This is a list of spacecraft missions (including unsuccessful ones) to the planet

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

, such as orbiters, landers, and rovers.

Missions

;Mission Type Legend:

Landing locations

In 1999,

Mars Climate Orbiter The ''Mars Climate Orbiter'' (formerly the Mars Surveyor '98 Orbiter) was a robotic space probe launched by NASA on December 11, 1998, to study the Martian climate, Martian atmosphere, and surface changes and to act as the communications rel ...

accidentally entered Mars' atmosphere and either burnt up or left Mars' orbit on an unknown trajectory. There are a number of derelict spacecraft orbiting Mars whose location is not known precisely. There is a proposal to use the Optical Navigation Camera on the ''

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter The ''Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter'' (''MRO'') is a spacecraft designed to search for the existence of water on Mars and provide support for missions to Mars, as part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program. It was launched from Cape Canaveral on Au ...

'' to search for small moons, dust rings and old orbiters. As of 2016, there were believed to be eight derelict spacecraft in orbit around Mars (barring unforeseen event). The Viking 1 orbiter was not expected to decay until at least 2019.

Mariner 9 Mariner 9 (Mariner Mars '71 / Mariner-I) was a robotic spacecraft that contributed greatly to the exploration of Mars and was part of the NASA Mariner program. Mariner 9 was launched toward Mars on May 30, 1971, from Spaceport Florida Launch Comp ...

, which entered Mars orbit in 1971, was expected to remain in orbit until approximately 2022, when it was projected to enter the Martian atmosphere and either burn up, or crash into the planet's surface.

Timeline

Missions to the moons of Mars

There have also have been proposed missions dedicated to explore the two

moons of Mars The two natural satellite, moons of Mars (planet), Mars are Phobos (moon), Phobos and Deimos (moon), Deimos. They are irregular in shape. Both were discovered by American astronomer Asaph Hall in August 1877 and are named after the Greek mytholo ...

, Phobos and

Deimos Deimos, a Greek word for ''dread'', may refer to: In general * Deimos (deity), one of the sons of Ares and Aphrodite in Greek mythology * Deimos (moon), the smaller and outermost of Mars' two natural satellites Fictional characters * Deimos (comi ...

. Many missions to Mars have also included dedicated observations of the moons, while this section is about missions focused solely on them. There have been three unsuccessful dedicated missions and many proposals. Because of the proximity of the Mars moons to Mars, any mission to them may also be considered a mission to Mars from some perspectives. ; Past missions Three missions to land on Phobos have been launched; the Soviet

Phobos program The Phobos program () was an uncrewed space mission consisting of two probes launched by the Soviet Union to study Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appeara ...

in the late 1980s saw the launch of

Phobos 1 ''Phobos 1'' was an uncrewed Soviet space probe of the Phobos program, Phobos Program launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Baikonour launch facility on 7 July 1988. Its intended mission was to explore Mars and its moons Phobos (moon), Phobos ...

and

Phobos 2 ''Phobos 2'' was the last space probe designed by the Soviet Union. It was designed to explore the moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos. It was launched on 12 July 1988, and entered orbit on 29 January 1989. ''Phobos 2'' operated nominally throu ...

, while the Russian

Fobos-Grunt Fobos-Grunt or Phobos-Grunt () was an attempted Russian sample return mission to Phobos (moon), Phobos, one of the moons of Mars. Fobos-Grunt also carried the Chinese Mars orbiter Yinghuo-1 and the tiny Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment f ...

sample return mission was launched in 2011. None of these missions were successful: Phobos 1 failed en route to Mars, Phobos 2 failed shortly before landing, and Fobos-Grunt never left

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an geocentric orbit, orbit around Earth with a orbital period, period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an orbital eccentricity, eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial object ...

. ; Planned missions In Japan, the

Institute of Space and Astronautical Science , or ISAS, is a Japanese national research organization of astrophysics using rockets, astronomical satellites and interplanetary probes which played a major role in Japan's space development. Established as part of the University of Tokyo ...

(ISAS) is developing a sample return mission to Phobos. This mission is called Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) and is a flagship Strategic Large Mission. MMX will build on the expertise the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (

JAXA The is the Japanese national air and space agency. Through the merger of three previously independent organizations, JAXA was formed on 1 October 2003. JAXA is responsible for research, technology development and launch of satellites into o ...

) would gain through the

Hayabusa2 is an asteroid sample-return mission operated by the Japanese state space agency JAXA. It is a successor to the ''Hayabusa'' mission, which returned asteroid samples for the first time in June 2010. ''Hayabusa2'' was launched on 3 December 2 ...

and SLIM missions. As of December 2023, MMX is scheduled to launch in 2026. ; Past proposals There have been at least three proposals in the United States

Discovery Program The Discovery Program is a series of Solar System exploration missions funded by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) through its Planetary Missions Program Office. The cost of each mission is capped at a lower level t ...

, including PADME, PANDORA, and MERLIN. The ESA has also considered a sample return mission, one of the latest known as Martian Moon Sample Return or MMSR, and it may use heritage from an asteroid sample return mission. Osiris-Rex 2 was a proposal to make OR a double mission, with the other one collecting samples from the two Mars moons. In 2012, it was stated that this mission would be both the quickest and least expensive way to get samples from the Moons. The 'Red Rocks Project,' a part of Lockheed Martin's "Stepping Stones to Mars" program, proposed to explore Mars robotically from Deimos.Larry Pag
Deep Space Exploration - Stepping Stones
builds up to "Red Rocks : Explore Mars from Deimos"

Statistics

Summary

Mission milestone by country

;Legend

† First to achieve

Missions by organization/company

Future missions

Under development

Proposed missions

Unrealized concepts

1970s

* ''

Mars 4NM The Mars program was a series of uncrewed spacecraft launched by the Soviet Union between 1960 and 1973. The spacecraft were intended to explore Mars, and included flyby probes, landers and orbiters. Early Mars spacecraft were small, and launc ...

'' and ''

Mars 5NM The Mars program was a series of uncrewed spacecraft launched by the Soviet Union between 1960 and 1973. The spacecraft were intended to explore Mars, and included flyby probes, landers and orbiters. Early Mars spacecraft were small, and launc ...

'' – projects intended by the Soviet Union for heavy

Marsokhod Marsokhod () is a Russian Mars rover project that was intended for use in the Mars-96 mission. Instead it was used for experiments into improving rover technology. Prototypes of the Marsokhod rover were taken from Russia to the NASA Ames Researc ...

(in 1973 according to initial plan of 1970) and

Mars sample return A Mars sample-return (MSR) mission is a proposed mission to collect rock and dust samples on Mars and return them to Earth. Such a mission would allow more extensive analysis than that allowed by onboard sensors. Risks of cross-contamination ...

(planned for 1975). The missions were to be launched on the failed N1 rocket. * '' Mars 5M (Mars-79)'' – double-launching Soviet sample return mission planned to 1979 but cancelled due to complexity and technical problems * '' Voyager-Mars'' – USA, 1970s – Two orbiters and two landers, launched by a single

Saturn V The Saturn V is a retired American super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA under the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon. The rocket was human-rated, had multistage rocket, three stages, and was powered by liquid-propel ...

rocket.

1990s

* '' Vesta'' – the multiaimed Soviet mission, developed in cooperation with European countries for realisation in 1991–1994 but canceled due to the Soviet Union disbanding, included the flyby of Mars with delivering the aerostat and small landers or penetrators followed by flybys of

1 Ceres Ceres ( minor-planet designation: 1 Ceres) is a dwarf planet in the middle main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. It was the first known asteroid, discovered on 1 January 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi at Palermo Astronomical O ...

4 Vesta Vesta (minor-planet designation: 4 Vesta) is one of the largest objects in the asteroid belt, with a mean diameter of . It was discovered by the German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers on 29 March 1807 and is named after Vesta (mytho ...

and some other

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...

s with impact of penetrator on the one of them. * '' Mars Aerostat'' – Russian/French balloon part for cancelled Vesta mission and then for failed

Mars 96 Mars 96 (sometimes called Mars-8) was a failed Mars mission launched in 1996 to investigate Mars by the Russian Space Forces and not directly related to the Soviet Mars probe program of the same name. After failure of the second fourth-stage ...

mission, originally planned for the 1992 launch window, postponed to 1994 and then to 1996 before being cancelled. * Mars Together, combined U.S. and Russian mission study in the 1990s. To be launched by a Molniya with possible U.S. orbiter or lander. * ''

Mars Environmental Survey MESUR (Mars Environmental SURvey) was a NASA program designed to explore Mars in preparation for human follow-up missions of the Space Exploration Initiative. The only mission of the program that was completed was '' MESUR Pathfinder''. History ME ...

'' – set of 16 landers planned for 1999–2009 * '' Mars-98'' – Russian mission including an orbiter, lander, and rover, planned for 1998 launch opportunity as repeat of failed

mission; cancelled due to lack of funding.

2000s

* ''

Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander The Mars Surveyor 2001 project was a multi-part Mars exploration mission intended as a follow-up to Mars Surveyor '98. After the two probes of the 1998 project, Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander, were both lost, NASA's "better, faster, ...

'' – October 2001 – Mars lander (refurbished, became Phoenix lander) * ''Kitty Hawk'' – Mars airplane micromission, proposed for 17 December 2003, the centennial of the Wright brothers' first flight. Its funding was eventually given to the 2003 Mars Network project. * '' NetLander'' – 2007 or 2009 – Mars netlanders * '' Beagle 3'' – 2009 British lander mission meant to search for life, past or present. * ''

Mars Telecommunications Orbiter The Mars Telecommunications Orbiter (MTO) was a cancelled Mars mission that was originally intended to launch in 2009 and would have established an Interplanetary Internet between Earth and Mars. The spacecraft would have arrived in a high orbi ...

'' – September 2009 – Mars orbiter for telecommunications

2010s-2020s

* ''

Mars One Mars One was a small private Dutch organization that received money from investors by claiming it would use it to land the first humans on Mars and leave them there to establish a permanent human colony. From its announcement in 2012 to its ...

'' - announced in 2012, planned to land a demo lander on Mars by 2016, with a crewed landing to follow by 2023. These dates were delayed multiple times, and the project was eventually cancelled, with the company going bankrupt in 2019 * ''

Sky-Sailor The Sky-Sailor is a concept for a robotic aircraft with embedded solar cells on its wings, conceived in 2004 by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. It is hoped it would be able to study the Martian surface. Sky-Sailor would be an ...

'' – 2014 – Plane developed by Switzerland to take detailed pictures of Mars surface * '' Mars Astrobiology Explorer-Cacher'' – 2018 rover concept, cancelled due to budget cuts in 2011. Sample cache goal later moved to

Mars 2020 Mars 2020 is a NASA mission that includes the rover ''Perseverance (rover), Perseverance'', the now-retired small robotic helicopter ''Ingenuity (helicopter), Ingenuity'', and associated delivery systems, as part of the Mars Exploration Progra ...

rover. * '' Red Dragon'' – Derivative of a

Dragon 2 Dragon 2 is a class of partially reusable spacecraft developed, manufactured, and operated by the American space company SpaceX for flights to the International Space Station (ISS) and private spaceflight missions. The spacecraft, which cons ...

capsule by SpaceX, designed to land by aerobraking and retropropulsion. Planned for 2018, then 2020. Canceled in favor of the

Starship A starship, starcraft, or interstellar spacecraft is a theoretical spacecraft designed for interstellar travel, traveling between planetary systems. The term is mostly found in science fiction. Reference to a "star-ship" appears as early as 1 ...

system. * ''Tumbleweed'' rover, wind-propelled sphere PIA24838-NASA-MarsMissions-20210928

MELOS Milos or Melos (; , ; ) is a volcanic Greek island in the Aegean Sea, just north of the Sea of Crete. It is the southwestern-most island of the Cyclades group. The ''Venus de Milo'' (now in the Louvre), the '' Poseidon of Melos'' (now in the ...

, Japanese rover and aircraft concept *

Icebreaker Life ''Icebreaker Life'' is a Mars lander mission concept proposed to NASA's Discovery Program. The mission involves a stationary lander that would be a near copy of the successful 2008 ''Phoenix'' and 2018 InSight spacecraft, but would carry an astr ...

, astrobiology lander concept * Next Mars Orbiter, orbiter, communication satellite * Deimos and Phobos Interior Explorer, ESA concept of a mission to both moons * Mars MetNet, atmospheric probes concept * Mars Geyser Hopper, lander, mission to Mars geysers * Mars Micro Orbiter, small satellites as part of

SIMPLEx In geometry, a simplex (plural: simplexes or simplices) is a generalization of the notion of a triangle or tetrahedron to arbitrary dimensions. The simplex is so-named because it represents the simplest possible polytope in any given dimension. ...

program *

Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment Phobos And Deimos & Mars Environment (PADME) is a low-cost NASA Mars orbiter mission concept that would address longstanding unknowns about Mars' two moons Phobos and Deimos and their environment. The PADME mission competed for Discovery Progra ...

, NASA concept of mission to both moons *

Biological Oxidant and Life Detection The Biological Oxidant and Life Detection (BOLD) is a concept mission to Mars focused on searching for evidence or biosignatures of microscopic life on Mars. The BOLD mission objective would be to quantify the amount of hydrogen peroxide () exist ...

, impactor *

SatRevolution SatRev S.A. is a Polish aerospace company established in 2016, that specialises in building small, lightweight, nanosatellites. The company was listed in the NASA's "State of the Art Small Spacecraft Technology" report as one of 12 in the world. ...

, nanosatellite

Notes

References

{{Portal bar, Solar System, Space, Spaceflight Mars

Missions

Landing locations

Timeline

Missions to the moons of Mars

Statistics

Summary

Mission milestone by country

Missions by organization/company

Future missions

Under development

Proposed missions

Unrealized concepts

1970s

1990s

2000s

2010s-2020s

See also

Notes

References