Missions to Mars | The Planetary Society The Planetary Society Join our eNewsletter for updates & action alerts Spam Control Text: Please leave this field empty Explore Home » Explore » Space Topics » Space Missions Missions to Mars Mars has historically been unfriendly to Earth’s attempts to visit it. More missions have been attempted to Mars than to any other place in the Solar System except the Moon, and about half of the attempts have failed. Some of these failures occurred because Mars was the first planet Earth attempted to explore, and the early exploration attempts taught us many lessons that have made subsequent missions more successful. But many failures have occurred relatively recently, proving again and again that space exploration is very, very difficult. But since 1996, Mars exploration has undergone a Renaissance, with data from four orbiters and four landed missions developing a revolutionary new view of Mars as an Earth-like world with a complex geologic history.

Mars orbiter and lander (ESA) Launch: March 14, 2016 Mars orbit insertion: October 19, 2016 This first mission of ESA's ExoMars program consists of a Trace Gas Orbiter plus an Entry, descent and landing Demonstrator Module, known as Schiaparelli (which transmitted data during its descent before crash landing on the martian surface). The main objectives of this mission are to search for evidence of methane and other trace atmospheric gases that could be signatures of active biological or geological processes and to test key technologies in preparation for ESA's contribution to subsequent missions to Mars. Launch: November 18, 2013 Mars orbit insertion: September 22, 2014 MAVEN, which stands for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission, has provided first-of-its-kind measurements to address key questions about Mars climate and habitability and improve understanding of dynamic processes in the upper Martian atmosphere and ionosphere.

Launch: November 5, 2013 Mars orbit insertion: September 24, 2014 Sometimes referred to by the nickname "Mangalyaan," the Mars Orbiter Mission is India's first interplanetary spacecraft. It is primarily a technology demonstration mission that carries a small, 15-kilogram payload of 5 science instruments. It entered orbit at Mars in September 2014, just two days after the arrival of NASA's MAVEN mission. The orbit is highly elliptical, from 387 to 80,000 kilometers. Curiosity (Mars Science Laboratory) (MSL) Mars rover (NASA) Launch: November 26, 2011 Landing: August 6, 2012 Curiosity is the next generation of rover, building on the successes of Spirit and Opportunity. It landed in Gale Crater, the location of a 5+ km tall mound of layered sedimentary material, which Curiosity has found was at least partially deposited in a lake setting. The rover has also made key discoveries such as the detection of organic material.

After a 2-(Earth)-year trek from its landing site, it is now entering the foothills of the mound, dubbed "Mount Sharp" (or Aeolis Mons), where it will then start its ascent up the mound. In orbit at Mars (NASA) Launch: August 12, 2005 Mars arrival: March 10, 2006 The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is searching for evidence of past water on Mars, using the most powerful camera and spectrometer ever sent to Mars. Its cameras are also helping in the search for landing sites for future Mars rovers and landers, and to monitor martian weather on a day-to-day basis. Currently roving across Mars (NASA) Launch: July 7, 2003 Landing: January 24, 2004 Opportunity landed in Meridiani Planum at 354.4742°E, 1.9483°S, immediately finding the hematite mineral that had been seen from space by Mars Global Surveyor. After roving more than 33 kilometers, Opportunity arrived at the 22-kilometer-diameter crater Endeavour, a target it is currently exploring.

Mars Express and Beagle 2 Currently in orbit at Mars; failed lander (ESA) Launch: June 2, 2003 Mars arrival: December 26, 2003 Five days before its arrival Mars Express successfully pushed off the tiny, 30-kilogram Beagle 2 geochemical lander. Although it had functioned successfully throughout cruise, the lander was never heard from again. Beagle 2 may have landed too hard, the victim of an unexpectedly thin atmosphere at the time of its arrival. Mars Express successfully entered orbit on December 26 and immediately began returning stunning, 3D, color images. Mars Express has detected surprising concentrations of methane and evidence for recent volcanism on Mars. Its radar sounder, MARSIS, was deployed late in the mission due to spacecraft safety concerns, but is functioning well.

Currently in orbit at Mars (NASA) Launch: April 7, 2001 Mars arrival: October 24, 2001 Mars Odyssey is capturing images of the Martian surface at resolutions between those of Viking and Mars Global Surveyor, and is making both daytime and nighttime observations of the surface in thermal infrared wavelengths at resolutions higher than ever before. It has detected massive deposits of water lying below Mars’ surface in near-polar regions and widespread deposits of olivine across the planet, indicating a dry past for Mars. The MARIE instrument measured the radiation environment at Mars to determine its potential impact on human explorers, and found them to be 2 to 3 times higher than expected. Odyssey also serves as a communications relay for the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers. Future rover (ESA) Launch: 2018 (planned) ESA's ExoMars 2020 mission will deliver a European rover and a Russian surface platform to the surface of Mars. A Proton rocket will be used to launch the mission, which will arrive to Mars after a nine-month journey. The ExoMars rover will travel across the Martian surface to search for signs of life.

It will collect samples with a drill and analyze them with next-generation instruments. ExoMars will be the first mission to combine the capability to move across the surface and to study Mars at depth. Launch: May 2018 Arrival: ~January 2019 InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) is a Mars lander full of geophysical instruments. Using a seismometer, heat flow probe, and precision tracking it seeks to explore the deep interior of Mars and improve our understanding of the formation of terrestrial planets. The mission was originally planned to launch in March 2016, but problems with the seismometer resulted in a launch delay to 2018. Launch: July 2020 (planned) Arrival: ~March 2021 The Mars 2020 rover, largely based on the Curiosity rover, is an astrobiology-geared mission to look at surface geology and assess past and present habitability and the potential for preservation of biosignatures.

Failed sample return mission to Phobos (Russia) Launch: January 15, 2012 Phobos-Grunt's modified Fregat upper stage of failed to ignite after launch, and the spacecraft crashed into the southern Pacific ocean. Launch: January 15, 2012, piggybacked on Phobos-Grunt Yinghuo-1 crashed with Phobos-Grunt. Mars arrival: May 25, 2008 Last communication: November 2, 2008 Phoenix landed near Mars' north pole to study the water ice found close to the surface there. Its arm dug trenches into the soil and delivered samples to sophisticated chemical analysis instruments. The mission ended when winter temperatures and cloud cover led to depletion of solar power, which was expected. The mission was declared concluded on November 10, 2008, after engineers we unable to establish contact with the lander. After unsuccessful attempts to contact the lander with the Mars Odyssey orbiter up to and past the martian summer solstice on May 12, 2010, JPL declared the lander to be dead.

The mission was successful, completing all planned science experiments and observations. Landing: January 3, 2004 Contact lost: March 22, 2010 Spirit landed on Mars within Gusev crater at 14.5718°S, 175.4785° E. The initial panorama showed a rock-strewn site similar to Pathfinder’s. Spirit had to rove several kilometers across Mars and into its extended mission before it found evidence for past water. It was hobbled by one stuck wheel for many years and finally became stuck in fluffy sand. Unable to move into a favorable position to keep the battery charged through winter, the rover's power was eventually drained. After numerous failed attempts to contact the rover, the mission officially ended on May 24, 2011. You can read a detailed history of Spirit's mission in our MER Updates section. Failed Mars lander & 2 penetrators (NASA) Launch: January 3, 1999 Attempted landing: December 3, 1999 When Mars Polar Lander arrived at Mars, it turned its antenna away from Earth to prepare for its entry into the Martian atmosphere.

This was the last time controllers heard from the spacecraft. A review board determined the most likely cause for the loss of mission was a faulty software system that may have triggered the retrorockets to turn off early, causing the lander to crash. The spacecraft had carried The Planetary Society’s Mars Microphone to Mars, the first privately funded hardware provided to a planetary mission. Two microprobes, Amundsen and Scott, were piggy-backed on the lander and expected to separate just before the lander entered the atmosphere. However, no signal was ever received from the probes. Launch: July 3, 1998 Mars flyby: December 14, 2003 Originally scheduled to arrive at Mars in October 1999, Nozomi failed to gain enough speed during an Earth flyby on December 21, 1998. The spacecraft also used much more fuel than predicted. A looping trajectory was developed, including two more Earth flybys, to return Nozomi to Mars for orbit insertion in December 2003. But on April 21, 2002, a powerful solar flare damaged Nozomi’s computer.

As a result, Nozomi’s hydrazine fuel froze during the long interplanetary trek and mission controllers were unable to place it into orbit. Nozomi flew by Mars at a distance of 1,000 kilometers (600 miles), and is now in a 2-year orbit around the Sun. Failed Mars orbiter (NASA) Launch: December 11, 1998 Mars Climate Orbiter was lost on September 23, 1999, when a mathematical conversion error placed the spacecraft too close to Mars at the time of orbital insertion. Mars Climate Orbiter carried a few re-flown instruments from Mars Observer, marking the second failures for those experiments. Successful Mars lander & rover (NASA) Launch: December 4, 1996 Mars arrival: July 4, 1997 Mars Pathfinder’s successful airbag-assisted landing was the first successful mission to the Martian surface since Viking, 20 years earlier. The landing site was near the mouth of Ares Vallis, at 19.33°N, 33.55°W.

On July 6, 1997, the six-wheeled rover, named Sojourner in a Planetary Society-run contest, rolled off a ramp and onto the Martian surface. The lander, now named the Sagan Memorial Station for The Planetary Society's co-founder Carl Sagan, returned many images as well as weather data. The original mission was scheduled to last for 30 days, but the lander and Sojourner continued to transmit data until September 27, 1997 when contact with the lander was lost. Failed Mars orbiter, lander, & 2 penetrators (Russian Space Agency) Launch: November 16, 1996 The rocket carrying the spacecraft launched successfully, but its fourth stage ignited prematurely and sent the spacecraft crashing into the ocean. Several of the science instruments originally built for Mars 96 were later flown on ESA’s Mars Express. Mars arrival: September 12, 1997 Contact lost: November 5, 2006 Mars Global Surveyor was the first completely successful Mars orbiter since Viking 1 shut down in 1980.

The start of Mars Global Surveyor’s science mission was delayed due to a problem with one of its solar panels that caused its aerobraking period (which reduced its initial orbit from an ellipse to a low-altitude, near circular one) to last for a year and a half. Once science operations began in March 1999, Mars Global Surveyor provided scientists with a wealth of images and data, including the highest-resolution images yet achieved from orbit. Many of the Mars Observer instruments were re-flown on Mars Global Surveyor. Its mission was extended three times, making it the longest-lived spacecraft in Martian orbit at the time contact was lost on November 5, 2006. Launch: September 25, 1992 Contact lost: August 21, 1993 Mars Observer was designed to study the Red Planet from orbit. On August 21, 1993, only three days away from Mars, all contact with the spacecraft was suddenly lost. Scientists were unable to determine the cause of the failure. It is possible that Mars Observer followed its onboard program and is in orbit around Mars.

However, the results of failure investigations suggest that a fuel line ruptured during tank pressurization, which would have caused the spacecraft to spin uncontrollably and fail to enter orbit. Most of the science instruments that were originally built for Mars Observer were eventually “re-flown” on subsequent orbiters. Mostly failed Mars orbiter & 2 Phobos landers Launch: July 12, 1988 Mars arrival: January 29, 1989 Phobos 2 was designed to orbit Mars and land a "hopper" and a lander on the surface of Phobos. The spacecraft successfully went into orbit and began sending back preliminary data. Then, on March 27, 1989, just before the spacecraft was to move within 50 meters of Phobos and deploy the two landers, the spacecraft's onboard computer malfunctioned and the mission was lost. Failed Mars orbiter (USSR) Launch: July 7, 1988 Phobos 1 was designed to study the Sun and interplanetary space while on its way to Mars.

Once in orbit around Mars, it was going to study the Red Planet and take close-up images of its moon Phobos. However, on September 2, 1988, only two months in to the flight, controllers on the ground accidentally uploaded software containing a command that deactivated the spacecraft's attitude control thrusters. The spacecraft then turned its solar panels away from the Sun and was unable to recharge its batteries. As a result, the mission was lost. Mars arrival: August 7, 1976 Mars landing: September 3, 1976 The Viking 2 lander touched down in the Utopia Planitia, on the opposite side of the planet and almost 1,500 kilometers closer to the north pole than Viking 1 at 47.27°N, 225.99°W. One of the lander's legs settled down on a rock, so the entire lander was tilted by about 8 degrees. The lander took extensive atmospheric readings and conducted experiments on soil samples that it had collected with a scoop.

The Viking 2 lander quit operating on April 11, 1980, when its batteries failed, but it lasted long enough to see multiple winters come to its landing site and to see it cover with frost. The Viking 2 orbiter was shut down on July 25, 1978, after 706 orbits. The Viking 1 and 2 landers returned 1,400 images from the Martian surface. The orbiters took 50,000 images, producing a global atlas that is still used today. Mars arrival: June 19, 1976 Mars landing: July 20, 1976 When Viking 1 entered orbit at Mars, it began taking pictures of the surface in search of a safe landing site for the lander. Mission planners were hoping for a July 4th landing, but the original site turned out to be too rocky. Another site was chosen and the first successful Mars landing took place on July 20, 1976, the seventh anniversary of the first Moon landing.

Viking 1 landed in Chryse Planitia at 22.48°N, 49.97°W. The lander took extensive weather readings and conducted experiments on soil samples collected with a scoop. The orbiter was powered down on August 17, 1980 after 1,400 orbits. The lander survived on the surface until November 13, 1982. ^ Back to top Mars 4, 5, 6, and 7 Under pressure from the developing Viking mission, the USSR attempted one last time to beat the USA to a successful soft landing on Mars in 1973. Because of an unfavorable launch window, however, orbiters and landers were launched separately. All four spacecraft were hurried to completion and launched to Mars with microchips known to have serious problems. The problems mostly doomed the missions, but Mars 4, 5, and 6 all successfully performed radio occultation experiments of Mars’ atmosphere, proving the existence of an ionosphere at Mars and resulting in the measurement of a 6.7-millibar surface atmospheric pressure.

Failed Mars orbiter attempt (successful as a flyby) (USSR) Launch: July 21, 1973 Mars flyby: February 10, 1974 The microchip problem caused the failure of the Mars 4 orbiter to fire its orbit insertion rockets. It flew by Mars at a distance of 2,200 kilometers (1,370 miles), taking one set of images and collecting limited data. It continued to function after the flyby, returning data from solar orbit. Mars 5 Initially successful Mars orbiter, failed after 22 days Launch: July 25, 1973 Mars arrival: February 12, 1974 Mars 5 entered orbit successfully, but after completing 22 orbits and returning 60 images the spacecraft malfunctioned and the mission ended.

Mars 6 Slightly successful descent craft and flyby Launch: August 5, 1973 Mars arrival: March 12, 1974 The Mars 6 descent craft separated successfully from the main spacecraft and descended through the atmosphere, transmitting 224 seconds of data before abruptly cutting off (either when the retrorockets fired or when it slammed into the ground). Although this was the first data of its kind (from within the Martian atmosphere), most of it was garbled and unusable due to the microchip problem. Mars 6 landed at 23.90°S, 19.42°W. Mars 7 Failed descent attempt Launch: August 9, 1973 The Mars 7 lander separated too early, causing it to miss the planet by 1,300 kilometers (800 miles).

Successful Mars orbiter and failed descent craft (USSR) Launch: May 19, 1971 Mars arrival: November 27, 1971 Mars 3 Somewhat successful Mars orbiter and very briefly successful descent craft (USSR) Launch: May 28, 1971 Mars arrival: December 2, 1971 The identical Mars 2 and Mars 3 spacecraft each released descent craft 4.5 hours prior to their arrivals at Mars. But the landers had the misfortune of arriving at Mars during one of the greatest dust storms in recorded history. The Mars 2 probe descended at a steeper angle and faster rate than intended and crashed near 45°S, 313°W. However, the Mars 3 probe used aerobraking, parachutes, and retrorockets to descend successfully to a soft landing near 45°S, 158°W. It operated for 20 seconds on the surface before mysteriously failing, possibly because it was blown over by the wind. Before failing, Mars 3 may have deployed the first tiny rover onto the surface of Mars.

The Mars 2 orbiter was successfully placed in an 18-hour orbit. The spacecraft completed 362 orbits. The Mars 3 orbiter, short on fuel, was unable to obtain its intended 18-hour orbit. Instead, the spacecraft ended up in an almost 13-day orbit around the planet and completed only 20 orbits. Both spacecraft were shut down on August 22, 1972. Together, Mars 2 & 3 returned 60 images of Mars, recorded temperatures ranging from -110 to 13 degrees Celsius (-166 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit), produced surface relief maps and studied the Martian gravity and magnetic fields. Launch: May 30, 1971 Mars arrival: November 14, 1971 Mariner 9 was the first spacecraft to go into orbit around another planet. However, excitement for its arrival was subdued by a dark cloud -- literally. A Martian dust storm, which had started in late September 1971, had grown to cover the entire planet.

When Mariner 9 arrived in November, the only surface features visible were the summit of Olympus Mons and the three volcanoes of Tharsis Ridge. Mission scientists had to wait about a month and a half until the dust settled before they could begin the science portion of the mission. When the spacecraft ran out of fuel almost a year later (on October 27, 1972), Mariner 9 had taken a total of 7,329 images of Mars, studied the atmospheric and surface composition of the planet, the density and pressure of its atmosphere as well as the planet's gravity and topography. The spacecraft also provided scientists with the first close-up views of Phobos and Deimos, the two moons of Mars. Launch: November 28, 1964 Mars flyby: July 14, 1965 Mariner 4 was the first spacecraft to fly by Mars and obtain close-up pictures of the Red Planet, passing within 9,844 kilometers (6,117 miles) of Mars. It then took four days to transmit the data back to Earth.

Mariner 4 imaged a large, ancient crater on Mars and confirmed the existence of a thin Martian atmosphere composed largely of carbon dioxide. Once past Mars, the spacecraft continued on its way, returning data until October 1965, when the orientation of its antenna made communication with Earth impossible. However, scientists were able to re-establish contact with Mariner 4 in late 1967 and continued to receive data until December 20, 1967, when the mission was terminated. The spacecraft is now in a solar orbit. Curiosity Rover Curiosity Rover Roving Mars for science. Blogging it for you. Official NASA mission Tumblr. Looking forward, looking back. I’m leaving Mars’ Naukluft Plateau, and heading higher on Mt. Sharp. I’ve analyzed my 12th drilled sample of Mars. Each drill hole is about 0.6 inch (1.6 centimeters)—slightly smaller than a U.S. dime. These images are raw color as taken by the camera at then end of my robotic arm. The “Oudam” sample came from mudstone bedrock. Read more at Try driving on Mars: Like it?

Last day to vote for it in the Webby Awards: He wields a laser, not a lance. France honored my ChemCam instrument lead with knighthood for his work bringing together the French and American scientific communities. 🇫🇷 🇺🇸 More from Los Alamos National Laboratory: The Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument provides information about the chemical composition of targets by zapping them with laser pulses and taking spectrometer readings of the induced sparks. It also takes detailed images through a telescope. Here are a couple examples: Join my #JourneyToMars with astronaut Buzz Aldrin and mobility engineer Erisa via @nasa #HoloLens. Info: Coming soon to @nasa ‘s Kennedy Space Center Mar 30, 2016 Mars Pathfinder & Sojourner Rover (360 View) Explained Thanks to new technology, we can take a 360-degree tour of the 1997 Pathfinder mission landing site, including Sojourner, the first Mars rover. Check out this interactive YouTube panorama, and then… …keep scrolling to find out more about each point of interest, how the Pathfinder mission compares to “The Martian” and NASA’s real Journey to Mars.

Yogi “Yogi” is a meter-size rock about 5 meters northwest of the Mars Pathfinder lander and the second rock visited by the Sojourner Rover’s alpha proton X-ray spectrometer (APXS) instrument. This mosaic shows super resolution techniques applied to help to address questions about the texture of this rock and what it might tell us about how it came to be. Twin Peaks The Twin Peaks are modest-size hills to the southwest of the Mars Pathfinder landing site. They were discovered on the first panoramas taken by the IMP camera on the July 4, 1997, and subsequently identified in Viking Orbiter images taken over 20 years ago. They’re about 30-35 meters tall. Barnacle Bill “Barnacle Bill” is a small rock immediately west-northwest of the Mars Pathfinder lander and was the first rock visited by the Sojourner Rover’s alpha proton X-ray spectrometer (APXS) instrument. If you have some old-school red-cyan glasses, put them on and see this pic in eye-popping 3-D. The Rock Garden is a cluster of large, angular rocks tilted in a downstream direction from ancient floods on Mars.

The rocky surface is comprised of materials washed down from the highlands and deposited in this ancient outflow channel. MOAR INFO Rock & Soil Types This vista was stitched together from many images taken in 1997 by Pathfinder. Pathfinder and Sojourner figure into Mark Watney’s quest for survival on the Red Planet in the book and movie, “The Martian.” See JPL’s role in making “The Martian” a reality: and discover nine real NASA technologies depicted in “The Martian”: . So what about the real-life “Journey to Mars”? NASA is developing the capabilities needed to send humans to Mars in the 2030s. Discover more at and don’t forget to visit me when you make it to the Red Planet. Until then, stay curious and I’ll see you online. Feb 26, 2016 Ahoy, space pirates! Explore the 1997 landing site of NASA’s Pathfinder mission with your mouse or mobile device. This 360-degree view includes the lander’s companion rover, Sojourner, (first Mars rover ever!) and top science targets. I know not all Web browsers support viewing 360-degree videos and images.

(This video best viewed in Chrome.) You can see and download the static panorama at Mars planet facts news & images | NASA Mars rover + mission info See a map of Curiosity's current location . Explore Mars: Curiosity's Journey >> Where are the Rovers? Opportunity has reached Endeavour crater where it will spend time studying rocks never seen before. After a successful six-year mission, Spirit's mission has officially concluded. See the latest location maps and status reports . Fun Be A Mars Maker Print your own 3D model of a Mars meteorite! Download Print File >> Mars Makers Home >> News Feature >> Send a Postcard to Curiosity Celebrate Curiosity's second year on Mars by sending the rover and the team a message. Send Postcard >> Mars in The Palm of Your Hands Tune in with Mars on the go. Download the Be A Martian App , on your Android, iPhone, Windows Phone and Tablets! More >> Explore Curiosity's Journey in 3D Follow Curiosity's drive and read about the latest updates on Curiosity's Journey on Mars! Start Now >> Come explore Mars with us Be part of exploration and discovery, and personally contribute to the expansion of human knowledge for all of us now, and as a legacy for those who follow.

More >> Ask Dr. C Have you ever wondered why Mars is red? Or, how big is the Mars Science Laboratory rover? Ask Dr. C, your personal Mars expert! More >> Check out landing sites of previous Mars rovers and Curiosity | Space | EarthSky See first images from Curiosity on Mars Curiosity landed as scheduled in Gale Crater at about 05:31 UTC on August 6, 2012. That was 10:31 p.m. on August 5 according to clocks at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, where many planetary missions and mission scientists had gathered for the touchdown. The new Mars rover landed in a way no previous rover had attempted before: via sky crane. NASA scientists spoke of the seven minutes of terror: the amount of time it took the Curiosity rover to plunge through the Mars atmosphere and deploy a massive parachute and sophisticated landing system. Bottom line: The video in this post shows the landing sites of all seven NASA spacecraft to reach Mars — Viking 1, Viking 2, Pathfinder, Spirit, Opportunity, Phoenix — and now Curiosity.

Curiosity rover: No big surprise in first soil test Curiosity rover: No big surprise in first soil test December 3, 2012 This is a view of the third (left) and fourth (right) trenches made by the 1.6-inch-wide (4-centimeter-wide) scoop on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity in October 2012. The image was acquired by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on Sol 84 (Oct. 31, 2012) and shows some of the details regarding the properties of the "Rocknest" wind drift sand. The upper surface of the drift is covered by coarse sand grains approximately 0.02 to 0.06 inches (0.5 to 1.5 millimeters) in size. These coarse grains are mantled with fine dust, giving the drift surface a light brownish red color. The coarse sand is somewhat cemented to form a thin crust about 0.2 inches (0.5 centimeters) thick.

Evidence for the crusting is seen by the presence of angular clods in and around the troughs and in the sharp, jagged indentations and overhangs on one wall of each trench (the walls closest to the top of this figure). Beneath the crust surface, as revealed in the scoop troughs and the piles of sediment on the right side of each, is finer sand, which is darker brown as compared with the dust on the surface. The left end of each trough wall shows alternating light and dark bands, indicating that the sand inside the drift is not completely uniform. This banding might result from different amounts of infiltrated dust, chemical alteration or deposition of sands of slightly different color. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS (Phys.org)—NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has used its full array of instruments to analyze Martian soil for the first time, and found a complex chemistry within the Martian soil. Water and sulfur and chlorine-containing substances, among other ingredients, showed up in samples Curiosity's arm delivered to an analytical laboratory inside the rover. Detection of the substances during this early phase of the mission demonstrates the laboratory's capability to analyze diverse soil and rock samples over the next two years.

Scientists also have been verifying the capabilities of the rover's instruments. Curiosity is the first Mars rover able to scoop soil into analytical instruments . The specific soil sample came from a drift of windblown dust and sand called "Rocknest." The site lies in a relatively flat part of Gale Crater still miles away from the rover's main destination on the slope of a mountain called Mount Sharp . The rover's laboratory includes the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) suite and the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument. SAM used three methods to analyze gases given off from the dusty sand when it was heated in a tiny oven. One class of substances SAM checks for is organic compounds —carbon-containing chemicals that can be ingredients for life. "We have no definitive detection of Martian organics at this point, but we will keep looking in the diverse environments of Gale Crater," said SAM Principal Investigator Paul Mahaffy of NASA 's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Curiosity's APXS instrument and the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on the rover's arm confirmed Rocknest has chemical-element composition and textural appearance similar to sites visited by earlier NASA Mars rovers Pathfinder, Spirit and Opportunity.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover documented itself in the context of its work site, an area called "Rocknest Wind Drift," on the 84th Martian day, or sol, of its mission (Oct. 31, 2012). The rover worked at this location from Sol 56 (Oct. 2, 2012) to Sol 100 (Nov. 16, 2012). Credit: NASA Curiosity's team selected Rocknest as the first scooping site because it has fine sand particles suited for scrubbing interior surfaces of the arm's sample-handling chambers. Sand was vibrated inside the chambers to remove residue from Earth. MAHLI close-up images of Rocknest show a dust-coated crust one or two sand grains thick, covering dark, finer sand. "Active drifts on Mars look darker on the surface," said MAHLI Principal Investigator Ken Edgett, of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego. "This is an older drift that has had time to be inactive, letting the crust form and dust accumulate on it." CheMin's examination of Rocknest samples found the composition is about half common volcanic minerals and half non-crystalline materials such as glass.

SAM added information about ingredients present in much lower concentrations and about ratios of isotopes. Isotopes are different forms of the same element and can provide clues about environmental changes. The water seen by SAM does not mean the drift was wet. Water molecules bound to grains of sand or dust are not unusual, but the quantity seen was higher than anticipated. This collage shows the variety of soils found at landing sites on Mars. The elemental composition of the typical, reddish soils were investigated by NASA's Viking, Pathfinder and Mars Exploration Rover missions, and now with the Curiosity rover, using X-ray spectroscopy. The investigations found similar soil at all landing sites. In addition, the soil was usually unchanged over the traverse across the Martian terrain made by both Mars Exploration Rovers. The Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's landing region in Gusev Crater is seen in both pictures at top; Viking's landing site is shown at lower left; and a close-up of Curiosity's Gale Crater soil target called "Portage" is at lower right. In Gusev Crater, several white subsurface deposits were excavated with Spirit’s wheels and found to be either silica-rich or hydrated ferric sulfates.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech SAM tentatively identified the oxygen and chlorine compound perchlorate. This is a reactive chemical previously found in arctic Martian soil by NASA's Phoenix Lander. Reactions with other chemicals heated in SAM formed chlorinated methane compounds—one-carbon organics that were detected by the instrument. The chlorine is of Martian origin, but it is possible the carbon may be of Earth origin, carried by Curiosity and detected by SAM's high sensitivity design. "We used almost every part of our science payload examining this drift," said Curiosity Project Scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "The synergies of the instruments and richness of the data sets give us great promise for using them at the mission's main science destination on Mount Sharp." Viking Lander Viking Lander Lander, Mars, Viking, Proof Test Article Viking 1: First Image from Surface of Mars This is the first photograph ever taken on the surface of Mars. It was obtained by Viking 1 just minutes after the spacecraft landed successfully on July 20, 1976.

Viking Mars Lander (proof test article) A Viking Lander proof test article on display in the Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall at the Museum in Washington, DC. Mars Rovers These two test rovers and a flight spare represen three generations of Mars rovers developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. Front and center is the flight spare for the first Mars rover, Sojourner, which landed on Mars in 1997 as part of the Mars Pathfinder Project. On the left is a Mars Exploration Rover Project test rover that is a working sibling to Spirit and Opportunity, which landed on Mars in 2004. On the right is a Mars Science Laboratory test rover the size of that project's Mars rover, Curiosity, which landed on Mars in August 2012. Viking Lander Landing Sequence This artist's representation shows the landing sequence of the Viking landers on the surface of Mars. Each Viking spacecraft consisted of an orbiter and a lander. The Viking 1 lander worked for more than 6 years after landing on July 20, 1976.

Viking 2 landed two months later on the other side of Mars, where it transmitted data for over 3½ years. Viking Lander Digging Arm The long digging arm on the Viking lander, like this one on the Museum's Viking Lander, collected soil for experiments. Viking Lander Sample Canisters Viking dropped soil samples into three canisters like these on top of the Museum's Viking Lander spacecraft for testing. Carl Saga with Viking Cornell astronomer Carl Sagan stands in front of a Viking lander mockup in Death Valley, California. Sagan helped select the landing sites and plan the Viking missions and was a tireless promoter of the Viking program and related explorations of Mars and other planets. Viking Lander This is the proof test article of the Viking Mars Lander. The two-part Viking spacecraft began to unlock the secrets of Mars and fueled public enthusiasm for planetary exploration. Viking Lander The Viking spacecraft scooped up bits of Martian soil and placed them in a chamber, where they could be analyzed. It was in effect a miniature, automated chemical analysis laboratory. Viking Lander Viking Lander in Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall at the National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C.

The two-part Viking spacecraft began to unlock the secrets of Mars and fueled public enthusiasm for planetary exploration. Display Status: This object is on display in the Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall exhibition at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. SummaryLong Description Collection Item Summary: This is the proof test article of the Viking Mars Lander. For exploration of Mars, Viking represented the culmination of a series of exploratory missions that had begun in 1964 with Mariner 4 and continued with Mariner 6 and Mariner 7 flybys in 1969 and a Mariner 9 orbital mission in 1971 and 1972. The Viking mission used two identical spacecraft, each consisting of a lander and an orbiter. Launched on August 20, 1975 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Viking 1 spent nearly a year cruising to Mars, placed an orbiter in operation around the planet, and landed on July, 20 1976 on the Chryse Planitia (Golden Plains). Viking 2 was launched on September 9, 1975 and landed on September 3, 1976.

The Viking project's primary mission ended on November 15, 1976, 11 days before Mars's superior conjunction (its passage behind the sun), although the Viking spacecraft continued to operate for six years after first reaching Mars. The last transmission from the planet reached Earth on November 11, 1982. While Viking 1 and 2 were on Mars, this third vehicle was used on Earth to simulate their behavior and to test their responses to radio commands. Earlier, it had been used to demonstrate that the landers could survive the stresses they would encounter during the mission. NASA transferred this artifact to the Museum in 1979. Collection Item Long Description: “Life as we know it with its humanity is more unique than many have thought.”—President Lyndon B. Johnson, “Remarks Upon Viewing New Mariner 4 Pictures from Mars,” July 29, 1965. Viking Mars had long held a special fascination for humans who pondered the planets of the solar system—partly because of the possibility that life might either presently exist or at some time in the past have existed there.

Astronomer Percival Lowell became interested in Mars during the latter part of the nineteenth century, and he built what became the Lowell Observatory near Flagstaff, Arizona, to study the planet. He argued that Mars had once been a watery planet and that the topographical features known as canals had been built by intelligent beings. The idea of intelligent life on Mars remained in the popular imagination for a long time, and only with the first photographs from Mars by Mariner 4 in 1965 were the hopes of many dashed that life might be present on Mars. This images showed a cratered, ­lunar-­like surface without structures and canals, nothing that even remotely resembled a pattern that intelligent life might produce. U.S. News and World Report announced at the time that “Mars is dead.” Later spacecraft, especially Mariners 6 and 7, in 1969, reexcited curiosity and laid the groundwork for an eventual landing on the planet.

Their pictures verified the Moon‑like appearance of Mars, but they also found that volcanoes had once been active on the planet, that the frost observed seasonally on the poles was made of carbon dioxide, and that huge plates indicated considerable tectonic activity in the planet’s past. Suddenly, Mars fascinated scientists, reporters, and the public once again, largely because of the possibility of past life that might have existed there. The Viking mission that emerged from this excitement consisted of two identical spacecraft, each with a lander and an orbiter. Launched in 1975 from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, Viking 1 spent nearly a year cruising to Mars, placed an orbiter in operation around the planet, and landed on July 20, 1976, on the Chryse Planitia (Golden Plains), with Viking 2 following in September 1976. These were the first sustained landings on another planet in the solar system. While one of the most important scientific activities of this project involved an attempt to determine whether there was life on Mars, the scientific data returned mitigated against the possibility.

The two landers continuously monitored weather at the landing sites and found both exciting cyclical variations and an exceptionally harsh climate that prohibited the possibility of life. Atmospheric temperatures at the more southern Viking 1 landing site, for instance, was only as high as +7 degrees Fahrenheit at midday, but the predawn summer temperature was ‑107 degrees Fahrenheit. And the lowest predawn temperature was ‑184 degrees Fahrenheit, about the frost point of carbon dioxide. Although the three biology experiments contained on the landers discovered unexpected and enigmatic chemical activity in the Martian soil, they provided no clear evidence for the presence of living microorganisms in soil near the landing sites. According to scientists, Mars was self‑sterilizing. They concluded that the combination of solar ultraviolet radiation that saturates the surface, the extreme dryness of the soil, and the oxidizing nature of the soil chemistry had prevented the formation of living organisms in the Martian soil. The failure to find any evidence of life on Mars, past or present, devastated the optimism of scientists involved in the search for extraterrestrial life. Collectively, these missions led to the development of two essential reactions.

The first was an abandonment by most scientists that life might exist elsewhere in the Solar System. Planetary scientist and JPL director Bruce Murray complained at the time of Viking about the lander being ballyhooed as a definite means of ascertaining whether or not life existed on Mars. The public expected to find it, and so did many of the other scientists involved in the project. Murray argued that “the extraordinarily hostile environment revealed by the Mariner flybys made life there so unlikely that public expectations should not be raised.” Murray believed that the legacy of failure to detect life, despite the billions spent and a succession of overoptimistic statements, would spark public disappointment and perhaps a public outrage. Murray was right. The immediate result was that NASA did not return to Mars for two decades. The Viking Program’s chief scientist, Gerald A Soffen, commented in 1992: “If somebody back then had given me 100 to 1 odds that we wouldn’t go back to Mars for 17 years, I would’ve said, ‘You’re crazy’.” The second reaction, never accepted by scientists, found a powerful public life.

Some asserted that a corrupt Federal government, and its mandarins of science, had found evidence of life beyond Earth but was keeping it from the public for reasons ranging from stupidity to diabolical plots. NASA has had to respond to these charges repeatedly thereafter. This issue first arose on 25 July 1976 when the Viking 1 orbiter took an image of the Cydonia region of Mars that looked like a human face. All evidence suggests that this was the result of shadows on the hills, and Gerry Soffen said so at a press conference, but some refused to accept this position. The “face” remains a sore point to the present, with Soffen being asked about it many times over the years. Always, he stated it was not the remnant of some ancient civilization but was a natural feature lit oddly in this one image but not in any others. As NASA stated officially in 2001, “The ‘Face on Mars’ has since become a pop icon. It has starred in a Hollywood film, appeared in books, magazines, radio talk shows—even haunted grocery store checkout lines for 25 years!

Some people think the Face is bona fide evidence of life on Mars—evidence that NASA would rather hide, say conspiracy theorists. Meanwhile, defenders of the NASA budget wish there was an ancient civilization on Mars.” The artifact in the National Air and Space Museum’s collection is a structural dynamics test article transferred from NASA. Is There Life on Mars? For centuries, astronomers had speculated that there may be life on Mars. The Viking missions looked for evidence of present or past life by searching for chemical indicators of living processes. Viking instruments detected many of the building blocks of life but found no conclusive evidence that life ever existed on Mars. Bigger Parachute - Mars Science Laboratory Bigger Parachute Mars Science Laboratory Parachute, Artist's Concept This is an artist's concept of the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover parachute system. Mars Science Laboratory's parachute, used to slow the spacecraft down during entry, descent, and landing , is part of a long-term Mars parachute technology development effort. It inherits much from its martian predecessors, the Viking , Pathfinder , and Mars Exploration Rover missions. Parachute designs are driven by "loads" (the forces the parachute experiences as it fully inflates).

Loads are calculated by using atmospheric density, velocity, parachute drag area, and mass. For the exponentially heavier Mars Science Laboratory mission, the parachute's basic design remained the same, but is about 10 percent larger in area than the one used for the Mars Exploration Rover mission. By comparison, that mission was 40% larger than Pathfinder's parachute. The ability to land large payloads safely on the surface of Mars enables increasingly sophisticated robotic missions, and might also help pave the way for emplacing the infrastructure that would be needed to support human missions to Mars someday. A Sampling of Martian Soils | NASA LOADING... A Sampling of Martian Soils This collage shows the variety of soils found at landing sites on Mars. The elemental composition of the typical, reddish soils were investigated by NASA's Viking, Pathfinder and Mars Exploration Rover missions, and now with the Curiosity rover, using X-ray spectroscopy. The investigations found similar soil at all landing sites. In addition, the soil was usually unchanged over the traverse across the Martian terrain made by both Mars Exploration Rovers.

The Mars Exploration Rover Spirit's landing region in Gusev Crater is seen in both pictures at top; Viking's landing site is shown at lower left; and a close-up of Curiosity's Gale Crater soil target called "Portage" is at lower right. In Gusev Crater, several white subsurface deposits were excavated with Spirit's wheels and found to be either silica-rich or hydrated ferric sulfates. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Question: What was visited by Viking, Pathfinder, and Curiosity?
Answer: Mars