Mars exploration started in the late 20th century. Since then, many rovers were sent to Mars a few of them succeeded in their mission and most of them failed to complete the required mission objectives.
The motivation to explore Mars was started with the launch of telescopes when people monitored the change in colour of the Martian surface. However, the Soviets became first to step into this race when the launched multiple probes to Mars in 1960.
Initial missions towards Mars
The first successful mission to Mars was conducted by NASA when they launched Mariner 4 to Mars. The spacecraft was launched on 28 November 1964 with the mission to perform a close flyby of Mars and send the recorded data back to earth. This was the first spacecraft, which captured the image of Mars. Later, on 30 May 1971 Mariner 9 (successor of Mariner 4) was launched towards Mars and on 14th November 1971, it became the first space probe to orbit Mars.
First Contact to Martian Surface-1971
As well as being first to send probes to Mars, the Soviets were also the first to land probes on Mars in the year 1971. However, the first probe (Mars 2) failed during landing and the second probe (Mars 3) failed after spending twenty seconds on Martian Surface. Their successor Mars 6 also failed during landing in 1974 but it sent back some atmospheric data.
Viking Program-1975
As the Soviets were approaching a successful Mars mission, NASA were planning something bigger, the Viking Program. NASA launched their Viking program in 1975. The Viking program depended on two space probes, Viking 1 and Viking 2, which landed on Mars in 1976. Each of them has two objectives:
- Capture photographs of the surface of Mars while orbiting.
- Land and study the surface of Mars.
The Viking program was successful with Viking 1 lasting for six years and Viking 2 lasting for three years on Mars.
Phobos 1 and 2 – 1988
In the year 1988, the Soviets sent two probes towards Mars to study its geography and two moons. Both of the Phobos failed. Phobos 1 failed while travelling towards Mars however, Phobos 2 successfully entered the Mars orbit and after that the connection to Phobos got lost.
Mars Observer – 1992
NASA was ahead of the Soviets in every mission since as they were the first to capture a photograph and then landed probes on Mars. With the Mars Observer mission, they were planning big. They launched this probe on the 25 September 1992 with a purpose to study the surface, atmosphere and magnetic field of Mars. However, this mission failed, as communication was lost during the cruise. However, later with the launch of Mars Global Surveyor in 1997, NASA was successful in examining Mars in 2001.
Phoenix – 2008
Phoenix spacecraft confirmed the presence of water on Mars. The spacecraft landed on 25 May 2008.
Spirit and Opportunity Rovers
On January 2004, the Spirit and Opportunity rovers landed on Mars with the mission of exploring geology and Martian surface. Their missions were the same as the previous rovers. However, the interesting thing about these rovers was that their life expectancy was lesser than their actual life on Mars. This miracle happened because the dust storms on Mars were cleaning these rovers from time to time.
Current and Future Work
- The European Space Agency (ESA) and Russian Federal Space Agency are working on Rosalind Franklin Rover, which is planned to be launched this year with a mission to search the existence of microscopic life on Mars.
- NASA is working on Mars 2020, which is planned to be launched in July 2020 with the mission to bring back the samples from Mars to Earth which will enable scientists to check whether any life ever existed on Mars or not.
- SpaceX is building Starship spacecraft with the capability of transporting 100 passengers and 450 tons of cargo to Mars. This spacecraft is the deciding factor of Elon Musk’s big plan of building a city on Mars consisting of 1 million people by 2050.




