This list includes all known missions to Mars (including failures) to date. Other missions that are indevelopment or proposals are listed at the end of this table.
Spacecraft	Launch date	Operator	Mission	Outcome	Remarks	Carrier rocket
1M No.1	10 October 1960	OKB-1 (Soviet Union)	Flyby	Launch failure	Failed to orbit	Molniya
1M No.2	14 October 1960	OKB-1 (Soviet Union)	Flyby	Launch failure	Failed to orbit	Molniya
Mars 1 (2MV-4 No.1)	24 October 1962	Soviet Union	Flyby	Launch failure	Disintegrated in low Earth orbit	Molniya
Mars 1 (2MV-4 No.2)	1 November 1962	Soviet Union	Flyby	Spacecraft failure	Communications lost before flyby	Molniya
2MV-3 No.1	4 November 1962	Soviet Union	Lander	Launch failure	Never left low Earth orbit	Molniya
Mariner 3	5 November 1964	NASA (United States)	Flyby	Launch failure	Payload fairing failed to separate	Atlas LV-3 Agena-D
Mariner 4	28 November 1964	NASA (United States)	Flyby	Successful	Closest approach at 01:00:57 UTC on 15 July 1965	Atlas LV-3 Agena-D
Zond 2 (3MV-4A No.2)	30 November 1964	Soviet Union	Flyby	Spacecraft failure	Communications lost before flyby	Molniya
Mariner 6	25 February 1969	NASA (United States)	Flyby	Successful		Atlas SLV-3C Centaur-D
2M No.521	27 March 1969	Soviet Union	Orbiter	Launch failure	Failed to orbit	Proton-K/D
Mariner 7	27 March 1969	NASA (United States)	Flyby	Successful		Atlas SLV-3C Centaur-D
2M No.522	2 April 1969	Soviet Union	Orbiter	Launch failure	Failed to orbit	Proton-K/D
Mariner 8	9 May 1971	NASA (United States)	Orbiter	Launch failure	Failed to orbit	Atlas SLV-3C Centaur-D
Kosmos 419 (3MS No.170)	10 May 1971	Soviet Union	Orbiter	Launch failure	Never left low Earth orbit; upper stage burn timer set incorrectly	Proton-K/D
Mariner 9	30 May 1971	NASA (United States)	Orbiter	Successful	Entered orbit on 14 November 1971, deactivated 516 days after entering orbit	Atlas SLV-3C Centaur-D
Mars 2 (4M No.171)	19 May 1971	Soviet Union	Orbiter	Mostly Successful	Entered orbit 27 November 1971, operated for 362 orbits. Mapping operations unsuccessful due to dust storms on the surface	Proton-K/D
Mars 2 lander (SA 4M No.171)	19 May 1971	Soviet Union	Lander	Spacecraft failure	Deployed from Mars 2, failed to land during attempt on 27 November 1971	Proton-K/D
Mars 3 (4M No.172)	28 May 1971	Soviet Union	Orbiter	Mostly Successful	Entered orbit 2 December 1971, operated for 20 orbits. Mapping operations unsuccessful due to dust storms on the surface	Proton-K/D
Mars 3 lander (SA 4M No.172)	28 May 1971	Soviet Union	Lander	Partial failure	Deployed from Mars 3; landed at 13:52 UTC on 2 December 1971 but contact lost 14.5 seconds later	Proton-K/D
Prop-M Rover (SA 4M No.172)	28 May 1971	Soviet Union	Rover	Spacecraft failure	Failed to deploy	Proton-K/D
Mars 4 (3MS No.52S)	21 July 1973	Soviet Union	Orbiter	Spacecraft failure	Failed to perform orbital insertion burn	Proton-K/D
Mars 5 (3MS No.53S)	25 July 1973	Soviet Union	Orbiter	Spacecraft failure	Failed after nine days in Mars orbit	Proton-K/D
Mars 6 (3MP No.50P)	5 August 1973	Soviet Union	Lander; Flyby	Spacecraft failure	Contact lost upon landing, atmospheric data mostly unreadable. Flyby bus collected data.	Proton-K/D
Mars 7 (3MP No.51P)	9 August 1973	Soviet Union	Lander; Flyby	Spacecraft failure	Separated from coast stage prematurely, failed to enter Martian atmosphere	Proton-K/D
Viking 1 orbiter	20 August 1975	NASA (United States)	Orbiter	Successful	Operated for 1385 orbits	Titan IIIE Centaur-D1T
Viking 1 lander	20 August 1975	NASA (United States)	Lander	Successful	Deployed from Viking 1 orbiter, operated for 2245 sols	Titan IIIE Centaur-D1T
Viking 2 orbiter	9 September 1975	NASA (United States)	Orbiter	Successful	Operated for 700 orbits	Titan IIIE Centaur-D1T
Viking 2 lander	9 September 1975	NASA (United States)	Lander	Successful	Deployed from Viking 2 orbiter, operated for 1281 sols	Titan IIIE Centaur-D1T
Fobos 1 (1F No.101)	7 July 1988	Soviet Union	Orbiter; Phobos Lander	Spacecraft failure	Communications lost before reaching Mars; failed to enter orbit	Proton-K/D-2
Fobos 2 (1F No.102)	7 July 1988	Soviet Union	Orbiter; Phobos Lander	Partial failure	Orbital observations successful, communications lost before landing	Proton-K/D-2
Mars Observer	25 September 1992	NASA (United States)	Orbiter	Spacecraft failure	Lost communications before orbital insertion	Commercial Titan III
Mars Global Surveyor	7 November 1996	NASA (United States)	Orbiter	Successful	Operated for seven years	Delta II 7925
Mars 96 (M1 No.520)	16 November 1996	Rosaviakosmos (Russia)	Orbiter; Penetrators	Launch failure	Never left low Earth orbit	Proton-K/D-2
Mars Pathfinder	4 December 1996	NASA (United States)	Lander	Successful	Landed at 19.13°N 33.22°W on 4 July 1997[8]	Delta II 7925
Sojourner	4 December 1996	NASA (United States)	Rover	Successful	Operated for 84 days	Delta II 7925
Nozomi (PLANET-B)	3 July 1998	ISAS (Japan)	Orbiter	Spacecraft failure	Ran out of fuel before reaching Mars	M-V
Mars Climate Orbiter	11 December 1998	NASA (United States)	Orbiter	Spacecraft failure	Approached Mars too closely during orbit insertion attempt due to unit conversion error and burned up in the atmosphere	Delta II 7425
Mars Polar Lander	3 January 1999	NASA (United States)	Lander	Spacecraft failure	Failed to land	Delta II 7425
Deep Space 2	3 January 1999	NASA (United States)	Penetrators	Spacecraft failure	Deployed from MPL, no data returned	Delta II 7425
2001 Mars Odyssey	7 April 2001	NASA (United States)	Orbiter	Operational		Delta II 7925
Mars Express	2 June 2003	ESA (Europe)	Orbiter	Operational		Soyuz-FG/Fregat
Beagle 2	2 June 2003	ESA (Europe)	Lander	Lander failure	Deployed from Mars Express. Successful landing, but two solar panels failed to deploy, obstructing its communications.	Soyuz-FG/Fregat
Spirit (MER-A)	10 June 2003	NASA (United States)	Rover	Successful	Operated for 2208 sols	Delta II 7925
Opportunity (MER-B)	8 July 2003	NASA (United States)	Rover	Operational		Delta II 7925H
Rosetta	2 March 2004	ESA (Europe)	Gravity assist	Successful	Flyby in February 2007 en route to 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko	Ariane 5G+
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)	12 August 2005	NASA (United States)	Orbiter	Operational		Atlas V 401
Phoenix	4 August 2007	NASA (United States)	Lander	Successful		Delta II 7925
Dawn	27 September 2007	NASA (United States)	Gravity assist	Successful	Flyby in February 2009 en route to asteroid 4 Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres	Delta II 7925H
Fobos-Grunt	8 November 2011	Roskosmos (Russia)	Orbiter (Phobos sample)	Spacecraft failure	Never left low Earth orbit (intended to depart under own power)	Zenit-2M
Yinghuo-1	8 November 2011	CNSA (PR China)	Orbiter	Failure (Lost with Fobos-Grunt)	To have been deployed by Fobos-Grunt	Zenit-2M
Curiosity (Mars Science Laboratory)	26 November 2011	NASA (United States)	Rover	Operational		Atlas V 541
Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan)	5 November 2013	ISRO (India)	Orbiter	Operational	Entered Mars orbit on 24 September 2014. Mission extended by six months	PSLV-XL
MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution)	18 November 2013	NASA (United States)	Orbiter	Operational	Orbit insertion on September 22, 2014	Atlas V 401
ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter	14 March 2016	ESA/Roscosmos (Europe/Russia)	Orbiter	En route		Proton-M/Briz-M
Schiaparelli EDM lander	14 March 2016	ESA (Europe)	Lander	En route	Carried by the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter	Proton-M/Briz-M

Planet Mars

Mars, the ‘Red Planet’

Mars is the second smallest planet in the Solar System. Named after the Roman god of war, it is often described as the “Red Planet”, as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance.

The third photograph has Mars with the ‘Valles Marineris’ (Mariner Valleys, named after the US spacecraft Mariner 9) shown clearly.

Olympus Mons, the Largest Volcano in the Solar System

[Left] Height comparison of Olympus Mons, Mauna Kea in Hawaii and Mount Everest.

[Right] Lava flows at the foot, photographed by ESA’s Mars Express probe. The image has been coloured to illustrate the topography of the region [blue is not water].

Holden Crater

Holden Crater on Mars is a 140 km wide crater located in the southern highlands. It is named after Edward Singleton Holden, an American astronomer, and the founder of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. The crater’s rim is cut with gullies, and at the end of some are fan-shaped deposits of material transported by water. The crater is of great interest to scientists because it has some of the best-exposed lake deposits. One of the layers has been found by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to contain clays, which only form in the presence of water.

Dunes, Craters, Yardangs, Dry Ice Pits, Grooves, Gullies and Dust Devils

A field of crescent-shaped dunes in the northern polar region of Mars, which appear to be traversing a bumpy, boulder-strewn terrain. The image was captured by the HiRise camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in July 2012.

The yardangs in the Danielson Crater [left] provide some evidence of climate change triggered by periodic shifts in the planet’s rotational axis. Yardangs are parallel rocky protrusions with streamlined shapes, formed by the removal of the softer surrounding material by wind-driven sandblasting to reveal the prevailing wind direction. These yardangs appear to show alternating dry and wet periods in Mars’s past.

Dry ice pits on Mars. Around the south pole of Mars, toward the end of every Martian summer, the warm weather evaporates some of the vast carbon dioxide ice cap. Pits begin to appear and expand where the carbon dioxide dry ice is turning from a solid into a gas. The precise composition of ‘gold lining’ of dust that defines the pit walls remains unknown. The HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured the image in July 2012.

Grooves on Mars may be the result of blocks of dry ice sliding down slopes. NASA scientists say that these linear gullies may be caused by CO₂ chunks breaking off a layer of seasonal frost and surfing down slopes in the spring. The grooves shown here, on the side of a large sand dune inside Russell Crater, are the longest linear gullies known, extending almost 2 km down this dune slope. Long, narrow grooves seen in the sand dunes of Mars were first spotted more than a decade ago and are still an enduring mystery as to how they were formed. This may be the explanation.

[Left] A towering dust devil casts a serpentine shadow over the Martian surface in this image acquired by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Mount Sharp

In this image released by NASA in 2012, a chapter of the layered geological history of Mars is laid bare. This colour image from NASA’s Curiosity rover shows the base of Mount Sharp, the rover’s eventual science destination. The image is a portion of a larger image taken by Curiosity’s 100-millimetre Mast Camera on 23^th August 2012. Scientists enhanced the colour in one version to show the Martian scene under the lighting conditions we have on Earth, which helps in analyzing the terrain. The pointy mound in the centre of the image, looming above the rover-sized rock, is about 300 metres across and 100 metres high.

Experiment with Lichens

[Left] Lichens survived for 34 days in conditions designed to simulate those on the surface of Mars. The experiment at the DLR Institute of Planetary Research in Berlin recreated the atmospheric composition and pressure, temperature cycles and solar radiation on the planet. The polar and Alpine lichens even managed to photosynthesise under these harsh conditions, suggesting that life as we know it is not out of the question on the Red Planet.

Art from Mars – the Best Pictures

NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity have spent a decade photographing the Red Planet. Here are their most awe-inspiring shots, from space blueberries to crater sunsets, from The Guardian.

!

Finally, there’s an impact crater on Mars named Tooting after the London suburb of that name because the discoverer “thought [his] mum and brother would get a kick out of having their home town paired with a place on Mars”!

Phobos and Deimos

The orbits of Phobos and Deimos to scale, seen from above Mars’ north pole. Phobos orbits Mars 3.96 times faster than Deimos

Mars has two tiny satellites, Phobos (Ancient Greek Φόβος) and Deimos (Δείμος), 11.1 km and 6.2 km in average diameter (they aren’t spherical). They were both discovered in 1877 by Asaph Hall. He became assistant astronomer at the US Naval Observatory in Washington DC and in 1875 he was given responsibility for the USNO 26-inch (66-cm) telescope, the largest refracting telescope in the world at the time. It was with this telescope that he discovered Deimos (on 12^th August 1877 at 07:48 UTC) and Phobos (on 18^th August 1877 at 09:14 UTC).

With a mean radius of 11.1 km, Phobos is 7.24 times as massive as Deimos. It is named after the Greek god “Phobos” (which means “Fear”), a son of Aphrodite (Venus) and Ares (Mars). Phobos was known for accompanying Ares into battle along with the ancient war goddess Enyo, the goddess of discord Eris (both sisters of Ares), and Phobos’ twin brother Deimos (“Terror”). In Classical Greek mythology, Phobos is more of a personification of the fear brought by war and does not appear as a character in any myths. Timor is his Roman equivalent.

A smoothed movie in real time of Phobos passing in front of Deimos, taken by the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover on 1^st August 2013 (see also NASA’s site)

The video clip includes interpolated frames smoothing out the motion between frames from Curiosity’s Mast Camera (Mastcam). Mastcam took images 1.4 seconds apart. With the interpolated frames, this clip has 10 frames per second. It runs for 20 seconds, matching the actual time elapsed. Curiosity’s observations of Phobos and Deimos help researchers’ knowledge of the moons’ orbits even more precise. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates Mastcam.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the Mars Science Laboratory mission and the mission’s Curiosity rover. The rover was designed, developed and assembled at JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. For more about NASA’s Curiosity mission, visit www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl, www.nasa.gov/mars, marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl and Mars Curiosity Rover below.

Supposed origin of Phobos and Deimos in the main Asteroid Belt

Animation illustrating the hypothesis that the main asteroid belt was the origin of the moons of Mars. Only the orbits of Jupiter and Mars are to scale

Here’s a video taken by Mars Curiosity Rover of Phobos eclipsing the Sun. A total eclipse is impossible because Phobos is much smaller in the sky than the Sun. The same applies to Deimos.

Phobos and Deimos, twin sons of Ares and Aphrodite, were slain in battle against Hercules and Thor according to Marvel Comics

Phobos (Mars I)

Phobos is a small, irregularly shaped object with a mean radius of 11 km. It orbits 6,000 km from the Martian surface, closer to its primary than any other known planetary moon. It is so close that it orbits Mars faster than Mars rotates. As a result, from the surface of Mars it appears to rise in the west, move across the sky in 4 hours 15 min or less, and set in the east, twice each Martian day. Due to tidal interactions, Phobos is drawing closer to Mars by one metre every century, and it is predicted that in 50 million years it will collide with the planet or break up into a planetary ring. Phobos is one of the least reflective bodies in the Solar System, and features a large impact crater, Stickney. The temperatures range from about −4°C to −112°C, on the sunlit and shadowed sides respectively.

Photograph of Phobos, the larger of the Martian moons, taken from Mars Express when it flew by on 9^th January 2011. The red ellipse marks the previously planned landing site for Phobos-Grunt, the blue ellipse marks the landing site currently under consideration.

Enhanced-colour view of Phobos obtained by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on 23^rd March 2008. Stickney crater, the largest, is on the right side.

Phobos has no atmosphere due to its low mass and low gravity. It is one of the least reflective bodies in the Solar System. Spectroscopically it appears to be similar to the D-type asteroids, and is apparently of composition similar to carbonaceous chondrite material. Its density is too low to be solid rock, and it is known to have significant porosity; it might contain a substantial reservoir of ice. Spectral observations indicate that the surface regolith layer lacks hydration, but ice below the regolith is not ruled out.

Phobos is heavily cratered – the most prominent surface feature is the crater Stickney, named after Asaph Hall’s wife, Angeline Stickney Hall, Stickney being her maiden name. The impact that created Stickney must have nearly shattered Phobos. Many grooves and streaks also cover the oddly shaped surface. The grooves are typically less than 30 metres deep, 100 to 200 metres wide, and up to 20 km long, and were originally assumed to have been the result of the same impact that created Stickney. Analysis of results from the Mars Express spacecraft, however, revealed that the grooves are not in fact radial to Stickney, but are centred on the leading apex of Phobos in its orbit (which is not far from Stickney). Researchers suspect that they have been excavated by material ejected into space by impacts on the surface of Mars. The grooves thus formed as crater chains, and all of them fade away as the trailing apex of Phobos is approached. They have been grouped into 12 or more families of varying age, presumably representing at least 12 Martian impact events.

Faint dust rings produced by Phobos and Deimos have long been predicted but attempts to observe these rings have, to date, failed. Recent images from Mars Global Surveyor indicate that Phobos is covered with a layer of fine-grained regolith at least 100 metres thick, possibly created by impacts from other bodies, but it is not known how the material stuck to an object with almost no gravity.

The unique Kaidun meteorite is thought to be a piece of Phobos, but this has been difficult to verify since little is known about the detailed composition of the moon.

Phobos could be a second-generation Solar System object that coalesced in orbit after Mars formed, rather than forming concurrently out of the same birth cloud as Mars.

A large-scale photograph of part of Phobos, clearly showing the impact crater Stickney and many smaller craters. NASA released this photograph of Phobos taken by Mars Global Surveyor in 1998.

Another hypothesis is that Mars was once surrounded by many Phobos- and Deimos-sized bodies, perhaps ejected into orbit around it by a collision with a large planetesimal. The high porosity of the interior of Phobos is inconsistent with an asteroidal origin. Observations of Phobos in the thermal infrared suggest a composition containing mainly phyllosilicates, which are well known from the surface of Mars. The spectra are distinct from those of all classes of chondrite meteorites, again pointing away from an asteroidal origin. Both sets of findings support an origin of Phobos from material ejected by an impact on Mars that reaccreted in Martian orbit, similar to the prevailing theory for the origin of Earth’s moon.

A strange monolith seen on Phobos, taken by the Mars Global Surveyor

On 25^th March 2010, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced on their blog that ESA’s study of the mass of Phobos had been accepted for publication in the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters. The announcement gave startling conclusions of ESA’s findings: “We conclude that the interior of Phobos likely contains large voids. When applied to various hypotheses bearing on the origin of Phobos, these results are inconsistent with the proposition that Phobos is a captured asteroid.”

Geological features on Phobos (apart from the largest crater, Stickney, named after Asaph Hall’s wife Angeline Stickney) are named after astronomers who studied Phobos and people and places from Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. See the list in Wikipedia. There is one named regio (a large area that is strongly differentiated in colour or albedo), Laputa Regio (from the fictional Laputa, a flying island in Gulliver’s Travels), and one named planitia (a plain), Lagado Planitia (Gulliver’s imaginary capital of the fictional nation Balnibarbi). The only named dorsum (a ridge on a hill) is Kepler Dorsum, named after the astronomer Johannes Kepler.

Below is a labelled map of Phobos by the United States Geological Survey; click to enlarge. It is an equirectangular projection map with shaded relief.

See also the Phobos spacecraft programme by the USSR.

Deimos (Mars II)

Deimos is the smaller and outer of the two natural satellites of Mars with a mean radius of 6.2 km. It takes 30.3 hours to orbit Mars at an orbital velocity of 1.35 km/s. It has an escape velocity of 5.6 m/s and apparent magnitude of 12.45. Like most bodies of its size, Deimos is highly non-spherical with triaxial dimensions of 15 × 12.2 × 11 km making it 0.56 times the size of Phobos. It orbits 23,460 km distant from Mars.

Deimos, like Phobos, has spectra, albedos and densities similar to those of a C- or D-type asteroid. It is composed of rock rich in carbonaceous material, much like C-type asteroids and carbonaceous chondrite meteorites. It is cratered, but the surface is noticeably smoother than that of Phobos, caused by the partial filling of craters with regolith. The regolith is highly porous and has a radar-estimated density of only 1.471 g/cm³.

Only two geological features on Deimos have been given names. They are the two largest craters, Swift (at 12.5°N 358.2°W, diameter 1000 m, named after Jonathan Swift the author of Gulliver’s Travels) and Voltaire (at 22°N 3.5°W, diameter 1900 m, “Voltaire” was the nom-de-plume of François-Marie Arouet). The two craters are named after writers who speculated on the existence of two Martian moons before Phobos and Deimos were discovered.

Deimos in colour taken in 2009 by Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter

Deimos photographed in colour in 2009 by Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter.

Deimos’s orbit is nearly circular and is close to Mars’s equatorial plane. Because the orbit is relatively close to Mars and has only a very small inclination to Mars’s equator, it cannot be seen from Martian latitudes greater than 82.7°. It is possibly an asteroid that was perturbed by Jupiter into an orbit that allowed it to be captured by Mars, though this hypothesis is disputed.

A high-resolution view of Deimos from 30 km, taken by the Viking 2 Orbiter in 1977.

Unlike Phobos, which orbits so fast that it actually rises in the west and sets in the east, Deimos rises in the east and sets in the west. However, the Sun-synodic orbital period of Deimos of about 30.4 hours exceeds the Martian solar day (“sol”) of about 24.7 hours by such a small amount that 2.7 days elapse between its rising and setting for an equatorial observer.

This [left] is one of the highest-resolution images ever taken from an orbiting or flyby spacecraft. The image covers an area of 1.2 km by 1.5 km and features as small as 3 metres across can be seen. Note that many of the craters are covered over by a layer of regolith estimated to be about 50 metres thick. Large blocks, 10 to 30 metres across, are also visible. North is at 11:30.

Comet Siding Spring at Mars

The comet image shown here is a composite of Hubble exposures taken between 18^th October 2013 8:06 a.m. EDT and 19^th October 11:17 p.m. EDT. Hubble took a separate photograph of Mars at 10:37 p.m. EDT on 18^th October.

The Mars and comet images have been added together to create a single picture to illustrate the angular separation, or distance, between the comet and Mars at closest approach. The separation is approximately 1.5 arc minutes, or one-twentieth of the angular diameter of the full Moon. The background star field in this composite image is synthesized from ground-based telescope data provided by the Palomar Digital Sky Survey, which has been reprocessed to approximate Hubble’s resolution. The solid icy comet nucleus is too small to be resolved in the Hubble picture. The comet’s bright coma, a diffuse cloud of dust enshrouding the nucleus, and a dusty tail, are clearly visible.

This is a composite image because a single exposure of the stellar background, comet Siding Spring, and Mars would be problematic. Mars is actually 10,000 times brighter than the comet, and so could not be properly exposed to show detail in the Planet. The comet and Mars were also moving with respect to each other and so could not be imaged simultaneously in one exposure without one of the objects being motion blurred. Hubble had to be programmed to track on the comet and Mars separately in two different observations.

[Image: NASA, ESA, PSI, JHU/APL, STScI/AURA] The images were taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3.

Mars (tracking from right to left) and Comet Siding Spring crossed paths on 19^th October 2013.

The comet, estimated to have a nucleus 700 m in size, passed Mars at approximately 87,000 miles (about one-third of the distance between Earth and the Moon) at 2:28 p.m. EDT on 19^th October 2014. At that time, the comet and Mars were approximately 149 million miles from Earth.

The comet is on its first visit to the inner Solar System from the Oort cloud and in common with such objects its behaviour is notoriously difficult to predict.

This animation of comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring was captured by the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on Curiosity Mars rover as the comet passed near the planet on 19^th October 2014

The animation consists of 10 exposures of 25 seconds each, taken between 21:33 UT and 00:34 UT on 20^th October. The exposures are projected onto a celestial frame. The still is an image from the animation. Most of the specks are electronic noise. The short, straight streaks are stars.

[Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/TAMU with enhancements by Astronomy Now’s Greg Smye-Rumsby]

Comet Siding Spring’s close shave by Mars provided a rare glimpse into how Oort Cloud comets behave, according to new research. The comet flew by Mars at a range of just 135,000 kilometres – close enough for the outer ridges of its tenuous atmosphere to pummel the planet with gas and dust. In just a short flyby, the comet dumped about 1,000 to 2,000 kg of dust made of magnesium, silicon, calcium and potassium – all of which are rock-forming elements – into the upper atmosphere, the new study found.

Spacecraft That Have Visited Mars

Viking Orbiters and Landers (NASA)

Viking 1 Orbiter

Viking 1 Lander

Viking 1 Orbiter (1975-075A) was launched on 20^th August 1975 at 2122:00 UTC, and successfully orbited Mars from June 1976 to August 1980. The Viking 1 Lander (1975-075C) sent the first images from surface between 20^th July 1976 and 13^th November 1982.

Viking 2 Orbiter (1975-083A) was launched on 9^th September 1975 at 1839:00 UTC, and successfully orbited Mars from August 1976 to July 1978. The Viking 2 Lander (1975-083C) was a success from 3^rd September 1976 to 11^th April 1980.

Mars Observer (NASA/JPL)

The Mars Observer also known as the Mars Geoscience/Climatology Orbiter was a 1,018 kg (1992-063A) spacecraft, launched on 25^th September 1992 at 17:05 UTC from Cape Canaveral by a Commercial Titan III/TOS. It was based on a commercial Earth-orbiting spacecraft and designed to study the Martian surface, atmosphere, climate and magnetic field and take high-resolution photography of the Martian surface. In 1992, it was to be the United States’ first mission to the Mars in 17 years. However, the mission ended prematurely on 21^st August 1993 at 01:00 UTC when contact with the spacecraft was lost just before it was to enter orbit around Mars. Attempts to re-establish communication with the spacecraft were unsuccessful.

It carried a Gamma Ray Spectrometer, a Magnetometer/Electron Reflectometer, a Laser Altimeter, a Pressure Modulator Infrared Radiometer, a Thermal Emission Spectrometer, a Camera and a Mars Balloon Relay.

Its intended orbit around Mars was to have a semi-major axis of 3,766.159 km, with an eccentricity of 0.004049, inclined at 92.869°. However it failed to enter orbit, flying by Mars with a closest approach on 24^th August 1993.

Mars Global Surveyor (NASA)

Mars Global Surveyor (1996-062A) was launched on 7^th November 1996 at 17:00:50 UTC; it was a successful Mars orbiter from 1^st April 1997 to 2^nd November 2006.

Mars Pathfinder and “Sojourner” (NASA)

Mars Pathfinder Lander Preparations

Mars Pathfinder (1996-068A) was launched on 4^th December 1996 at 06:58:07 UTC; it was a successful Mars lander from 4^th July 1997 to 27^th September 1997; the Sojourner was the first Mars rover.

Mars Pathfinder Lander Sojourner

Mars Pathfinder Lander diagram

Nozomi (Japan)

Nozomi (1998-041A) was launched on 4^th July 1998, made a successful gravity-assist flyby of the Moon on 24^th September 1998 and three passes of the Earth en route to Mars. The first, on 20^th December 1998 was a partially successful gravity assist; a valve malfunction during the flyby required an extra burn, which later forced an alternate trajectory plan; the second (in December 2002) and third (on 19^th June 2003) were both successful gravity assists en route to Mars. It was unable to achieve Mars orbit due to electrical failures and its operation was terminated on 31^st December 2003.

Deep Space and Mars Polar Lander (NASA)

Deep Space 1: (1998-061A); launched on 24^th October 1998 at 12:08:00 UTC; it was a demonstration probe designed to test new technologies such as ion propulsion. Deep Space 1 flew within 15 km of asteroid 9969 Braille on 29^th July 1999; it was only a partial success because there were no close-up images due to camera pointing error. The probe continued to a successful flyby of comet 19P/Borrelly on 22^nd September 2001, flying within 2,200 km of the comet, providing the most detailed images of a comet’s nucleus yet seen. Its engine was shut down on 18^th December 2001. However, the spacecraft could, in theory, be re-contacted and returned to service, as ICE was.
Mars Polar Lander: (1999-001A) was launched on 3^rd January 1999 at 20:21:10 UTC; contact was lost just before entering the Martian atmosphere, with last contact on 3^rd December 1999 at 20:00:00 UTC.
Mars Polar Lander, also referred to as the Mars Surveyor ’98 Lander, was a 290 kg robotic spacecraft lander intended to study the soil and climate of Planum Australe, a region near the south pole on Mars, as part of the Mars Surveyor ’98 mission. The projected landing site was Ultimi Scopuli, 76°S 195°W. However, after the descent phase was expected to be complete, the lander failed to reestablish communication with Earth. It was determined that the most likely cause of the mishap was an improperly terminated engine firing before the lander touched the surface, causing it to impact at a high velocity.
Deep Space 2 A
Deep Space 2 B: Mars Polar Lander carried two small, identical impactor probes known as Deep Space 2 A (or “Amundsen”) and Deep Space 2 B (or “Scott”). The two probes were intended to impact the surface with a high velocity at approximately 73°S 210°W, to penetrate the Martian soil and study the subsurface composition up to a metre in depth.

Mars Climate Orbiter (NASA)

Mars Climate Orbiter (1998-073A) was launched on 11^th December 1998 at 18:45:51 UTC; its orbit insertion failed due to a navigational error, and it burned up in the Martian atmosphere on 23^th September 1999, with last contact at 09:06:00 UTC.

The Mars Climate Orbiter (formerly the Mars Surveyor ’98 Orbiter) was a 338 kg robotic space probe intended to study the Martian climate, atmosphere, surface changes and to act as the communications relay in the Mars Surveyor ’98 program, for Mars Polar Lander. However communication with the spacecraft was lost as the spacecraft went into orbital insertion, due to ground based computer software which produced output in non-SI units of pound-seconds (lbf×s) instead of the metric units of newton-seconds (N×s) specified in the contract between NASA and Lockheed. The spacecraft encountered Mars at an improperly low altitude, causing it to incorrectly enter the upper atmosphere and disintegrate.

2001 Mars Odyssey (NASA)

2001 Mars Odyssey

Mars Odyssey (2001-014A) was launched on 7^th April 2001 at 15:02:22 UTC, and has been a successful orbiter since 24^th October 2001 at 02:18:00 UTC, studying climate and geology and acting as a communications relay for the Spirit and Opportunity rovers.

Its primary mission (to use spectrometers and electronic imagers to detect evidence of past or present water and volcanic activity on Mars) was completed on 24^th August 2004. NASA has approved a fourth two-year extended mission, through August 2012, to allow for the observation of year-to-year differences in phenomena like polar ice, clouds, and dust storms, as well as a much more sensitive mapping of Martian minerals. A fifth extended mission (to July 2014) is considered likely in light of Curiosity’s successful landing in August 2012. The orbiter contains enough propellant to operate at least until 2015.

Phobos Spacecraft (USSR)

Phobos 2 (Phobos 1 failed)

The Phobos (Russian: Фобос, Greek: Φόβος) program was an unmanned space mission consisting of two probes launched by the Soviet Union to study Mars and its moons Phobos and Deimos. Phobos 1 and 2 were of a new spacecraft design, succeeding the type used in the Venera planetary missions of 1975 to 1985, last used during the Vega 1 and Vega 2 missions to comet Halley. They each had a mass of 2600 kg (6220 kg with orbital insertion hardware attached). The program featured co-operation from 14 other nations, including Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, France, West Germany, and the United States (which contributed the use of its Deep Space Network for tracking the twin spacecraft).

Phobos 1 (1988-058A) was launched on 7^th July 1988 at 1738:04 UTC, and Phobos 2 (1988-059A) on 12^th July 1988 at 1701:43, each aboard a Proton-K rocket.

Phobos 1 suffered a terminal failure en route to Mars.

Phobos 2 attained Mars orbit on 29^th January 1989 and returned 38 images with a resolution of up to 40 m, but contact was lost on 27^th March 1989 shortly before the Phobos approach phase and the deployment of the Phobos landers.

Mars Express and “Beagle 2” (ESA)

Mars Express and Beagle 2

Mars Express (2003-022A) was launched on 2^nd June 2003, and has been successfully orbiting since 25^th December 2003, imaging and mapping the surface; it was the first European probe in Martian orbit. It carried the Beagle 2 lander, but contact was not established after its attempted landing.

Beagle 2 as it should have landed

However, 11 years later, Beagle 2 (which went missing on Christmas Day 2003) has been found. Speaking at the Royal Society on 16^th January 2015, David Parker, of the UK space agency, said there was good evidence of Beagle 2 resting on the surface of Mars. Parker said it did not appear to be a crash site suggesting the probe at least partially deployed. See this 56-second video from The Guardian (the first 15 seconds are silent):

Beagle 2 landing site

Beagle 2 appears to be within the expected landing area of Isidis Planitia (see the Map of Mars), an impact basin close to the equator. It was discovered intact on the surface at about 11.5°N 90.4°E) in images captured by NASA’?s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which show that one of the “petals” on which its solar panels are mounted, did not fully deploy, preventing deployment of its radio antenna.

The scientists leading the search for the missing Beagle 2 were looking for “something that wasn’t red, and wasn’t a pointy rock.” Given that this doesn’t narrow the field down very much, it is testament to the amazing perseverance and talents of the individuals concerned that they have managed to locate the lander.

It is poignant that the information comes at this time – Colin Pillinger was very much the driving force behind Beagle 2, and one of the leaders of the Rosetta mission. His death in 2014 deprived the scientific community of one of its most charismatic members. How he would have gloried in the re-discovery of Beagle2.

Mars Exploration Rover (“Spirit” and “Opportunity”) (NASA)

Spirit

MER-A (“Spirit”) (2003-027A) was launched on 10^th June 2003; it was a Mars rover, operating between 4^th January 2004 at 04:35 UTC and 22^th March 2010; it became stuck in May 2009 and then operated as a static science station until contact was lost in March 2010.

Opportunity

MER-B (“Opportunity”) (2003-032A) was launched on 7^th July 2003; it is a Mars rover, landed on 25^th January 2004 at 05:05 UTC, and has been operating since then.

Some of the extraordinary photographs taken by these two rovers are in this NASA selection. One mystery found by “Opportunity” is the object shown below which suddenly appeared.

Mystery object found by “Opportunity”

25^th January 2015 marked 11 years since the “Opportunity” rover landed on Mars in 2004 just three weeks after its now inactive twin “Spirit”. This view is taken from the rim of the Endeavour Crater at a point known as Cape Tribulation. “Opportunity’s“ view from Cape Tribulation on the rim of Endeavour Crater, 22^nd January 2015 NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell Univ./Arizona State Univ

This is the highest point that the rover “Opportunity” has reached since it left the Victoria Crater area back in 2008. It has taken three years for the 180kg solar powered robot to complete the journey down to the Endeavour Crater, which measures 22 kilometres in diameter.

One of its key mission accomplishments has been the characterisation of soft rocks and soil to provide evidence of past water on the Mars. Asteroid (39392) Opportunity was named after this hardworking rover.

Shadow puppetry on Mars: The robotic arm of NASA’s rover Opportunity casts a shadow on a rocky outcrop named “Chester Lake”. The image was taken during the 2,710^th Martian day, or ‘sol’, of Opportunity’s work on Mars (8^th September 2012). Chester Lake, bedrock exposed on the rim of Endeavour crater, is the second rock approached by Opportunity for closer inspection since it arrived at the crater in August 2012 after a three-year trek.

Videos about “Opportunity”

Mars Opportunity Rover

This report from Intel describes the life of the Mars rover: Mars Opportunity Video is Mind-blowing. It includes both of these NASA animations:

Seven Minutes of Terror: The Challenges of Getting to Mars (a 5-minute account of landing the rover).
Rover’s-Eye View of Marathon on Mars (an 8-minute account of the day-by-day [or sol-by-sol] progress of “Opportunity” on its marathon (42.2 km) journey between January 2004 and April 2015.

Phoenix (NASA)

Artist’s impression of Phoenix landing on Mars

Mars Phoenix Lander

Phoenix (2007-034A) was launched on 4^th August 2007 at 09:26:34 UTC, the responsibility of JPL, led directly from the University of Arizona, Tucson; it landed on 25^th May 2008 at 23:53:52 UTC at Green Valley (Mars), 68.22°N 125.7°W, and successfully collected soil samples near the northern pole to search for water and investigate Mars’ geological history and biological potential. The lander completed its mission in August 2008, and made a last brief communication with Earth on 2^nd November as available solar power dropped with the Martian winter. The mission was declared concluded on 10^th November 2008, after engineers were unable to re-contact the craft. After unsuccessful attempts to contact the lander by the Mars Odyssey [2001-014A] orbiter up to and past the Martian summer solstice on 12^th May 2010, JPL declared the lander to be dead. The program was considered a success because it completed all planned science experiments and observations.

Exomars (ESA and Roscosmos)

Schiaparelli prepares for thermal tests

The first part of the Exomars mission [2016-017A] was launched at 09:31 UT on 14^th March 2016 using a Proton rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Artist’s impression of Schiaparelli separating from the TGO

This first mission consists of the Exomars Trace Gas Orbiter and its entry, descent and landing demonstrator module, Schiaparelli Lander. It is expected to arrive at Mars in October 2016, the Schiaparelli lander separating on 16^th October, three days before arrival at Mars. The planned final orbit for the TGO is circular with an altitude of 400 km. Science activities should begin in late 2017.

Exomars 2018 rover

The main objectives of this mission are to search for signs of methane [CH₄] in the atmosphere of Mars that seems to vary with location and time, possibly indicating the presence of microbial life on Mars (if methane and propane [C₃H₈] or ethane [C₂H₆]) are found, or a geochemical process such as volcanism or hydrothermal activity (if methane and sulphur dioxide [SO₂] are found). It will also test key technologies in preparation for ESA’s contribution to subsequent missions to Mars.

In 2018 the second part of the mission will include launching a Mars rover.

Spacecraft to Mars: ‘Explorer’, ‘Mariner’, ‘Mars’ & ‘Zond’ Programmes

Explorer (NASA)

Over the comparatively short but eventful history of the U.S. space program, a large number of spacecraft – including the very first American satellite launched by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency on 31^st January 1958 – have borne the name Explorer. All of these vehicles have had important scientific missions, so the series itself is of significant interest. However, there has been little consistency in the use of the name, and there is considerable question as to which “Explorer” missions properly fit in the series of that name.

The lack of consistency stems in part from the fact that the first Explorer missions predated the formation of NASA. As a consequence, Explorers 2 and 5 got counted in the sequence even though they failed to achieve orbit. Following the creation of NASA on 1^stOctober 1958, the agency established the practice of no longer counting such launches, but the problem of definition remained a real one.

This was so because even the early Explorers performed a large variety of scientific missions ranging from energy particle exploration through atmospheric and ionospheric studies to investigations of micrometeroids, air density, radio astronomy, geodesy, and gamma ray astronomy, not to mention interplanetary and solar monitoring. While Langley Research Center and Goddard Space Flight Center designed and built many of the early “Explorer” satellites, contractors and universities provided some experiments, components, and even entire spacecraft. The one constant amidst this diversity was that the early “Explorers” were smaller, simpler, and less costly than the orbiting observatories also used in scientific exploration of physical and astronomical phenomena.

Unfortunately for even this single piece of consistency in the midst of diversity, it did not apply solely to what may be called the “Explorer” series of spacecraft proper; there were numerous other Explorer-class satellites that did not bear the name “Explorer”. These included Vanguard 1 to 3, Pioneer 5, Ariel 1 and 2, Alouette 1, and a San Marco series of spacecraft launched from the site of that name off the coast of Kenya, Africa. All of these smaller, simpler satellites carried out missions analogous to those of the “Explorers”, but they bore different names and were not counted in the Explorer series.

To confuse the issue further, other similar missions involving Explorer-class satellites, launched jointly with international partners, sometimes bore the “Explorer” name but not a mission number in the “Explorer” series. These included the International Sun–Earth Explorer missions (ISEE 1–3) as well as other missions with names like Aeros, Ariel, and Boreas. There have also been a few larger spacecraft of the observatory class that have borne the name “Explorer” (for example, the Cosmic Background Explorer launched in 1989), further underlining the complexity of the issue regarding which spacecraft fit into what category. The listing at the end of this narrative shows the satellites that clearly belong in the “Explorer” series because they were relatively small and uncomplicated, performed a scientific mission, and, until quite recently, appeared in satellite situation reports and post-launch reports under the name “Explorer”, accompanied by a mission number. (This last practice ended with Explorer 55, however.)

Similar types of satellite continue to be launched up to the present time, with Explorer 93, alias NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array), alias SAMPEX-11 (Solar Anomalous & Magnetospheric Particle Explorer) having been launched on 13^th June 2012 by a Pegasus-XL 25 rocket under a L-1011 aircraft from Kwajalein Atoll. See more information at Explorer Program – Gunter’s Space Page.

Partial List of Explorer Satellites

Mission and Launch Date: Purpose

Explorer 1 (1958-alpha or 1958-001A), 31^st January 1958 at 03:48 UTC: Explorer 1 (top half) with its booster
Energy particles studies (discovered Van Allen radiation belt); designed and built by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL); launched from Cape Canaveral on Juno 1 rocket (modified US Army Jupiter-C intermediate range ballistic missile). Total weight of the satellite was 13.97 kg (8.3 kg instrumentation). Orbital period 114.8 mins, eccentricity 0.139849, inclination 33.24°, apoapsis 2,550 km, periapsis 358 km, semimajor axis 7,832.2 km. Orbital decay 31^st March 1970
Explorer 2, 5^th March 1958: Failed to achieve orbit
Explorer 3 (1958-gamma or 1958-003A), 26^th March 1958: Provided Van Allen belt data; nearly identical to Explorer 1 in its design and mission
Explorer 4 (1958-epsilon or 1958-005A), 26^th July 1958: Spatial study of Argus (nuclear weapon) radiation
Explorer 5, 24^th August 1958: Failed to achieve orbit
Explorer 6 (1959-delta, 1959-004A; or S-2), 7^th August 1959 at 14:23 UTC: Explorer 6

Explorer 7
Magnetosphere studies – radiation belt meteorology. Launched by Thor-DM-18 Able-3 rocket. In 1959 an anti-satellite missile test of the Bold Orion rocket used Explorer 6 as a target; the missile successfully passed within 6.4 km of the satellite. The satellite’s orbit decayed on 1^st July 1961. A total of 827 hours of analog and 23 hours of digital data were obtained.
Explorer 7 (1959-009A or 1959-iota), 13^th October 1959 at 15:36 UTC: Studied energetic particles; micro-meteoroids. Mass 41.5 kg, Orbital elements: eccentricity .034693, inclination 50.27°, apoapsis 1,073 km, periapsis 573 km, orbital period 101.38 mins. The satellite weighed 41.5 kg, was 75 cm high and 75 cm wide. Powered by solar cells it also carried 15 nickel-cadmium batteries around its equator. It transmitted data continuously through to February 1961 and went dead on 24^thAugust 1961. It is still in orbit.
Explorer 8 (1960-014A or 1960-xi), 3^rd November 1960: Ionosphere; atmospheric composition; confirmed the existence of a helium layer in the upper atmosphere. Decayed from orbit on 28^th March 2012
Explorer 9 (1961-004A or 1961-delta), 16^th February 1961: Measured characteristics and composition of the upper thermosphere and lower exosphere over entire globe
Explorer 10 (1961-010A or 1961-kappa), 25^th February 1961: Studied interplanetary magnetic field near Earth; particle radiations
Explorer 11 (1961-013A or 1961-nu), 27^th April 1961: Astronomical studies: gamma rays from space
Explorer 12 (1961-020A or 1961-upsilon), 16^th August 1961: Magnetospheric studies: how the radiation belts around the Earth receive, trap, and lose their charged particles
Explorer 13 (1961-022A or 1961-chi), 25^th August 1961: Technology satellite; studied micrometeoroids
Explorer 14 (1962-051A or 1962-beta-gamma), 2^nd October 1962: Studied charged particles and magnetic fields in magnetosphere
Explorer 15 (1962-059A or 1962-beta-lambda), 27^th October 1962: Study of enhanced radiation belt
Explorer 16 (1962-070A or 1962-beta-chi), 16^th December 1962: Technology satellite; studied micrometeoroids
Explorer 17 (1962-009A), 3^rd April 1963: Collected data on temperature, composition, density, and pressure for studies of atmospheric physics on a global basis
Explorer 18 (IMP 1, Interplanetary Monitoring Platform, 1962-046A), 27^th November 1963: Studied charged particles and magnetic fields in cislunar space
Explorer 19 (1963-053A), 19^th December 1963: Determined air density of upper atmosphere; studied heating effects from energetic particles and ultra-violet radiation
Explorer 20 (1964-051A), 25^th August 1964: Probe of topside of ionosphere
Explorer 21 (IMP 2, 1964-060A), 4^th October 1964: Studied magnetic fields and their interactions with solar plasma, solar wind, cosmic rays, intensities and distribution of space radiation
Explorer 22 (Beacon-Explorer–B, 1964-064A), 10^th October 1964: Ionospheric and geodetic research
Explorer 23 (1964-074A), 6^th November 1964: Measured micrometeoric penetration
Explorer 24 (1964-076A), 21^st November 1964: Provided information on radiation – air density relationships in upper atmosphere
Explorer 25 (1964-076B), 21^st November 1964: Same as Explorer 24 except for use of radiation sensors instead of radio beacon to collect data
Explorer 26 (1964-086A), 21^st December 1964: Studied how high-energy particles are injected, trapped, and lost in the Van Allen Belt and the depth to which high-energy solar protons penetrate into the geomagnetic field
Explorer 27 (Beacon-Explorer–C, 1965-032A), 29^th April 1965: Studied variations of electron density and orbital perturbations in order to deduce the size and shape of the Earth and the nature of its gravitational field
Explorer 28 (IMP 3, 1965-042A), 29^th May 1965: Provided data on Earth’s magnetosphere
Explorer 29 (GEOS 1, 1965-089A), 6^th November 1965: Part of the U.S. Geodetic Satellite Program, it compared tracking system accuracies; studied the gravitational field; and improved geodetic datum accuracies
Explorer 30 (Solrad-1, 1965-093A), 19^th November 1965: Monitored solar x-rays during the International Quiet Sun Year
Explorer 31 (Direct Measurements Explorer – DME, 1965-098B), 29^th November 1965: Sounded the topside of the ionosphere using topside sounder and measurement techniques
Explorer 32 (1966-044A), 25^th May 1966: Studied the structure and physics of the upper atmosphere
Explorer 33 (AIMP-D, 1966-058A), launched 1^st July 1966: Provided data on solar plasma, energetic particles, and magnetic fields; partial success: studied interplanetary plasma, cosmic rays, magnetic fields and solar X rays; failed to attain lunar orbit as intended, but achieved mission objectives from Earth orbit until 15^th September 1971
Explorer 34 (IMP-4, 1967-051A), 24^th May 1967: Studied solar and galactic cosmic radiation, solar plasma and X-rays, and energetic particles within the magnetosphere and interplanetary magnetic field
Explorer 35 (IMP-E, 1967-070A), launched 19^th July 1967: Orbited Moon to measure solar plasma flux, energetic particles, magnetic fields, and cosmic dust; no detectable lunar magnetic field discovered
Explorer 36 (GEOS 2, 1968-002A), 11^th January 1968: Same as Explorer 29
Explorer 37 (Solrad-2, 1968-017A), 5^th March 1968: Monitored solar x-ray emissions
Explorer 38 (Radio Astronomy Explorer, RAE-1, 1968-055A), 4^th July 1968: Monitored low-frequency cosmic radio noise
Explorer 39 (1968-066A), 8^th August 1968: Used radio beacon to study the interaction of solar radiation with the upper atmosphere during the solar maximum
Explorer 40 (Injun-5, 1968-066B), 8^th August 1968: Same as Explorer 39 but used a variety of instruments including spherical partical analyzers
Explorer 41 (IMP 5, 1969-053A), 21^st June 1969: Studied environment within and beyond Earth’s magnetosphere
Explorer 42 (Small Astronomy Satellite – SAS, Uhuru, 1970-107A), 12^th December 1970: Mapped the universe in x-ray wavelengths; discovered x-ray pulsars and evidence black holes. (Also called Uhuru because launched from San Marco off the coast of Kenya on Kenya’s Independence Day)
Explorer 43 (IMP, 1971-019A), 13^th March 1971: Studied cislunar environment during a period of decreasing solar activity
Explorer 44 (Solrad-3, 1971-058A), 8^th July 1971: Monitored solar flux
Explorer 45 (Small Scientific Satellite, 1971-096A), 15^th November 1971: Measured meteoroid penetration and impact velocity
Explorer 46 (Meteoroid Technology Satellite, 1972-061A), 13^th August 1972: Same as Explorer 45
Explorer 47 (IMP, 1972-073A), 23^rd September 1972: Same as Explorer 43
Explorer 48 (SAS, also called Gamma Ray Explorer, 1972-091A), 16^th November 1972: Studied gamma radiation
Explorer 49 (Radio Astronomy Explorer, 1973-039A), launched 10^th June 1973: From lunar orbit, measured the intensity of radio signals from celestial sources and provided data on lunar gravity; orbited 15^th June 1973 until June 1975; this was the last US lunar mission until 1994
Explorer 50 (IMP, 1973-078A), 26^th October 1973: Studied particle and field interactions in the distant magnetotail
Explorer 51 (1973-101A), 16^th December 1973: Collected data on the relationship of solar ultraviolet activity to atmospheric physics around the world
Explorer 52 (Hawkeye, 1974-040A), 3^rd June 1974: Studied the interaction of the solar wind with the geomagnetosphere over the Earth’s polar caps
Explorer 53 (SAS, 1975-037A), 7^th May 1975: Measured the x-ray emissions of discrete extragalactic sources but also investigated other regions of the electromagnetic spectrum
Explorer 54 (Atmospheric Explorer, 1975-096A), 6^th October 1975: Obtained data relating ultraviolet activity to atmospheric composition in the lower atmosphere
Explorer 55 (Atmospheric Explorer, 1975-107A), 20^th November 1975: Investigated the chemical processes and energy transfer mechanisms controlling the structure and behaviour of the Earth’s atmosphere and ionosphere
Explorer 56 (Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment – SAGE, 1979-013A), 18^th February 1979: Obtained a global data base for stratospheric aerosols and ozone to promote a better understanding of the Earth’s environmental quality and radiation budget
Explorer 57 (Dynamics Explorer-1 – DE-1, 1981-070A), 3^rd August 1981: Studied solar-terrestrial interactions and their effects on such issues as the polar wind and the interchange of particles between the magnetosphere and the ionosphere
Explorer 58 (DE-2, 1981-070B), 3^rd August 1981: Same as Explorer 57, except that Explorer 58 operated in a lower polar orbit than its companion satellite
Explorer 59 (Solar Mesosphere Explorer, 1981-100A), 6^th October 1981: Studied reactions between sunlight, ozone, and other constituents of the atmosphere – in some sense an extension of Explorer 56’s mission to the polar regions it could not examine from its orbit around the equator

Mariner (NASA)

Mariner 1: (1962-F07) was launched on 22^nd July 1962, but was destroyed 5 minutes after liftoff when its rocket went off course.
Mariner 2: (1962-041A) was launched on 27^th August 1962 to Venus (see Mariner (Venus)); the mission made the first successful Venus fly-by at a minimum distance of 34,773 km on 19^th December 1962.
Mariner 3: (1964-073A) was launched on 5^th November 1964 at 19:22:05 UTC aimed at Mars, but malfunctioned; it is now derelict in heliocentric orbit.
Mariner 4: Mariner 4
(1964-077A) was launched on 28^th November 1964 at 1422:01 UTC, and made a flyby of Mars on 15^th July 1965 and took the first close-up images of Mars.
Mariner 5: (or Mariner Venus 1967) (1967-060A), launched on 14^th June 1967, made a successful Venus fly-by at a minimum distance of 5,000 km on 14^th October 1967 (see Mariner (Venus)).
Mariner 6: (1969-014A) was launched on 25^th February 1969 at 0129:02 UTC, made a successful flyby of Mars on 31^st July 1969.
Mariner 7: (1969-030A) was launched on 27^th March 1969 at 2222:01 UTC; it made a successful flyby of Mars on 5^th August 1969.
Mariner 8: (1971-F04) was launched on 9^th May 1971 at 0111:02 UTC; it didn’t make Earth orbit, just the Atlantic Ocean shortly after launch; it was meant to go to Mars.
Mariner 9: (1971-051A) was launched on 30^th May 1971 at 2223:04 UTC; it went into orbit round Mars on 14^th November 1971, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit another planet. Its mission ended on 27^th October 1972.
Mariner 10: (1973-085A) was launched on 3^rd November 1973 at 0545:00 UTC; it made a successful fly-by of Venus at a minimum distance of 5,768 km, en route to Mercury; see the description on the Mercury page.

Mariner 10 was the last Mariner spacecraft, the Mariner 11 and Mariner 12 projects being reassignated to the Voyager programme.

Mars (USSR)

The Mars program was a series of unmanned 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 launched by Molniya rockets. Starting with two failures in 1969, the heavier Proton-K rocket was used to launch larger 5 tonne spacecraft, consisting of an orbiter and a lander to Mars. The orbiter bus design was likely somewhat rushed into service and immature, considering that it performed very reliably in the Venera variant after 1975. This reliability problem was common to much Soviet space hardware from the late 1960s and early 1970s and was largely corrected with a deliberate policy, implemented in the mid-1970s, of consolidating (or “debugging”) existing designs rather than introducing new ones.

In addition to the Mars program, the Soviet Union also sent a probe to Mars as part of the Zond program, Zond 2; however it failed en route. Two more spacecraft were sent during the Phobos program. In 1996, Russia launched Mars 96, its first interplanetary mission since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, however it failed to depart Earth orbit.

Initial Failures

Known failures in the program were:

Mars 1M No. 1 (10^th October 1960; 1960-F12) and Mars 1M No. 2 (14^th October 1960; 1960-F14): The first Soviet attempts to send a probe to Mars were the two Mars 1M spacecraft, which each had a mass of about 650 kg. Both were launched in 1960 and failed to achieve orbit. In keeping with the (then) Soviet policy of not announcing details on failed missions, the launches were not announced as planetary missions at the time, and hence did not officially receive the “Mars” designation.
Mars 2MV-4 No.1 (24^th October 1962; 1962-beta-iota 1) and Mars 2MV-3 No.1 (4^th November 1962; 1962-beta-xi 1): Two Soviet launches at around the time of Mars 1 were 900 kg spacecraft; however both failed to leave Earth orbit due to problems with the upper stages of their carrier rockets
Mars 2M No.521 (27^th March 1969; 1969-F06) and Mars 2M No.522 (2^nd April 1969; 1969-F07), known in the West as Mars 1969A and B: These were heavier spacecraft with masses of 5 tonnes. They were launched by Proton-K rockets, and consisted of orbiters and landers similar to late Venera and Vega spacecraft
Mars 3MS or Kosmos 419 (1971-042A): Kosmos 419 was launched on 10^th May 1971. It consisted of only an orbiter, and was intended to become the first spacecraft to orbit Mars (areocentric orbit), thereby beating the American Mariner 8 and Mariner 9 spacecraft
Mars 3MP: The 1973 Mars launch window was inefficient and thus the Proton could not deliver sufficient mass to the necessary trajectory to reach Mars, as had been possible in 1971. To resolve this problem, two landers were launched with orbiter type buses, but without fuel to enter orbit. The Mars 4 and Mars 5 orbiters, which had been launched separately, were used to relay communications, and to complete mission objectives which would have been completed by orbiters launched with the Mars 6 and Mars 7 spacecraft had they been flown
Mars 4NM and 5NM: These projects would have seen heavier spacecraft launched by N1 rockets. They would have deployed heavy Marsokhod rovers onto the surface, and conducted sample return missions. The N1 failed on all four of its test flights, and was never used to launch any Mars spacecraft
Mars 5M (Mars 79): This was a sample return mission developed in 1977 to be double launched in 1979 by Proton launchers and then docked in Earth orbit for a joint flight of orbital and return modules to Mars. The project was cancelled due to the low reliability of the Igla automatic docking system

Mars Successes

Mars 1: was launched on 1^st November 1962 (1962-beta-nu 1), the first of the Soviet Mars probe program, with the intent of flying by the planet at a distance of about 11,000 km. Early telemetry indicated that there was a leak in one of the gas valves in the orientation system so the spacecraft was transferred to gyroscopic stabilization. On 21^st March 1963, when the spacecraft was 106,760,000 km from Earth, communications ceased, probably due to failure of the spacecraft’s antenna orientation system. Mars 1’s closest approach to Mars was on 19^th June 1963 at a distance of approximately 193,000 km, after which it entered an orbit around the Sun.
Mars 2: was launched on 19^th May 1971 (1971-045A), from November 1971 until August 1972 became the first Russian spacecraft to orbit another planet. Its lander and short range rover crashed, but was the first man-made object to reach the surface of Mars.
Mars 3: Mars 3 Orbiter and Lander (at the top)

1972 Soviet Union 16 kopek stamp showing the Mars 3 lander
was launched on 28^th May 1971 (1971-049A), from December 1971 until August 1972 was a partial success in that it attained a different orbit than intended due to insufficient fuel. Its lander and short range rover lost contact 110 sec after a soft landing.
Mars 4: was launched on 21^st July 1973 (1973-047A) (see Mars 3MP above).
Mars 5: was launched on 25^th July 1973 (1973-049A) became a successful orbiter in February 1974.
Mars 6: was launched on 5^th August 1973 (1973-052A) successfully flew by Mars on 12^th March 1974. However contact was lost with its lander 148 sec after parachute deployment; it returned 224 seconds of atmospheric data.
Mars 7: was launched on 9^th August 1973 (1973-053A) successfully flew by Mars on 9^th March 1974. However its lander missed Mars.

Zond to Venus, Mars and the Moon (USSR)

Zond (Зонд, Russian for “probe”) was the name given to two distinct series of Soviet unmanned space program undertaken from 1964 to 1970. The first series based on the 3MV planetary probe was intended to gather information about nearby planets. The second series of test spacecraft being a precursor to manned circumlunar loop flights used a stripped-down variant of the Soyuz spacecraft, consisting of the service and descent modules, but lacking the orbital module.

Zond 1

Zond 2

Zond L1S-1

Zond 1 (1964-016D): Launched on 2^nd April 1964 at 0242? UTC; communications lost 14^th May 1964; Venus fly-by 14^th July 1964
Zond 2 (1964-078C): Launched on 30^th November 1964 at 1312? UTC; communications lost May 1965; Mars fly-by 6^th August 1965
Zond 3 (1965-056A): Launched on 18^th July 1965 at 1438? UTC; lunar fly-by 20^th July 1965; it was possibly originally intended as a Mars probe, but the target was changed after the launch window was missed

Soyuz 7K-L1/L1S test missions

Kosmos 146 (1967-021A): Launched on 10^th March 1967 at 1130:33 UTC; prototype Soyuz 7K-L1P launched by Proton into planned highly elliptical earth orbit
Kosmos 154 (1967-032C): Launched on 8^th April 1967 at 0900:33 UTC; prototype Soyuz 7K-L1P launched by Proton and failed to achieve planned translunar trajectory
Zond 1967A (1967-F11): Launched on 27^th September 1967 at 2211:54 UTC; fell off course 60 seconds after launch; escape tower took Zond capsule safely away; rocket crashed 65 km downrange; attempted lunar fly-by
Zond 1967B (1967-F12): Launched on 22^nd November 1967 at 1907:59 UTC; second stage failure; Zond capsule was safely recovered; rocket crashed 300 km downrange; attempted lunar fly-by
Zond 4 (1968-013A): Launched on 2^nd March 1968 at 1829:23 UTC; study of remote regions of circumterrestrial space, development of new on-board systems and units of space stations; returned to Earth on 7^th March 1968 – self-destruct system automatically blew up the capsule at 10 to 15 km altitude, 180 – 200 km off the African coast at Guinea; this was possibly a lunar programme flight test, directed away from the Moon, intentionally or unintentionally
Zond 1968A (1968-F03): Launched on 22^rd April 1968 at 2301:27 UTC; second stage failed 260 seconds after launch; attempted lunar flyby
Zond 1968B (Zond 7K-L1 s/n 8L): Launched on 21^st July 1968; Block D stage exploded on pad, killing three people
Zond 5 (1968-076A): Launched on 14^th September 1968 at 2142:11 UTC; circumlunar from 18^th September 1968; returned to Earth on 21^st September 1968; turtles and other biological specimens were the first lifeforms to travel around the moon and return safely
Zond 6 (1968-101A): Launched on 10^th November 1968 at 1911:31 UTC; circumlunar from 14^th November 1968; cosmic-ray, micrometeoroid and bioscience studies; returned to Earth on 17^th November 1968
Zond 1969A (1969-F01): Launched on 20^th January 1969 at 0414:36 UTC; stage two shutdown 25 seconds early; automatic flight abort; capsule was safely recovered; attempted lunar fly-by
Zond L1S-1 (1969-F05): Launched on 21^st February 1969 at 0918:07 UTC; first stage failure; capsule escape system fired 70 seconds after launch; capsule was recovered; attempted Lunar orbiter and N1 rocket test
Zond L1S-2 (1969-F10): Launched on 3^rd July 1969 at 2018:32 UTC; first stage failure; Zond capsule was recovered; attempted Lunar orbiter and N1 rocket test
Zond 7 (1969-067A): Launched on 7^th August 1969 at 2348:06 UTC; lunar fly-by 11^th August 1969; returned to Earth 14^th August 1969
Zond 8 (1970-088A): Launched on 20^th October 1970 at 1955:39 UTC; lunar fly-by 24^th October 1970; returned to Earth 27^th October 1970
Zond 9: Planned but cancelled
Zond 10: Planned but cancelled

More Spacecraft That Have Visited Mars

Mars Science Laboratory “Curiosity” (NASA)

Mars in true colour from the Curiosity Rover

MSL Curiosity (2011-070A), launched on 26^th November 2011 at 1502:00 UTC has been roving, investigating past and present habitability, climate and geology since 6^th August 2012.

NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover is the bluish dot near the middle bottom of this enhanced-colour view from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Twin wheel tracks about 3 metres apart can be seen where the rover trundled from the landing site in the left of the scene. Two bright, blue spots surrounded by darker patches reveal where the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft’s landing jets cleared away reddish surface dust at the landing site.

Jacqueline Storey from the National Maritime Museum poses in front of images of Mars generated by NASA’s Curiosity Rover.

An interesting news item: NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover finds soil similar to volcanic sands of Hawaii.

Curiosity Mars rover captured this [left] image of the ‘tattoo’ on its arm, with the rocks at the base of Mount Sharp as a backdrop, on 29^th October 2014, its 792^nd Martian day on the surface.

Curiosity’s recent travels as of 29^th October 2014. [Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona].

The rover has been literally heading for the hills since landing at Gale Crater in August 2012. Scientists hope that Mount Sharp will offer them a slice through Martian geological history. Now Curiosity has arrived at the base of the mountain, it is making regular stops to study the area with a battery of cameras and scientific instruments.

NASA announced in May 2016: Second Cycle of Martian Seasons Completing for Curiosity Rover.

Curiosity Mars 2020 Rover

An artist’s impression of Curiosity’s successor, the Curiosity Mars 2020 rover.
The mission will look for signs of past life, collect samples for possible return to Earth, and demonstrate technology for future human exploration. The vehicle would re-use Curiosity’s design and engineering, but sport new instruments selected through a competition.

Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) (NASA)

MAVEN lift-off from Cape Canaveral

NASA launched its Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or Maven, spacecraft on 18^th November 2013 (COSPAR ID: 2013-063A). Expected to arrive in September 2014, Maven is designed to help scientists figure out how the planet managed to lose an atmosphere that at one time was believed to be thicker than Earth’s.

MAVEN is 11.43 m in length, carries a dry mass of 903 kg, a wet mass of 2,550 kg, and is capable of producing 1,135 watts (in orbit of Mars) from its photovoltaic solar arrays.

MAVEN performed an orbital insertion manoeuvre and was inserted into Mars orbit on 22^nd September 2014 (see diagram below). Orbit insertion resulted in a highly elliptical orbit with an apoapsis of 6,200 km and a periapsis of 150 km. MAVEN’s orbit is inclined at 75° to the Martian equator and have an orbital period of 4.5 hours.

MAVEN will then gather detailed data on Mars’ atmosphere trying to discover what caused water in Mars’ atmosphere to be lost to space over the billions of years of the planet’s evolution. Formations on the Martian surface and the discovery on the surface of certain minerals that form in the presence of water suggest that Mars’ atmosphere, at one time, had to be much thicker than it currently is. This means that Mars, over the course of the last few millions of years, has lost nearly 99% of its atmosphere to space. Scientists think this is because of planetary core cooling which in turned caused the collapse of Mars’ protective magnetic field (like the one the protects Earth’s atmosphere). Without the presence of this protective magnetic field, Mars’ atmosphere was slowly stripped away by the solar wind. MAVEN should help answer the question of how this has and is happening.

Over the course of its one Earth year primary mission, MAVEN will take detailed measurements of Mars’ upper atmosphere to determine the rate at which the Martian atmosphere is currently escaping into space. These readings will be coupled with similar readings taken by the Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars for data comparison.

In all, MAVEN has four primary mission objectives:

To determine the role that loss of volatiles to space from the Mars atmosphere has played through time;
To determine the current state of the upper atmosphere, ionosphere, and interactions with the solar wind;
To determine the current rates of escape of neutral gases and ions to space and the processes controlling them; and
To determine the ratios of stable isotopes in the Martian atmosphere.

The first observations of Mars’ upper atmosphere made by NASA’s MAVEN probe, which reached the Red Planet on 21^st September 2014 [Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado; NASA].

Phobos-Grunt (Russia),
Yinghuo-1 (China),
Soil Offloading and Preparation System (China),
Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment (Planetary Society)

Phobos–Grunt (Russian: Фобос–Грунт, literally “Phobos–Ground”) was an attempted Russian sample return mission to Phobos, one of the moons of Mars. The return vehicle was to have returned to Earth in August 2014, carrying up to 200 g of soil from Phobos. It also carried the Chinese Mars orbiter Yinghuo-1 and the tiny Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment funded by the Planetary Society.

The launch was on 9^th November 2011 at 02:16 local time (8^th November 2011, 20:16 UTC) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome (COSPAR ID: 2011-065A). Shortly after launch, Fobos-Grunt was expected to perform two burns to depart Earth orbit bound for Mars. However, these burns did not take place, leaving the probes stranded in orbit. Efforts to reactivate the rocket were unsuccessful, and it fell back to Earth in an uncontrolled destructive re-entry on 15^th January 2012, over the Pacific Ocean west of Chile.

The 115 kg Chinese Yinghuo-1 orbiter, launched together with Fobos-Grunt, was intended by the CNSA to be the first Chinese spacecraft to explore Mars. In late 2012, after a 10–11.5-month cruise, Yinghuo-1 would have separated and entered a 800×80,000 km equatorial orbit (5° inclination) with a period of three days. The spacecraft was expected to remain on Martian orbit for one to two years, studying the planet’s surface, atmosphere, ionosphere and magnetic field. Space centre researchers expected to use photographs and data to study the magnetic field of Mars and the interaction between ionospheres, escape particles and solar wind.

A second Chinese payload, the Soil Offloading and Preparation System (SOPSYS), was integrated in the lander. SOPSYS was a microgravity grinding tool developed by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Another payload was an experiment from the Planetary Society called Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment; its goal was to test whether selected organisms can survive a few years in deep space by flying them through interplanetary space. The experiment would have tested one aspect of transpermia, the hypothesis that life could survive space travel, if protected inside rocks blasted by impact off one planet to land on another. The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences contributed with a radiation measurement experiment.

Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) (India)

The Indian Mars Orbiter Mission (also called “Mangalyaan”, मङ्गलयान Hindi for Mars Craft) was launched on 5^th November 2013 (COSPAR ID: 2013-060A) using a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. Liftoff of the mission, which also marks India’s fortieth orbital launch and the twenty-fifth flight of the PSLV, was at 09:08 UTC (14:38 local), and was from the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.

India’s space agency has become the fourth in the world after those of the US, Russia and Europe to undertake a successful Mars mission. It arrived at the Red Planet on 23^rd/24^th September 2014.

The spacecraft carries a bipropellant engine to achieve insertion into orbit around Mars. It is fuelled by monomethylhydrazine, and oxidised by dinitrogen tetroxide. The propulsion system is derived from that used for several previous geostationary satellites as well as the Chandrayaan 1 mission; however it was modified to improve its reliability and ensure that it could still be operated after the ten-month coast to Mars. The main engine delivers 440 newtons (45 kgf or 99 lbf) of thrust and propelled the spacecraft out of Earth orbit and again for orbital insertion once the probe reached Mars. Eight smaller thrusters, delivering 22 newtons (2.2 kgf, 4.9 lbf) each, are used for attitude control.

MOM has a dry mass of 488 kg (1,080 lb). It carries 852 kg (1,880 lb) of propellant, giving it a mass at launch of 1,340 kg (2,950 lb). One solar array, consisting of three panels, are used to generate electrical power for the spacecraft; it is expected to produce around 840 watts. The solar array will charge a lithium-ion battery, with a capacity of 36 amp-hours.

As a fuel-saving measure, the spacecraft circled Earth in an elliptical orbit for nearly a month, building up the necessary velocity to break free from our planet’s gravitational pull. The formal name for the route MOM took to Mars is a Hohmann Transfer Orbit. The spacecraft took advantage of a favourable planetary alignment, carrying out six small engine burns during November to lift it to a higher orbit before a final burn (by 30^th November) sent it off on an interplanetary trajectory.

The areocentric orbit (“areo-” means of the planet Mars) has a periareon of 365 km, an apoareon of 80,000 km (227 by 50,000 miles), an inclination of 150° and a period of 76.7 hours.

Artist’s impression of the Indian Mars Orbiter Mission

Areas of research include searching for the signature of methane (CH₄) in the Martian atmosphere, which has previously been detected from Martian orbit and telescopes on Earth. However, NASA’s Curiosity rover recently failed to find the gas in its measurements of atmospheric gases. CH₄ has a short lifetime in the Martian atmosphere, meaning that some source on the Red Planet must replenish it. Intriguingly, some 95% of atmospheric methane on Earth is produced by microbes, which has led some to propose the possibility of a biosphere deep beneath the Martian surface. But the gas can be produced by geological processes too, most notably by volcanism. Definitive conclusions are likely to be elusive, but the spacecraft’s Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM) instrument will aim to make measurements and map any potential sources of methane “plumes”. The spacecraft will also examine the rate of loss of atmospheric gases to outer space. This could provide insights into the planet’s history; billions of years ago, the envelope of gases around Mars is thought to have been more substantial.

Despite criticism of India for spending $73.5 million on the Mangalyaan spacecraft, this is just 0.30% of the total budget in the Indian space program. They even spent more money than this for fire crackers in the three-day Hindi Diwali celebration in India alone.

MOM’s Trajectory Timetable

05/11/2013:

First ever image of Earth taken by Mars Colour Camera aboard the MOM spacecraft while orbiting Earth and before the Trans Mars Insertion firing on 1^st December 2013. The image is focused on the Indian subcontinent [ISRO]

MOM photographs the Limb of Mars after a history-creating arrival
PSLV–C25 (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle–C25) successfully launched
07/11/2013: First orbit-raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft successfully completed
08/11/2013: Second orbit-raising manoeuvre successfully completed
09/11/2013: Third orbit-raising manoeuvre successfully completed
11/11/2013: Fourth orbit-raising manoeuvre successfully completed
12/11/2013: Fifth orbit-raising manoeuvre successfully completed
16/11/2013: Sixth orbit-raising manoeuvre of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, starting at 01:27 hrs IST, with a burn time of 243.5 seconds successfully completed. Observed change in apogee is from 118,642 km to 192,874 km
01/12/2013: Medium Gain Antenna powered for long distance communication, subsequent to successful Trans Mars Injection (TMI) manoeuvre. TMI operations completed successfully. Liquid engine burn time was 1328.89 sec and imparted incremental velocity was 647.96 m/s. TMI operations in progress. TMI began at 00:49 hrs IST. Forward rotation of spacecraft, to put it into right orientation to perform TMI completed successfully at 00:30 hrs IST
02/12/2013: Spacecraft has travelled a distance of 536,000 km by 17:00 hrs IST. It crossed distance to Moon’s orbit around Earth (mean distance 385,000 km) this morning
04/12/2013: Spacecraft traversed beyond the sphere of influence of Earth extending about 925,000 km at around 1:14 hrs IST
11/12/2013: First Trajectory Correction Manoeuvre (TCM) of Spacecraft carried out successfully at 06:30 hrs IST by firing the 22 Newton Thrusters for 40.5 seconds. Spacecraft about 2.9 million km away from Earth
11/02/2014: 100 days since launch of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft
09/04/2014: Mars Orbiter Spacecraft crosses half-way point of its journey to Mars
12/06/2014: Second Trajectory Correction Manoeuvre (TCM-2) successfully performed at 16:30 hrs IST. TCM-2 was performed by firing the 22 Newton thrusters for a duration of 16 seconds. Radio distance between Spacecraft and Earth is 102 million km. A radio signal from Earth to Spacecraft takes about 340 seconds. Spacecraft so far travelled 466 million km of its total journey of 680 million km. ISRO continuously monitoring Mars Orbiter Spacecraft using Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN). Spacecraft and its five scientific instruments in good health
15/09/2014: Time-tagged commands to execute Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI) uploading and verification in progress. MOI is scheduled for 24^th September 2014 early morning
16/09/2014: Time-tagged commands to execute MOI uploaded
17/09/2014: Uploading of commands for Fourth Trajectory Correction Manoeuver and test-firing of Main Liquid Engine (scheduled for 24^th September 2014) in progress
22/09/2014: Test Firing of Main Liquid Engine of Mars Orbiter Spacecraft successful
23–24/09/2014: Successful insertion into orbit

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (NASA)

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (2005-029A) was launched on 12^th August 2005 at 11:43:00 UTC; it is an orbiter, inserted into Mars orbit on 10^th March 2006 at 21:24:00 UTC, successfully imaging and surveying the surface.

Gravity-assist “slingshots” on passing Mars

Rosetta to asteroids 2867 Šteins and 21 Lutetia and comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Dawn towards asteroid Vesta and on to dwarf planet Ceres

Astronomy – Planet Mars

Some Basic Facts about Mars

List of All Spacecraft Missions to Mars

Missions in development

Proposed Missions