page_title: Exploration of Mars
section_title: Future missions
hierarchical_section_title: Exploration of Mars / Future missions
caption_attribution_description: English: NASA's 2020 Mars rover mission will go to a region of Mars thought to have offered favorable conditions long ago for microbial life, and the rover will search for signs of past life there. It will also collect and cache samples for potential return to Earth, for many types of laboratory analysis. As a pioneering step toward how humans on Mars will use the Red Planet's natural resources, the rover will do an experiment to extract oxygen from the Martian atmosphere. This 2016 image comes from computer-assisted-design work on the 2020 rover. The design leverages many successful features of NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in 2012, but it adds new science instruments and a sampling system to carry out the new goals for the mission.
context_page_description: The planet Mars has been explored remotely by spacecraft. Probes sent from Earth, beginning in the late 20th century, have yielded a large increase in knowledge about the Martian system, focused primarily on understanding its geology and habitability potential. Engineering interplanetary journeys is complicated and the exploration of Mars has experienced a high failure rate, especially the early attempts. Roughly sixty percent of all spacecraft destined for Mars failed before completing their missions and some failed before their observations could begin. Some missions have met with unexpected success, such as the twin Mars Exploration Rovers, which operated for years beyond their specification.
context_section_description: Missions to Mars in the summer of 2020 include: Hope Orbiter (launched 19 July 2020), Tianwen-1 (launched 23 July 2020) and Perseverance rover (launched 30 July 2020).
  The Mars 2020 mission by NASA was launched in 2020. It is based on the Mars Science Laboratory design. The scientific payload is focused on astrobiology. It includes Perseverance rover and Mars Helicopter Ingenuity.
  Tianwen-1 is a Chinese mission, launched in July 2020. It includes an orbiter, a lander and a small rover.
  The United Arab Emirates sent an orbiter to Mars, the Hope Mars Mission, in July 2020. It will study the Martian atmosphere and weather.
  As part of the ExoMars program, ESA and the Roscosmos plan to send the Rosalind Franklin rover in 2022 to search for evidence of past or present microscopic life on Mars. The lander to deliver the rover is called Kazachok, and it will perform scientific studies for about 2 years.
  India's ISRO plans to send a follow-up mission to its Mars Orbiter Mission in 2024; it is called Mars Orbiter Mission 2 (MOM-2) and it will consist of an orbiter, and probably a rover.
caption: Computer-design drawing for NASA's Perseverance rover.
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