССР, "Kosmicheskaya programma SSSR") comprised several of the rocket and space exploration programs conducted by the Soviet Union (USSR) from the 1930s until its collapse in 1991. Over its sixty-year history, this primarily classified military program was responsible for a number of pioneering accomplishments in space flight, including the first intercontinental ballistic missile (R-7), first satellite (Sputnik 1), first animal in Earth orbit (the dog Laika on Sputnik 2), first human in space and Earth orbit (cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on Vostok 1), first woman in space and Earth orbit (cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova on Vostok 6), first spacewalk (cosmonaut Alexey Leonov on Voskhod 2), first Moon impact ("Luna 2"), first image of the far side of the moon ("Luna 3") and unmanned lunar soft landing ("Luna 9"), first space rover ("Lunokhod 1"), first sample of lunar soil automatically extracted and brought to Earth ("Luna 16"), and first space station (Salyut 1). Further notable records included the first interplanetary probes: Venera 1 and Mars 1 to fly by Venus and Mars, respectively, Venera 3 and Mars 2 to impact the respective planet surface, and Venera 7 and Mars 3 to make soft landings on these planets.
Exploration of the Moon
NASA's Apollo program was the first, and to date only, mission to successfully land humans on the Moon, which it did six times. The first landing took place in 1969, when astronauts placed scientific instruments and returned lunar samples to Earth.
Mars landing
In 1976 the two American Viking probes entered orbit about Mars and each released a lander module that made the first fully successful soft landing on the planet's surface. The two missions returned the first color pictures and extensive scientific information. Measured temperatures at the landing sites ranged from 150 to 250 K (-125 to -25 °C), with a variation over a given day of 35° to 50°. Seasonal dust storms, pressure changes, and movement of atmospheric gases between the polar caps were observed. A biology experiment produced possible evidence of life, but it was not corroborated by other on-board experiments.
Mars 2
The Mars 2 was an unmanned space probe of the Mars program, a series of unmanned Mars landers and orbiters launched by the Soviet Union May 19, 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 man-made object to reach the surface of Mars, although the landing system failed and the lander was lost.On May 19, 1971, the Proton-K heavy launch vehicle launched the probe from Baikonur Cosmodrome. After the first stage separated the second stage was ignited. The third stage engine blasted Mars 2 into parking orbit, then the Blok D upper stage sent Mars 2 on the trans-Mars trajectory.
Opportunity mission timeline
Opportunity, MER-B (Mars Exploration Rover – B), is a robotic rover active on the planet Mars since 2004. Launched on July 7, 2003, "Opportunity" landed on Mars' Meridiani Planum on January 25, 2004 at 05:05 Ground UTC (about 13:15 Mars local time), three weeks after its twin "Spirit" (MER-A), also part of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission, touched down on the other side of the planet. While "Spirit" became immobile in 2009 and ceased communications in 2010, "Opportunity" remains active as of December 11, 2017, having already exceeded its planned 90 sol (Martian days) duration of activity by (in Earth time). "Opportunity" has continued to move, gather scientific observations, and report back to Earth. What follows is a summary of events during its continuing mission.
Mars landing
The first probe intended to be a Mars impact lander was the Soviet Mars 1962B unsuccessfully launched in 1962.
Landing
Sometimes, a safe landing is accomplished by using multiple forms of lift, thrust ("propulsive landing") and dampening systems. Both the Surveyor unmanned lunar probe craft, and the Apollo Lunar Module used a rocket deceleration system and landing gear to soft-land on the moon. Several Soviet rockets including the Soyuz spacecraft have used parachutes and airbag landing systems to dampen the landing on earth. In November 2015, Blue Origin's New Shepard became the first rocket to cross the van Karman line and land vertically back on Earth. In December 2015, SpaceX's Falcon 9 became the first launch vehicle on an orbital trajectory to successfully vertically-land and recover its first stage, although the landed first stage was on a sub-orbital trajectory.
Exploration of Mars
In August 2012, NASA selected "InSight", a $425 million lander mission with a heat flow probe and seismometer, to determine the deep interior structure of Mars. Two flyby CubeSats called MarCO were launched with "InSight" on 5 May 2018 to provide real-time telemetry during the entry and landing of "InSight". The CubeSats separated from the Atlas V booster 1.5 hours after launch and traveled their own trajectories to Mars. "InSight" landed successfully on Mars on 26 November 2018.
Other future mission concepts include polar probes, Martian aircraft and a network of small meteorological stations. Longterm areas of study may include Martian lava tubes, resource utilization, and electronic charge carriers in rocks. Micromissions are another possibility, such as piggybacking a small spacecraft on an Ariane 5 rocket and using a lunar gravity assist to get to Mars.
Mars Express
Arriving at Mars in 2003, ago (and counting), it is the second longest surviving, continually active spacecraft in orbit around a planet other than Earth, behind only NASA's still active 2001 Mars Odyssey.
Apollo (spacecraft)
The Apollo Lunar Module was a separate vehicle designed to land on the Moon and return to lunar orbit, and was the first true "spaceship" since it flew solely in the vacuum of space. It consisted of a "descent stage" and an "ascent stage". It supplied life support systems for two astronauts for up to four to five days on the Apollo 15, 16 and 17 missions. The spacecraft was designed and manufactured by the Grumman Aircraft Company.
Space rendezvous
A rendezvous takes place each time a spacecraft brings crew members or supplies to an orbiting space station. The first spacecraft to do this was Soyuz 11, which successfully docked with the Salyut 1 station on June 7, 1971. Human spaceflight missions have successfully made rendezvous with six Salyut stations, with Skylab, with "Mir" and with the International Space Station (ISS). Currently Soyuz spacecraft are used at approximately six month intervals to transport crew members to and from ISS.
Robotic spacecraft are also used to rendezvous with and resupply space stations. Soyuz and Progress spacecraft have automatically docked with both "Mir" and the ISS using the Kurs docking system, Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicle also uses this system to dock with the Russian segment of the ISS. Several unmanned spacecraft use NASA's berthing mechanism rather than a docking port. The Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV), SpaceX Dragon, and Orbital Sciences' Cygnus spacecraft all maneuver to a close rendezvous and maintain station-keeping, allowing the ISS Canadarm2 to grapple and move the spacecraft to a berthing port on the US segment. The Russian segment only uses docking ports so it is not possible for HTV, Dragon and Cygnus to find a berth there.
Mars landing
In 1976 twin Viking lander's made it to the surface and provided several years of images and data, however it not be until 1997 when Mars Pathfinder until there was another Mars lander. In the 21st century there was several successful landings, but there have also been many crashes.
InSight
On 26 November 2018 the spacecraft successfully touched down at its landing site, and in early December 2018 "InSight" lander and EDL components were imaged from space on the surface of Mars.
Thunderbirds machines
A metallic-blue spacecraft that made the first manned landing on Mars. "Zero-X" first appeared in the first "Thunderbirds" feature film, "Thunderbirds Are Go", and subsequently in the first episode of "Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons". It is assembled hours prior to launch and consists of 5 parts: The MEV (Martian Exploration Vehicle), the main fuselage, "Lifting Body 1" and "2", two wing-like structures loaded with thruster packs and also incorporate landing gear at the ends, and the reflective Nose Cone, which is a large metallic nose which attaches to the MEV.
List of spacecraft powered by non-rechargeable batteries
List of spacecraft powered by non-rechargeable batteries; spacecraft with non-recharged chemical batteries. A select group, but includes famous spacecraft such as "Sputnik" and "Explorer 1", and the first landers for the Moon, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn's moon Titan.
History of spaceflight
The Apollo program was the third manned spaceflight program carried out by NASA. The programs goal was to orbit and land manned vehicles on the Moon. The program ran from 1969 to 1972. Apollo 8 was the first manned spaceflight to leave earth orbit and orbit the Moon on December 21, 1968. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to set foot on the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969.
Deep Space 2
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. The mission was declared a failure on March 13, 2000, after all attempts to reestablish communications following the descent went unanswered.
Luna 1
Luna 1, also known as Mechta ( , "lit.": "Dream"), E-1 No.4 and "First Lunar Rover ", was the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Earth's Moon, and the first spacecraft to be placed in heliocentric orbit. Intended as an impactor, "Luna 1" was launched as part of the Soviet Luna programme in 1959, however due to an incorrectly timed upper stage burn during its launch, it missed the Moon, in the process becoming the first spacecraft to leave geocentric orbit.
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 . ()
Rover (space exploration)
The Lunokhod 1 rover landed on the Moon in November 1970. It was the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on any celestial body. The Soviet Union launched Lunokhod 1 aboard the Luna 17 spacecraft on November 10, 1970, and it entered lunar orbit on November 15. The spacecraft soft-landed in the Sea of Rains region on November 17. The lander had dual ramps from which Lunokhod 1 could descend to the lunar surface, which it did at 06:28 UT. From November 17, 1970 to November 22, 1970 the rover drove 197 m, and during 10 communication sessions returned 14 close up pictures of the Moon and 12 panoramic views. It also analyzed the lunar soil. The last successful communications session with Lunokhod 1 was on September 14, 1971. Having worked for 11 months,
Lunokhod 1 held the durability record for space rovers for more than 30 years, until a new record was set by the Mars Exploration Rovers.
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.
NASA robots
The Mars rover "Curiosity" is a mobile laboratory that was launched from Cape Canaveral in 2011. The Curiosity landed on Mars surface August 6, 2012. This was the largest rover NASA has put on Mars, being twice as long and five times as heavy as its processors. Despite the extra size the Curiosity took many design elements from the previous generation of Mars rovers such as six wheel drive, rocker-bogie suspension, and cameras mounted to the mast of the rover to help the mission's team direct the rover. However unlike the previous generation the Curiosity contains an entire inboard laboratory for analyzing the soil and rocks on Mars. NASA engineered the Curiosity to be capable of rolling over obstacles up to 65 centimeters high and traverse up to about 200 meters per day on Martian terrain. Curiosity got its electrical power from a Radioisotope thermoelectric generator.
ExoMars
The Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator Module (EDM) called "Schiaparelli", was intended to provide the European Space Agency (ESA) and Russia's Roscosmos with the technology for landing on the surface of Mars. It was launched together with the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) on 14 March 2016 and was scheduled to land softly on 19 October 2016. No signal indicating a successful landing was received, and on 21 October 2016 NASA released a Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter showing what appears to be the lander crash site. The lander was equipped with a non-rechargeable electric battery with enough power for four sols. The soft landing should have taken place on Meridiani Planum during the dust storm season, which would have provided a unique chance to characterise a dust-loaded atmosphere during entry and descent, and to conduct surface measurements associated with a dust-rich environment.
RD-0210
On 19 May 1971 a Proton launched the Mars 2 probe to Mars. The orbiter was identical to the Venera 9 bus, and the lander was the first man made object to reach the surface of Mars.
2012 in spaceflight
The year 2012 saw a number of significant events in spaceflight. In May and October, the first Commercial Orbital Transportation Services resupply missions took place, during which the SpaceX Dragon became the first private spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station (ISS). In June, China launched the manned Shenzhou 9 orbital mission, and North Korea achieved its first successful orbital launch in December. 2012 also saw China's first successful asteroid exploration mission, and the landing of NASA's "Curiosity" rover on Mars. The Vega and Unha-3 rockets made their maiden flights in 2012, while the Proton-K made its last.
Human mission to Mars
Wernher von Braun was the first person to make a detailed technical study of a Mars mission. Details were published in his book "Das Marsprojekt" (1952, published in English as "The Mars Project" in 1962) and several subsequent works. Willy Ley popularized a similar mission in English in the book "The Conquest of Space" (1949), featuring illustrations by Chesley Bonestell. Von Braun's Mars project envisioned nearly a thousand three-stage vehicles launching from Earth to ferry parts for the Mars mission to be constructed at a space station in Earth orbit. The mission itself featured a fleet of ten spacecraft with a combined crew of 70 heading to Mars, bringing three winged surface excursion ships that would land horizontally on the surface of Mars. (Winged landing was considered possible because at the time of his proposal, the Martian atmosphere was believed to be much denser than was later found to be the case.)
List of recurring characters on seaQuest DSV
Commander of the space shuttle "Wayfarer", the first manned Earth vehicle to reach Mars and back, Scott Keller had attended the naval academy with Nathan Bridger, with whom they remained competitively friendly. One night, as a favour to Bridger, Scott ate a dozen and a half of Organa Watt's, the woman who ran the women's dorm at the academy, terrible cookies so Bridger could sneak a girl out the back. However, while Keller opted for outer space, Bridger opted for inner space. Bridger and "seaQuest" eventually rescued Scott's "Wayfarer" capsule after an accident during re-entry forced them to splashdown near the Montegnard Confederation.
List of unmanned NASA missions
The Viking program consisted of a pair of American space probes sent to Mars—Viking 1 and Viking 2. Each vehicle was composed of two main parts, an orbiter designed to photograph the surface of Mars from orbit, and a lander designed to study the planet from the surface. The orbiters also served as communication relays for the landers once they touched down. Viking 1 was launched on August 20, 1975, and the second craft, Viking 2, was launched on September 9, 1975, both riding atop Titan III-E rockets with Centaur upper stages. By discovering many geological forms that are typically formed from large amounts of water, the Viking program caused a revolution in scientific ideas about water on Mars.
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.
Sleepers of Mars
While on the planet in the previous story, the Soviet and British crews had explored part of Mars around their landing sites, discovering vegetation plant life, in the form of scrubby bushes growing along the banks of ancient canal works, with sluggish water still in them. The planet also hosted AI robots, hostile to the visitors from Earth. They seemed almost wild, feral machines living without control of organic life. Due to fatal encounters with these robots, and ill planned gunfight with the British crew, the Soviets now number four crewmen. Preparing to depart for Earth they discuss the fate of their mission - originally a race between the nations of Earth to be the first to reach Mars. The British and the "Gloria Mundi" had won the race, reach Mars before the Soviets and United States (whose rocket had crashed with no survivors upon reaching Mars). The Russians speculate what would be the global reaction if the "Gloria Mundi" reaches Earth, and then the Soviets return, and claim that they were the first to land on Mars, not the British. They conclude that they would not be believed. However, they reason that if they succeed in racing the British home, then they can claim that the USSR was the first to conquer the Red Planet, and the British will be disbelieved.
Life on Mars
Mars-1 was the first spacecraft launched to Mars in 1962, but communication was lost while en route to Mars. With Mars-2 and Mars-3 in 1971-1972, information was obtained on the nature of the surface rocks and altitude profiles of the surface density of the soil, its thermal conductivity, and thermal anomalies detected on the surface of Mars. The program found that its northern polar cap has a temperature below -110 °C and that the water vapor content in the atmosphere of Mars is five thousand times less than on Earth. No signs of life were found.
Mars (2016 TV series)
In the year 2033, a crew of six astronauts launch from Florida on a journey to be the first people to set foot on Mars. During the descent into the Martian atmosphere, there is a malfunction with their spacecraft, the "Daedalus". They land 75.3 kilometres away from their planned habitat. On Earth their progress is being monitored. In the second season, the story jumps ahead several years into the future after the "Daedalus" astronauts have built a full-fledged colony called Olympus Town. Having established mankind as an interplanetary species, Season 2 examines the impact that humans have on the Red Planet and the consequences the planet has on us.
List of Mars landers
The following table is a list of successful and unsuccessful Mars landers. As of 2018, 16 lander missions and 5 sub-landers (Rovers and Penetrators) attempted to land on Mars. Of 16 landers, only InSight Mars Lander is currently in operation on Mars. This list excludes rovers, such as Spirit ("Mars Exploration Rover-A"), Opportunity (Mars "Exploration Rover-B") and Curiosity ("Mars Science Laboratory").
HiRISE
On May 25, 2008, HiRISE imaged NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander parachuting down to Mars. It was the first time that one spacecraft imaged the final descent of another spacecraft onto a planetary body.
2014 in spaceflight
A number of significant events in planetary exploration occurred in 2014, including the entry of the Rosetta spacecraft into orbit around the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko in August 2014 and the deployment of the Philae lander to its surface in November, which marked the first orbit of and landing on a comet, respectively, and featured prominently in social media. Another notable occurrence was the entry of India's Mars Orbiter Mission into Martian orbit in September, making India the first Asian nation to reach Mars.
List of unmanned NASA missions
The Magellan spacecraft was a space probe sent to the planet Venus, the first unmanned interplanetary spacecraft to be launched by NASA since its successful Pioneer Orbiter, also to Venus, in 1978. It was also the first deep-space probe to be launched on the Space Shuttle. In 1993, it employed aerobraking techniques to lower its orbit. This was the first prolonged use of the technique, which had been tested by Hiten in 1991.
Deep Space 1
The Deep Space series was continued by the "Deep Space 2" probes, which were launched in January 1999 piggybacked on the Mars Polar Lander and were intended to strike the surface of Mars (though contact was lost and the mission failed). "Deep Space 1" was the first NASA spacecraft to use ion propulsion rather than the traditional chemical-powered rockets.
Mars Exploration Rover
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission is an ongoing robotic space mission involving two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, exploring the planet Mars. It began in 2003 with the launch of the two rovers: MER-A "Spirit" and MER-B "Opportunity"—to explore the Martian surface and geology; both landed on Mars at separate locations in January 2004. Both rovers far outlived their planned missions of 90 Martian solar days: MER-A "Spirit" was active until 2010, while MER-B "Opportunity" was active until 2018, and holds the record for the longest distance driven by any off-Earth wheeled vehicle.
Lunae Palus quadrangle
The quadrangle covers the area from 45° to 90° west longitude and 0° to 30° north latitude on Mars. The Viking I Lander (part of Viking program) landed in the quadrangle on July 20, 1976, at . It was the first robot spacecraft to successfully land on the Red Planet.
Exploration of Mars
Mars Pathfinder was a U.S. spacecraft that landed a base station with a roving probe on Mars on July 4, 1997. It consisted of a lander and a small wheeled robotic rover named Sojourner, which was the first rover to operate on the surface of Mars. In addition to scientific objectives, the Mars Pathfinder mission was also a "proof-of-concept" for various technologies, such as an airbag landing system and automated obstacle avoidance, both later exploited by the Mars Exploration Rovers.
Lander (spacecraft)
Mars Science Laboratory ("Curiosity") was successfully launched by NASA on November 26, 2011. It landed in the Aeolis Palus region of Gale Crater on Mars on August 6, 2012.
RD-0109
On September 14, 1959, the RD-0105 propelled Luna 2 towards the Moon. It was the first spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon, and the first man-made object to land on another celestial body. It took with it a pennant with the State Emblem of the USSR.
Missions (TV series)
In the near future, the first manned space mission to Mars, Ulysses 1, is a European mission funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) and William Meyer, a billionaire Swiss philanthropist. The crew is made up of the best astronauts and European scientists, including French, Italians and Germans. Jeanne Renoir, the crew psychologist, monitors the mental health of the crew. After ten months travelling through space, a few hours from starting the landing procedure, the astronauts learn from William Meyer that they will not be the first astronauts to land on Mars. They were overtaken by a US mission with a faster vessel funded by NASA and a multi-national computer company. The only sign of life from the American mission is an alarming video and the European mission decides to investigate. On Mars the European astronauts do not find the Americans but a Russian, Vladimir Komarov, who died aboard the Soyuz 1 spacecraft in 1967.
Atlas-Agena
The Mariner spacecraft were built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Mariner 1 and Mariner 2 were twins, launched on July 22 and August 27, 1962, to fly by the planet Venus. The first two craft used the same spacecraft bus as the Block I Rangers, each weighing and instrumented to perform radiometric temperature measurements of the planet, and to measure interplanetary magnetic fields and particles.
Mariner 1's Atlas-Agena malfunctioned and went off course, requiring its destruction approximately 5 minutes after liftoff. Mariner 2 successfully made the 3½-month flight, becoming the first spacecraft to fly by another planet. It carried microwave and infrared radiometers, and sensors for cosmic dust, solar plasma and high-energy radiation, and magnetic fields.
Mariner 3 and Mariner 4 used a redesigned spacecraft bus weighing , and were launched on November 5 and November 28, 1964 to fly by the planet Mars. Mariner 3 failed after a successful launch when its payload shroud failed to open. These Mariners carried cameras, and Mariner 4 successfully returned pictures of Mars as it flew by.
Mars landing
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 fly-by/lander combinations. All missions except Mars 7 sent back data, with Mars 5 being most successful. Mars 5 transmitted 60 images before a loss of pressurization in the transmitter housing ended the mission. The 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. The 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 1300 km.
Mars Polar Lander
The Mars Polar Lander, also known as the Mars Surveyor '98 Lander, was a 290-kilogram robotic spacecraft lander launched by NASA on January 3, 1999 to study the soil and climate of Planum Australe, a region near the south pole on Mars. It formed part of the Mars Surveyor '98 mission. On December 3, 1999, however, after the descent phase was expected to be complete, the lander failed to reestablish communication with Earth. A post-mortem analysis determined the most likely cause of the mishap was premature termination of the engine firing prior to the lander touching the surface, causing it to strike the planet at a high velocity.
Mars 2MV-4 No.1
Mars 2MV-4 No.1 also known as Sputnik 22 in the West, was a Soviet spacecraft, which was launched in 1962 as part of the Mars programme, and was intended to make a flyby of Mars, and transmit images of the planet back to Earth. Due to a problem with the rocket which launched it, it was destroyed in low Earth orbit. It was the first of two Mars 2MV-4 spacecraft to be launched, the other being the Mars 1 spacecraft which was launched eight days later.
Exploration of Mars
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. 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".
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.
Exploration of Mars
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. "Spirit" rover (MER-A) was active until 2010, when it stopped sending data because it got stuck in a sand dune and was unable to reorient itself to recharge its batteries.
Mars landing
On June 2, 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.
Mars Pathfinder
This mission was the first of a series of missions to Mars that included rovers, and was the first successful lander since the two "Vikings" landed on the red planet in 1976. Although the Soviet Union successfully sent rovers to the Moon as part of the Lunokhod program in the 1970s, its attempts to use rovers in its Mars program failed.
History of robots
In 2005, Cornell University revealed a robot capable of self-replication; a set of cubes capable of attaching and detaching, the first robot capable of building copies of itself. Launched in 2003, on January 3 and 24, the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity landed on the surface of Mars. Both robots drove many times the distance originally expected, and Opportunity was still operating as of mid-2018 although communications were subsequently lost due to a major dust storm.
Mars Cube One
Mars Cube One (or MarCO) was a Mars flyby mission launched on 5 May 2018 alongside NASA's "InSight" Mars lander mission. It consisted of two nanospacecraft, MarCO-A and MarCO-B, that provided a real-time communications link to Earth for "InSight" during its entry, descent, and landing (EDL) on 26 November 2018 - when "InSight" was out of line of sight from the Earth. Both spacecraft were 6U CubeSats, and the mission was a test of new miniaturized communications and navigation technologies. These were the first CubeSats designed to operate beyond Earth orbit, and aside from telecommunications they also tested CubeSats' endurance in deep space.
No Man Friday
The rocket reaches Mars but crash-lands. There, Holder learns how to produce oxygen and water, also discovering more about Martian species and nourishment. Eventually, he starts cooperating with the titanic inhabitants of the planet to survive. After fifteen years, an American mission lands, thinking themselves the first to reach Mars. Holder contacts the Americans, and then tries to return to the dominant Martian beings, but is prevented from reaching them. He returns to Earth with the Americans.
Exploration of Mars
The USSR intended to have the first artificial satellite of Mars beating the planned American Mariner 8 and Mariner 9 Mars orbiters. In May 1971, one day after Mariner 8 malfunctioned at launch and failed to reach orbit, Cosmos 419 (Mars 1971C), a heavy probe of the Soviet Mars program M-71, also failed to launch. This spacecraft was designed as an orbiter only, while the next two probes of project M-71, Mars 2 and Mars 3, were multipurpose combinations of an orbiter and a lander with small skis-walking rovers that would be the first planet rovers outside the Moon. They were successfully launched in mid-May 1971 and reached Mars about seven months later. 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.
Venera 2MV-1 No.2
Venera 2MV-1 No.2, also known as Sputnik 20 in the Western world, was a Soviet spacecraft, which was launched in 1962 as part of the Venera programme, and was intended to become the first spacecraft to land on Venus. Due to a problem with its upper stage it failed to leave low Earth orbit, and reentered the atmosphere a few days later. It was the second of two Venera 2MV-1 spacecraft, both of which failed to leave Earth orbit. The previous mission, Venera 2MV-1 No.1, was launched several days earlier.
Space probe
Upon its arrival at Mars on November 13, 1971, Mariner 9 became the first space probe to maintain orbit around another planet.
Mars Scout Program
The first robotic spacecraft in this program was "Phoenix", a lander originally intended for the canceled Mars Surveyor mission but adapted to the new mission. "Phoenix" was launched on August 4, 2007, and landed on the icy northern polar region of the planet on May 25, 2008. "Phoenix" was designed to search for environments suitable for microbial life on Mars, and to research the history of water there. The 90-day primary mission was successful and the overall mission was concluded on November 10, 2008, after engineers were unable to contact the craft. The lander last made a brief communication with Earth on November 2, 2008.
List of Mars orbiters
The Soviets' Mars program and NASA's Mariner program became the two first successful space programs that intended to explore Mars through orbiters. Mars 2, Mars 3 and Mariner 9 were all launched into space in May 1971, and all entered Mars’ orbit that same year. NASA's Mariner 9 reached the planet's orbit first on November 14, narrowly beating the Soviet's spacecraft amid the space race, and subsequently became the first spacecraft to orbit another planet.
Mars landing
Shortly after the launch of Mars Express, NASA sent a pair of twin rovers toward the planet as part of the Mars Exploration Rover mission. On 10 June 2003, NASA's MER-A "(Spirit)" Mars Exploration Rover was launched. It successfully landed in Gusev Crater (believed once to have been a crater lake) on 3 January 2004. It examined rock and soil for evidence of the area's history of water. On July 7, 2003, a second rover, MER-B "(Opportunity)" was launched. It landed on 24 January 2004 in Meridiani Planum (where there are large deposits of hematite, indicating the presence of past water) to carry out similar geological work.
Mars program
Kosmos 419 was launched on May 5, 1971. It consisted of only an orbiter, and was intended to become the first spacecraft to orbit Mars (areocentric orbit), thereby beating the American Mariner 8 and Mariner 9 spacecraft.
Exploration of Mars
The lander's fate remained a mystery until it was located intact on the surface of Mars in a series of images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The images suggest that two of the spacecraft's four solar panels failed to deploy, blocking the spacecraft's communications antenna. "Beagle 2" is the first British and first European probe to achieve a soft landing on Mars.
NASA
The first successful landing on Mars was made by "Viking 1" in 1976. Twenty years later a rover was landed on Mars by "Mars Pathfinder".
Mars landing
The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) (and Curiosity rover), launched in November 2011, landed on Aeolis Palus, between Peace Vallis and Aeolis Mons ("Mount Sharp"), in Gale Crater on Mars on August 6, 2012, 05:17 UTC. The landing site was in "Quad 51" ("Yellowknife") of "Aeolis Palus" near the base of "Aeolis Mons". The landing site was less than from the center of the rover's planned target site after a journey. NASA named the landing site "Bradbury Landing", in honor of author Ray Bradbury, on August 22, 2012.
Space probe
First successful rover on Mars.
Interplanetary spaceflight
Remotely controlled landers such as Viking, Pathfinder and the two Mars Exploration Rovers have landed on the surface of Mars and several Venera and Vega spacecraft have landed on the surface of Venus. The Huygens probe successfully landed on Saturn's moon, Titan.
NASA
Outside Mars, Jupiter was first visited by "Pioneer 10" in 1973. More than 20 years later "Galileo" sent a probe into the planet's atmosphere, and became the first spacecraft to orbit the planet. "Pioneer 11" became the first spacecraft to visit Saturn in 1979, with "Voyager 2" making the first (and so far only) visits to Uranus and Neptune in 1986 and 1989, respectively. The first spacecraft to leave the solar system was "Pioneer 10" in 1983. For a time it was the most distant spacecraft, but it has since been surpassed by both "Voyager 1" and "Voyager 2".
2012 in spaceflight
Numerous significant milestones in robotic spaceflight occurred in 2012, including the landing of NASA's "Curiosity" rover on Mars in August, and the first commercial resupply missions to the ISS in May and October. The latter also marked the first fully operational use of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft. Elsewhere in the Solar System, NASA's "Dawn" spacecraft completed its mission to 4 Vesta in September 2012, while China achieved its first asteroid flyby in December.
Mariner 6 and 7
As part of NASA's wider Mariner program, Mariner 6 and Mariner 7 (Mariner Mars 69A and Mariner Mars 69B) completed the first dual mission to Mars in 1969. Mariner 6 was launched from Launch Complex 36B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Mariner 7 from Launch Complex 36A at Cape Kennedy. The craft flew over the equator and south polar regions, analyzing the atmosphere and the surface with remote sensors, and recording and relaying hundreds of pictures. The mission's goals were to study the surface and atmosphere of Mars during close flybys, in order to establish the basis for future investigations, particularly those relevant to the search for extraterrestrial life, and to demonstrate and develop technologies required for future Mars missions. Mariner 6 also had the objective of providing experience and data which would be useful in programming the Mariner 7 encounter five days later.
Storm
One particularly large Martian storm was exhaustively studied up close due to coincidental timing. When the first spacecraft to successfully orbit another planet, Mariner 9, arrived and successfully orbited Mars on 14 November 1971, planetary scientists were surprised to find the atmosphere was thick with a planet-wide robe of dust, the largest storm ever observed on Mars. The surface of the planet was totally obscured. Mariner 9's computer was reprogrammed from Earth to delay imaging of the surface for a couple of months until the dust settled, however, the surface-obscured images contributed much to the collection of Mars atmospheric and planetary surface science.
List of artificial objects on Mars
The following table is a partial list of artificial objects on the surface of Mars, consisting of spacecraft which were launched from Earth. Most are defunct after having served their purpose, but the "Curiosity" rover and the "InSight" lander are still operational as of 2018. "InSight" is the most recent artificial object to land safely on Mars. The table does not include smaller objects, such as springs, fragments, parachutes and heat shields. As of November 5, 2016, there are about 14 spacecraft missions on the surface of Mars: some of these missions have multiple spacecraft.
Life on Mars
The Mars Science Laboratory mission is a NASA project that launched on November 26, 2011, the "Curiosity" rover, a nuclear-powered robotic vehicle, bearing instruments designed to assess past and present habitability conditions on Mars. The "Curiosity" rover landed on Mars on Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater, near Aeolis Mons (a.k.a. Mount Sharp), on August 6, 2012.