Mars Activities

After the Moon, Mars is the second planet to visit on for most players and the second-most easy-to-reach place.

There are many activities to do while on Mars (or around it), and they are explained below.

## Requirements

Mars has a tenuous atmosphere that can be used to slow down rockets that try to land on its surface. However, the Martian atmosphere may not be enough to slow down a rocket approaching with high velocity. It may require to to burn retrograde to decrease speed. Once in the lower layers of the atmosphere, parachutes are useful to bring the rocket into a slow speed but not slow enough to not break parts (such as engines, landing legs, fuel tanks etc.). A good advice is to fire the engines/retrorockets just before touchdown to cancel out some of the velocity. Most players first achieve low Mars orbit, before entry, descent into Mars and landing on the surface of Mars. It is wise to use landing legs to increase the touchdown speed limit.

Mars has a low gravity (around 38% of Earth's gravity), which makes liftoff easy. Atmospheric friction will not significantly slow down a rocket.

There are two moons surrounding Mars, Deimos and Phobos, both with barely any gravity. Exploring them is very easy and requires only little fuel. This can be done as a bonus after a successful Mars mission. Also, these tiny moons are excellent places for building bases and creating space stations.

Sending a rocket to Mars consumes a little bit more fuel than sending one to Venus. However, returning to Earth will cost less fuel, because of the low gravity.

## Surrounding Mars

*See also:*
There are many space missions that can be achieved around Mars, without actually landing on the planet:

### Flyby missions

**Flyby missions** simply enter Mars' sphere of influence, without entering into an orbit, before leaving again. After that, it will begin to orbit the Sun again. (see Heliocentric Orbit Activities for details). You can control your trajectory around Mars based on the velocity you leave Earth, or by using Deep Space Maneuvers (DSMs).

### Orbiting Mars

**Orbiting Mars** (and returning to Earth) should be tried before attempting to land. It can be also used for orbiter missions. To get into orbit, get into flyby trajectory near the Martian surface and burn retrograde at the lowest point.

### Exploring Mars's moons

**Phobos & Deimos** are the two small moons of Mars. Their lack of gravity makes them an excellent target. Because they are so small and they're very close to Mars, it is a bit tricky to enter their spheres of influence, so it is not very easy to fly by them. With very little fuel you can orbit or land on any of the moons. However, care must be taken because of their very low gravity. The engines must operate at a very low throttle (10% or less). Driving a rover on the moons is very tricky due to the low gravity.

### Mars space station

A **Mars space station** can be easily built in low or high Mars orbit or on Phobos or Deimos. Because of the very little gravity and the small size of the moons, it is easy to make rockets land very close one to each other. Small rockets can be docked very easy this way.

## Exploring Mars

There are many ways to get to Mars. There are one-way and return missions.

### One-way missions

*Main article: [[]]*

Just as both NASA and the Soviet space agency did many times, one-way unmanned probes, can be sent to Mars. However, with a tenuous atmosphere, landing on Mars is a bit tricky.

Hard landings (landings that cause damage to the craft) can occur if parachutes are missing or if the parachutes failed to deploy. After the impact, almost nothing is left functional. Due to Mars' thin atmosphere, it can often be difficult to slow down a spacecraft enough for parachutes to deploy before you hit the ground. One thing you can do is try landing at lower points on Mars such as Hellas Planitia.

A soft landing can be achieved by using parachutes, or by using powered descent and landing (PDL) like you would on the Moon, or a mix of both. Regardless, a heat shield is required to avoid burning up in the Martian atmosphere.

### Mars return missions

*Main article: [[]]*

It is relatively easy to reach Mars or any of its moons and then to return Earth. A large rocket will do the task, although it may be easier to assemble a spacecraft in space using docking and rendezvous. However, this can also be achieved with a single rocket not much bigger than a Moon rocket.

### Mars extended missions

*Main article: [[]]*

The Mars Grand Tour achievement requires that you land on Mars and both of its moons before returning to Earth. To do normally, this would require a massive rocket. However, you can have a craft land on Mars' moons and dock to a Mars Lander to get the achievement (as of January 2024).

## See also

* What to do in Spaceflight Simulator?
* Mars Return Mission