Exploration of mars

Mars (Hubble Space Telescope)

The space exploration of Mars began in the context of the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union, during the Cold War period. Interest in Mars and the possibility that it harbors life dates back as far as 1877, when the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli claimed to have seen canals all over the planet. Subsequently, other astronomers tried to verify the postulation of the American astronomer Percival Lowell, who suggested that the alleged channels discovered by Schiaparelli were an irrigation system created by intelligent beings. Although there was no real proof of these speculations, a whole series of theories or myths about Mars was created, which transcended into literature and into the creation of legends about alleged Martians who would have visited Earth.

The first missions and orbiters

First Soviet missions

The first Soviet missions took place from the Mars Program, which consisted of two close probe flights in October 1960. The two probes failed to leave Earth and were trapped in orbit, one of them reaching a height maximum of 120 km before reentering Earth.

Another probe was the Mars 1962A that would make a flyby. It was launched on October 24, 1962, while the Mars 1962B, which included a lander, was launched in December of that same year. The first failed to leave Earth's orbit and in the second the upper stage exploded before giving the last direct push to Mars.

Mars 1 launched on November 1, 1962, would be an automatic interplanetary probe, the first of the Soviet Mars probe program. It would fly at a distance of 11,000 km from the planet, take photos of the surface and send back information on cosmic radiation, micrometeorite impacts, on the magnetic field of Mars, radiation in the environment, structure of the atmosphere, and possible organic components present. 61 radio transmissions were maintained with intervals every 2 days. On March 21, 1963, when the ship was 106,760,000 km from Earth, communication ceased due to failure of the transmission antenna. Then in 1964 the Zond program began, consisting of Zond 1964A, which failed to launch, and Zond 2, which lost contact after some mid-course maneuvers in May 1965.

Mariner Program

This program began in 1964 when the Jet Propulsion Laboratory launched the Mariner 3 (launched November 5, 1964) and Mariner 4 (launched November 28, 1964) probes for close-in flights to Mars.

Mariner 4 passed by Mars on July 14, 1965, giving the first close-up photos of the planet; showed places with impacts similar to those of the moon. In the next launch window, NASA launched more probes, which arrived on Mars in 1969. Mariner 9 became the first space probe to enter Martian orbit, arriving at the same time as the Soviet Mars 2 and Mars probes. 3, which found large dust storms in progress. It was then that the Mariner's mission control decided to take it to Phobos to take photos.

Featured Quests

1960-1969: First explorations; the Mariners

One of the first photos of the Martian surface (Mariner 4).

The Soviet probes Mars 1960A and Mars 1960B, launched on October 10 and 14, 1960 with a mass of 640 kg, topped the list of probes launched from Earth to Mars, although they failed to escape orbit terrestrial and were destroyed. Equally unsuccessful was the Mars 1, which took off on November 1, 1962 weighing 893.5 kg. It was a probe that intended to fly over the planet at a distance of 11,000 km; it passed 193,000 km from Mars on June 19, 1963, although contact with it had been lost on March 21, 1963, when it was 106,706,000 km from Earth, becoming the first human object to approach the planet.

At the end of 1964, the United States sent Mariner 3 to Mars, a probe that would fail due to engineering problems. In 1965, the United States sent the Mariner 4 that was able to transmit the first photographs of Mars taken in its vicinity in July of the same year; Mariner 4 found a desolate, desert landscape with abundant craters, while the Zond 2 of the then Soviet Union would manage, after several months, to fly over Mars on August 6, 1965 at a distance of 1,500 kilometers and at a relative speed of 5.62 km/s, without sending data.

In 1969, Mariners 6 and 7 arrived from the United States, flying over the surface of the planet at an altitude of about 3,500 kilometers. Both managed to send some 200 photographs of the equatorial regions.

1970-1979: Vikings

First clear picture in history taken from the surface of Mars (Viking 1).

In 1971, new and various records are achieved in the history of the conquest of space (first satelliteization of a probe on Mars on November 13, Mariner 9, first human object on the planet on November 27, Mars 2, first transmission from its surface on December 2, Mars 3).

Mariner 9 becomes the first artificial satellite of Mars on November 13, 1971. Once positioned, it managed to capture the large dust storms that originate in the southern hemisphere and obscure its entire surface.

The Soviet Union becomes the first power that manages to deposit a remotely controlled exploration vehicle (astromobile) on the surface with its Mars 3, which touched the surface at about 20.7 m/s at approximately 45ºS and 158ºW at 13:50:35 GMT on December 2 (after the failure and loss during the descent of Mars 2), but contact with Earth was lost shortly after starting the transfer of the first images. Likewise, the small rover he carries, the PROP-M, is rendered inoperative.

The Mars 5 probe was placed in Martian orbit in February 1974, sending back photographs, after the failure of its predecessor, Mars 4, which passed 2,200 km from the planet.

Later, the Soviet Mars 6, launched on August 5, 1973, managed to get into orbit 1,500 km from Mars around March 12, 1974. The landing probe descended to 24º south and 25º west, northeast from the Argyre Basin. During its descent, it transmitted atmospheric measurements, but interrupted the transmissions 0'3 seconds before touching down.

Photo taken by Viking 2 lander.

Also in March 1974, the Mars 7 arrived at the planet, passing 1300 km from it and failing in its mission.

In 1976, the United States descended on the planet the Viking 1 and Viking 2 probes that managed to transmit photographs of the surface from the Chryse and Utopia plains. These two missions carried out experiments to detect life on the Martian surface and the results of which were more controversial than conclusive. The Viking probes remained active until 1980 - 1982.

The Phobos 1 and 2 probes left in 1988, but one spacecraft stopped transmitting along the way and the other did the same when it was about to approach Phobos in 1989.

In 1992, the United States' Mars Observer mission lost all contact with the spacecraft as it entered orbit, a failure that was followed by the Russian Mars 96 mission four years later.

Sojourner. The first Martian rover.

In 1997, the Mars Pathfinder arrived on Mars, descending in Aris Valley carrying the self-propelled rover Sojourner; It is primarily a vehicle for testing new technologies. His exploration of the surface lasts 2 months and in the process is televised to millions of people. The Mars Pathfinder landing site is named Sagan Memorial Station, in honor of Carl Sagan. This same year the Mars Global Surveyor also arrives on Mars, a probe that orbits Mars.

Mars Global Surveyor (drawing).

Author of the Mars Science Laboratory (photo).

The first Japanese orbital probe to the planet, called Nozomi would be launched on July 4, 1998, it flew over Mars on December 14, 2003, but several failures led to the failure of the mission.

Two years later, in 1999, the United States sends and loses the Mars Climate Orbiter and the Mars Polar Lander. The first, according to the widely criticized official version, was lost due to the use of Anglo-Saxon measurement units instead of decimal metric units, which caused a serious error according to the mission managers. The second, lost during the Mars landing, was the subject of a photographic tracking attempt by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. In early 2005 it was thought that the remains of the Mars Polar Lander had been found. Unfortunately, closer examination of the images showed that this was not the case and the Mars Polar Lander is still missing. These failed attempts to reach Mars dealt a heavy double blow to the United States' Mars exploration program.

The 21st century

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Mars (drawn).

In 2001, the United States sent the Mars Odyssey to Mars, which settled into a 2-hour Martian orbit. Carry out a mapping mission of the distribution and concentration of chemical elements and minerals on the planet's surface. It discovers the existence of ice, which supports the theory of large amounts of water on Mars and sparks excitement as a potential source of the liquid element for a future manned mission to Mars.

In 2003, Great Britain, in collaboration with the European Space Agency, sent the Mars Express, which remained in orbit, and the Beagle 2, which descended to the surface but has not emitted signs of life since then. At the same time, the United States successfully sends Spirit and Opportunity (within the Mars Exploration Rover mission), which carry out explorations of the surface and measurements of atmospheric conditions that have once again been able to confirm the theory of the enormous amount of water that existed in Mars and that it exists in the form of ice now. In short, the American robots discovered that there was indeed a habitable environment on the red planet.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft was launched on an Atlas 5 rocket on /08, 2005 from Cape Canaveral, USA. It arrived on Mars in March 2006. One of the main objectives of this mission is the search for water: you will be able to detect underground aquifers if they exist and are close to the surface. This probe will obtain images of the surface of Mars with higher resolution than previously obtained.

The Phoenix probe was launched in August 2007 and landed at the north pole of Mars at the end of May 2008.

In 2008 there were six man-made space instruments operating on Mars': the robots Spirit (rover) and Opportunity (rover) and the Phoenix (lander) that landed at the North Pole. In turn, the three orbital probes: the Mars Odyssey (orbiter) and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (orbiter) of the United States and the orbital probe of the European Space Agency, the Mars Express (orbiter).

In 2011, the Russian Phobos-Grunt probe was launched, bound for the Phobos satellite of Mars, but after orbiting the Earth for a few days, its electronic systems failed when trying to put it on the way to its destination.

Dawn at Mars captured by the Curiosity. (Real color photo)

On November 26, 2011, the Mars Science Laboratory (abbreviated MSL), known as Curiosity, was launched. It is a space mission that includes a Mars exploration rover led by NASA. This vehicle is three times heavier and twice as large as the vehicles used in the Mars Exploration Rover mission (2004). The international community has provided some of the instruments carried by this mission launched using an Atlas V 541 rocket. The rover is carrying out its tasks analyzing soil samples and Martian rocky dust. The original duration of the mission was 1 Martian year (1.88 Earth years). One of its goals is to investigate the current or past capacity of Mars to host life.

In little more than a year on the red planet, the MSL rover has found evidence that Mars once presented favorable conditions to support microbiological life. The rover also found evidence of the past existence of a lake of water where Gale Crater now stands, as well as estimated the presence of 2% water in the overall composition of the planet's rocky soil.

On December 16, 2014, Curiosity recorded sharp increases in methane gas levels in Gale Crater with the SAM instrument. These show that the base values are lower than thought, at just 0.7 parts per billion by volume (ppmv), but on six occasions they increased considerably, one time exceeding seven ppmv, 10 times more. This indicates that there is "an additional source of methane of unknown origin."

Portrait of Zhurong along with its descent platform (photo).

On February 10, 2021, the CNSA Tianwen-1 mission successfully reached Martian orbit after an automatic deceleration maneuver that lasted about 15 minutes, making China the sixth nation to reach the planet red. The mission consists of an orbiter and the Zhurong rover, which successfully landed on May 14, 2021, making the Asian nation the second country to land a vehicle and make it work on the Martian surface, after the United States. The spacecraft has been developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (中國航天科技集團公司) (CASC), and managed by the National Space Science Center (NSSC) in Beijing. With this mission to Mars it is intended to demonstrate that possess the technology necessary to perform a proposed Mars sample return mission in the 2030s.

The mission's top priorities include finding life both present and ancient, assessing the planet's surface and environment. Solo and joint explorations by the Mars orbiter and rover will produce maps of the Martian surface topography, soil features, material composition, water ice, atmosphere, ionospheric field, and other scientific data will be collected. French Astrophysics and Planetology (IRAP) in Toulouse, France, provided a Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument for the mission. It is a French duplicate of another instrument found on NASA's Curiosity rover, to allow for data comparison.

Missions Canceled

• Voyager Program (Mars) of the 1970s planned two orbiters and two landers to launch in a single Saturn V rocket
• Mars Aerostat – French Russian Mission, to be launched in the 1992 launch window postponed in 1994 and cancelled in 1996.
• Mars 98, Russian Mission that included an orbiter, lander and a rover planned for the 1998 launch window
• Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander, for October 2001
• NetLander Mission 2007 to 2009, Dutch mission
• Mars Telecommunications Orbiter, September 2009 main telecommunication mission.
• Wright Flyer, a mission using a proposed planner for December 17, 2003, to commemorate the centenary of the Wright brothers' flight.

Launch windows

The minimum energy launch windows for a Martian expedition occur at intervals of approximately two years and two months (specifically 780 days, the planet's synodic period with respect to Earth). In addition, the lowest available transfer energy varies in a cycle of approximately 16 years. For example, a minimum occurred in the 1969 and 1971 launch windows, reaching a peak in the late 1970s and reaching another minimum in 1986 and 1988.ˈ

The launch windows are:^{[citation needed]}

• November-December 1996
• December 1998-January 1999
• April 2001
• August 2005
• December 2009
• February 2012

Scan timeline

Mission	Launch	Arrival at Mars	Termination	Objective	Outcome
Mars 1960A	10/10/1960		10/10/1960	Near flight	Release failure
Mars 1960B	14/10/1960		14/10/1960	Near flight	Release failure
Sputnik 22 (Mars 1962A)	24/10/1962		24/10/1962	Near flight	Destroyed after launch
Mars 1	01/11/1962		21/03/1963	Near flight	Collected little information, lost contact when arriving at Mars
Sputnik 24 (Mars 1962B)	04/11/1962		19/01/1963	Aterrizer	Failed upon leaving Earth orbit
Zond 1964A	04/06/1964		04/06/1964	Near flight	Release failure
Mariner 3	05/11/1964		05/11/1964	Near flight	Failure to launch, her trajectory put her in orbit around the sun, currently still there
Mariner 4	28/11/1964	14/07/1965	21/12/1967	Near flight	Near flight success. no more data
Zond 2	30/11/1964		05/1965	Near flight	Contact lost
Mariner 6	/01/1969	31/07/1969	08/1969	Near flight	Success
Mariner 7	27/03/1969	05/08/1969	08/1969	Near flight	Success
Mars 1969A	27/03/1969		27/03/1969	Orbiter	Failure to launch
Mars 1969B	02/04/1969		02/04/1969	Orbiter	Failure to launch
Mission (1970-1989)	Launch	Arrival at Mars	Termination	Objective	Outcome
Mariner 8	08/05/1971		08/05/1971	Orbiter	Release failure
Cosmos 419	10/05/1971		12/05/1971	Orbiter	Release failure
Mariner 9	30/05/1971	13/11/1971	27/10/1972	Orbiter	Success
Mars 2	19/05/1971	27/11/1971	22/08/1972	Orbiter	Success
			27/11/1971	Rover	Impact on the surface of Mars
Mars 3	28/05/1971	02/12/1971	22/08/1972	Orbiter	Success
			02/12/1971	Rover	He landed successfully on the surface but lost contact a few seconds later.
Mars 4	21/07/1973	10/02/1974	10/02/1974	Orbiter	He didn't enter orbit but made a near flight.
Mars 5	25/07/1973	02/02/1974	21/02/1974	Orbiter	Partial success, entered orbit, returned information and after 9 days contact was lost.
Mars 6	15/08/1973	12/03/1974	12/03/1974	Aterrizer	Partial success, information returned during the descent but contact was lost when landing.
Mars 7	09/08/1973	09/03/1974	09/03/1974	Aterrizer	The probe that would land was separated but failed to contact.
Viking 1	20/08/1975	20/07/1976	17/08/1980	Orbiter	Success
			13/11/1982	Aterrizer	Success in landing
Viking 2	09/09/1975	03/09/1976	25/07/1978	Orbiter	Success
			11/04/1980	Aterrizer	Success
Fobos 1	07/07/1988		02/09/1988	Orbiter	He lost contact on his route to Mars.
				Aterrizer	Not deployed
Fobos 2	12/07/1988	29/01/1989	27/03/1989	Orbiter	Partial success entered orbit and returned some information, lost contact after the Lander deployment.
				Aterrizer	Not deployed
Mission (1990-1999)	Launch	Arrival at Mars	Termination	Objective	Results
Mars Observer	25/09/1992	24/08/1993	21/08/1993	Orbiter	Contact was lost on arrival at Mars
Mars Global Surveyor	07/11/1996	11/09/1997	05/11/2006	Orbiter	Success
Mars 96	16/11/1996		17/11/1996	Orbiter	Fall in launch crashes in the Pacific Ocean
				Aterrizer
Mars Pathfinder	04/12/1996	04/07/1997	27/09/1997	Aterrizer	Success
				Rover
Nozomi (Planet-B)	03/07/1998		09/12/2003	Orbiter	Complication on the route to Mars, never entered orbit
Mars Climate Orbiter	11/12/1998	23/09/1999	23/09/1999	Orbiter	He crashed down due to complications of metric units
Mars Polar Lander	03/01/1999	03/12/1999	03/12/1999	Aterrizer	Contact was lost on arrival
Deep Space 2 (DS2)				Landlords
Mission (s.XXI)	Launch	Arrival at Mars	Termination	Objective	Results
Mars Odyssey	07/04/2001	24/10/2001	Currently operational	Orbiter	Success
Mars Express Orbiter	02/06/2003	25/12/2003	Currently operational	Orbiter	Success
Beagle 2			06/02/2004	Aterrizer	He lost contact while landing. He couldn't open his solar panels without energy.
Spirit	10/07/2003	04/01/2004	25/05/2011	Rover	Success
Opportunity	07/07/2003	25/01/2004	10/06/2018	Rover	Success
Rosetta (sonda)	02/03/2004	25/02/2007	30/09/2016	Near flight	Success
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter	12/08/2005	10/03/2006	Currently operational	Orbiter	Success
Phoenix	04/08/2007	25/05/2008	10/11/2008	Aterrizer	Success
Dawn	27/8/2007	17/2/2009	1/11/2018	Near flight	Success
Fobos-Grunt & Yinghuo-1 (A Fobos)	8/11/2011		8/11/2011	Aterrizer / Sample Return	Falls after the launch. The ship is orbiting the Earth and crashes days later.
				Orbiter
Curiosity	26/11/2011	06/08/2012	Currently operational	Rover	Success
Mars Orbiter Mission	05/11/2013	24/09/2014	Currently operational	Orbiter	Success
MAVEN	18/11/2013	21/09/2014	Currently operational	Orbiter	Success
ExoMars 2016	14/03/2016	19/10/2016	Currently operational	Orbiter	Success
			19/10/2016	Aterrizer	He crashed.
InSight	05/05/2018	26/11/2018	21/12/2022	Aterrizer	Partial success. The drill couldn't penetrate the surface.
Mission Hope Mars	19/07/2020	10/02/2021	Currently operational	Orbiter	Successful orbital insertion. Developing mission.
Tianwen-1	23/07/2020	11/02/2021	Currently operational	Orbiter	Successful orbital insertion. Developing mission.
				Rover	Successful yellowing. Developing mission.
Mars 2020	30/07/2020	18/02/2021	Currently operational	Rover	Successful yellowing. Developing mission.
				Flyer	Success
Future	Launch	Arrival at Mars	Termination	Objective	State
ExoMars 2022	2022			Rover	Suspended
				Aterrizer
Mars Orbiter Mission 2	2024			Orbiter	To confirm
Martian Moons Exploration (A Fobos)	2024			Aterrizer, return of samples	To confirm
Cargo Missions	2024			Ship of cargo	To confirm
Phootprint (A Fobos)	2024			Aterrizer, return of samples	To confirm
Cargo & Crew Missions	2026			Nave crew	To confirm
Sample Return Lander	2026	2028 Estimated		Lander and launcher	To confirm
				Rover	To confirm
Earth Return Orbiter	From 2026			Orbiter	To confirm
Ekspeditsia-M	From 2024			Lander and launcher	To confirm
	From 2026			Orbiter	To confirm
	From 2028			Sample return	To confirm
	2033			Mission crew	To confirm
	Decade of 2030			Mission crew	To confirm