List of missions to Mars

Mission Type Legend

  Mission to Mars

  Gravity assist, destination elsewhere

Mission	Spacecraft	Launch Date	Operator	Mission Type[1]	Outcome[2]	Remarks	Carrier rocket[3]
1M No.1	1M No.1	10 October 1960	OKB-1  Soviet Union	Flyby	Launch failure	Failed to achieve Earth orbit	Molniya
1M No.2	1M No.2	14 October 1960	OKB-1  Soviet Union	Flyby	Launch failure	Failed to achieve Earth orbit	Molniya
2MV-4 No.1	2MV-4 No.1	24 October 1962	Soviet Union	Flyby	Launch failure	Booster stage ("Block L") disintegrated in LEO	Molniya
Mars 1	Mars 1 (2MV-4 No.2)	1 November 1962	Soviet Union	Flyby	Spacecraft failure	Communications lost before first flyby	Molniya
2MV-3 No.1	2MV-3 No.1	4 November 1962	Soviet Union	Lander	Launch failure	Never left LEO	Molniya
Mariner 3	Mariner 3	5 November 1964	NASA  United States	Flyby	Launch failure	Payload fairing failed to separate	Atlas LV-3 Agena-D
Mariner 4	Mariner 4	28 November 1964	NASA  United States	Flyby	Successful	First successful flyby of Mars on 15 July 1965	Atlas LV-3 Agena-D
Zond 2	Zond 2 (3MV-4A No.2)	30 November 1964	Soviet Union	Flyby	Spacecraft failure	Communications lost before flyby	Molniya
Mariner 6	Mariner 6	25 February 1969	NASA  United States	Flyby	Successful		Atlas SLV-3C Centaur-D
2M No.521	2M No.521 (1969A)[4]	27 March 1969	Soviet Union	Orbiter	Launch failure	Failed to achieve Earth orbit	Proton-K/D
Mariner 7	Mariner 7	27 March 1969	NASA  United States	Flyby	Successful		Atlas SLV-3C Centaur-D
2M No.522	2M No.522 (1969B)[4]	2 April 1969	Soviet Union	Orbiter	Launch failure	Failed to achieve Earth orbit	Proton-K/D
Mariner 8	Mariner 8	9 May 1971	NASA  United States	Orbiter	Launch failure	Failed to achieve Earth orbit	Atlas SLV-3C Centaur-D
Kosmos 419	Kosmos 419 (3MS No.170)	10 May 1971	Soviet Union	Orbiter	Launch failure	Never left LEO; booster stage burn timer set incorrectly	Proton-K/D
Mars 2	Mars 2 (4M No.171)	19 May 1971	Soviet Union	Orbiter	Successful	On November 27 it became in short sequence the second spacecraft to orbit another planet.[5] Operated for 362 orbits[6]	Proton-K/D
	Mars 2 lander (SA 4M No.171)			Lander	Spacecraft failure	First lander to impact Mars. Deployed from Mars 2, failed to land during attempt on 27 November 1971.[7]
	Prop-M			Rover	Failure Lost with Mars 2	First rover to impact Mars. Lost when the Mars 2 lander crashed into the surface of Mars.
Mars 3	Mars 3 (4M No.172)	28 May 1971	Soviet Union	Orbiter	Successful	On December 2 it became in short sequence the third spacecraft to orbit another planet.[5] Operated for 20 orbits[8][9]	Proton-K/D
	Mars 3 lander (SA 4M No.172)			Lander	Partial success[10][11]	First lander to make a soft landing on Mars. Landed on 2 December 1971. First partial image (70 lines) transmitted showing "gray background with no details".[8] Contact lost 20 seconds after transmission started, 110 seconds after landing.[12][13]
	Prop-M			Rover	Carrier vehicle failed before rover was deployed	First rover to make a soft landing on another planet. 4.5 kg (9.9 lb) rover connected to the Mars 3 lander by a tether. Deployment status unknown due to loss of communications with the Mars 3 lander.[12]
Mariner 9	Mariner 9	30 May 1971	NASA  United States	Orbiter	Successful[14]	First spacecraft to orbit another planet, two weeks ahead of Mars 2 on November 14.[5] Deactivated 516 days after entering orbit.	Atlas SLV-3C Centaur-D
Mars 4	Mars 4 (3MS No.52S)	21 July 1973	Soviet Union	Orbiter	Partial success[15]	Failed to perform orbital insertion burn. Returned photographs of Mars during flyby.	Proton-K/D
Mars 5	Mars 5 (3MS No.53S)	25 July 1973	Soviet Union	Orbiter	Successful	Contact lost after 9 days in Mars orbit. Returned 180 frames	Proton-K/D
Mars 6	Mars 6 (3MP No.50P)	5 August 1973	Soviet Union	Flyby	Successful	Flyby bus collected data.[16]	Proton-K/D
	Mars 6 lander			Lander	Spacecraft failure	Contact lost upon landing, atmospheric data mostly unusable.
Mars 7	Mars 7 (3MP No.51P)	9 August 1973	Soviet Union	Flyby	Successful	Flyby bus collected data.	Proton-K/D
	Mars 7 lander			Lander	Spacecraft failure	Separated from coast stage prematurely, failed to enter Martian atmosphere.
Viking 1	Viking 1 orbiter	20 August 1975	NASA  United States	Orbiter	Successful	Operated for 1385 orbits. Entered Mars orbit on 19 June 1976.	Titan IIIE Centaur-D1T
	Viking 1 lander			Lander	Successful	First successful Mars lander. Deployed from Viking 1 orbiter. Landed on Mars on 20 July 1976. Operated for 2245 sols.
Viking 2	Viking 2 orbiter	9 September 1975	NASA  United States	Orbiter	Successful	Operated for 700 orbits. Entered Mars orbit on 7 August 1976.	Titan IIIE Centaur-D1T
	Viking 2 lander			Lander	Successful	Deployed from Viking 2 orbiter. Landed on Mars on September 1976. Operated for 1281 sols (11 April 1980).
Phobos 1	Phobos 1 (1F No.101)	7 July 1988	Soviet Union	Orbiter	Spacecraft failure	Communications lost before reaching Mars; failed to enter orbit	Proton-K/D-2
	DAS			Phobos lander	Failure Lost with Phobos 1	To have been deployed by Phobos 1
Phobos 2	Phobos 2 (1F No.102)	12 July 1988	Soviet Union	Orbiter	Mostly successful	Orbital observations successful, communications lost before lander deployment.	Proton-K/D-2
	Prop-F			Phobos rover	Failure Lost with Phobos 2	To have been deployed by Phobos 2
	DAS			Phobos lander	Failure Lost with Phobos 2	To have been deployed by Phobos 2
Mars Observer	Mars Observer	25 September 1992	NASA  United States	Orbiter	Spacecraft failure	Lost communications before orbital insertion	Commercial Titan III
Mars Global Surveyor	Mars Global Surveyor	7 November 1996	NASA  United States	Orbiter	Successful	Operated for ten years	Delta II 7925
Mars 96	Mars 96 (M1 No.520) (Mars-8)[4]	16 November 1996	Rosaviakosmos  Russia	Orbiter Penetrators	Spacecraft failure	Never left LEO	Proton-K/D-2
	Mars 96 lander			Lander	Failure Lost with Mars 96	Two Mars landers to have been deployed by Mars 96.
	Mars 96 lander			Lander	Failure Lost with Mars 96
	Mars 96 penetrator			Penetrator	Failure Lost with Mars 96	Two Mars Penetrators to have been deployed by Mars 96.
	Mars 96 penetrator			Penetrator	Failure Lost with Mars 96
Mars Pathfinder	Mars Pathfinder	4 December 1996	NASA  United States	Lander	Successful	Landed at 19.13°N 33.22°W on 4 July 1997,[17] Last contact on 27 September 1997	Delta II 7925
	Sojourner			Rover	Successful	First rover to operate on another planet. Operated for 84 days[18]
Nozomi	Nozomi (PLANET-B)	3 July 1998	ISAS  Japan	Orbiter	Spacecraft failure	Performed a Mars flyby. Later contact lost due to loss of fuel.	M-V
Mars Climate Orbiter	Mars Climate Orbiter	11 December 1998	NASA  United States	Orbiter	Spacecraft failure	Approached Mars too closely during orbit insertion attempt due to a software interface bug involving different units for impulse and either burned up in the atmosphere or entered solar orbit	Delta II 7425
Mars Polar Lander / Deep Space 2	Mars Polar Lander	3 January 1999	NASA  United States	Lander	Spacecraft failure	Failed to function after landing	Delta II 7425
	Deep Space 2			Penetrator	Spacecraft failure	No data transmitted after deployment from MPL.
	Deep Space 2			Penetrator	Spacecraft failure
Mars Odyssey	Mars Odyssey	7 April 2001	NASA  United States	Orbiter	Operational	Expected to remain operational until 2025.	Delta II 7925
Mars Express	Mars Express	2 June 2003	ESA	Orbiter	Operational	Enough fuel to remain operational until 2035	Soyuz-FG / Fregat
	Beagle 2		ESA  United Kingdom	Lander	Lander failure	No communications received after release from Mars Express. Orbital images of landing site suggest a successful landing, but two solar panels failed to deploy, obstructing its communications.
Spirit	Spirit (MER-A)	10 June 2003	NASA  United States	Rover	Successful	Landed on 4 January 2004. Operated for 2208 sols	Delta II 7925
Opportunity	Opportunity (MER-B)	8 July 2003	NASA  United States	Rover	Successful	Landed on 25 January 2004. Operated for 5351 sols	Delta II 7925H
Rosetta	Rosetta	2 March 2004	ESA	Flyby (Gravity assist)	Successful	Flyby in February 2007 en route to 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko[19]	Ariane 5G+
	Philae			Flyby (Gravity assist)	Successful
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter	Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter	12 August 2005	NASA  United States	Orbiter	Operational	Entered orbit on 10 March 2006	Atlas V 401
Phoenix	Phoenix	4 August 2007	NASA  United States	Lander	Successful	Landed on 25 May 2008. End of mission 2 November 2008	Delta II 7925
Dawn	Dawn	27 September 2007	NASA  United States	Flyby (Gravity assist)	Successful	Flyby in February 2009 en route to 4 Vesta and Ceres	Delta II 7925H
Fobos-Grunt / Yinghuo-1	Fobos-Grunt	8 November 2011	Roskosmos  Russia	Orbiter Phobos sample return	Spacecraft failure	Never left LEO (intended to depart under own power)	Zenit-2M
	Yinghuo-1		CNSA  China	Orbiter	Failure Lost with Fobos-Grunt	To have been deployed by Fobos-Grunt
Mars Science Laboratory	Curiosity (Mars Science Laboratory)	26 November 2011	NASA  United States	Rover	Operational	Landed on 6 August 2012	Atlas V 541
Mars Orbiter Mission	Mars Orbiter Mission	5 November 2013	ISRO  India	Orbiter	Successful	Entered orbit on 24 September 2014. Mission extended to 2022, where the mission concluded on September 27, 2022 after contact was lost.[20]	PSLV-XL
MAVEN	MAVEN	18 November 2013	NASA  United States	Orbiter	Operational	Orbit insertion on 22 September 2014[21]	Atlas V 401
ExoMars 2016	ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter	14 March 2016	ESA/Roscosmos ESA/ Russia	Orbiter	Operational	Entered orbit on 19 October 2016	Proton-M / Briz-M
	Schiaparelli EDM lander		ESA	Lander	Spacecraft failure	Carried by the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. Although the lander crashed,[22][23] engineering data on the first five minutes of entry was successfully retrieved.[24][25]
InSight	InSight	5 May 2018[26][27]	NASA  United States	Lander	Successful	Landed on 26 November 2018. Last contact 15 December 2022.[28]	Atlas V 401
	MarCO A			Flyby	Successful	Flyby 26 November 2018. Last contact 29 December 2018.
	MarCO B			Flyby	Successful	Flyby 26 November 2018. Last contact 4 January 2019.
Emirates Mars Mission	Hope	19 July 2020[29]	MBRSC  United Arab Emirates	Orbiter	Operational	Entered orbit on 9 February 2021.[30][31][32]	H-IIA
Tianwen-1	Tianwen-1 orbiter	23 July 2020[33][34]	CNSA  China	Orbiter	Operational	Entered orbit on 10 February 2021	Long March 5
	Tianwen-1 lander			Lander	Successful	Landed on 14 May 2021
	Zhurong rover			Rover	Operational	Landed on 14 May 2021[35] Deployed by the Tianwen-1 lander on 22 May 2021.
	Tianwen-1 Remote Camera			Lander	Successful	Landed on 14 May 2021 Deployed by the Zhurong rover on 1 June 2021.[36]
	Tianwen-1 Deployable Camera 2[37]			Orbiter	Successful	Entered orbit on 10 February 2021, deployed 31 December 2021
Mars 2020	Perseverance	30 July 2020[38]	NASA  United States	Rover	Operational	Landed on 18 February 2021[39]	Atlas V 541
	Ingenuity			Helicopter	Operational	First aerodynamic flight on another planet. Landed with Perseverance rover on 18 February 2021.[40] Deployed from rover on 3 April 2021. First flight achieved on April 19, 2021.[41]
Psyche	Psyche	13 October 2023	NASA  United States	Flyby (Gravity assist)	Enroute	Gravity assist en route to 16 Psyche in May 2026[42]	Falcon Heavy

Interactive image map of the global topography of Mars, overlaid with the position of Martian rovers and landers. Coloring of the base map indicates relative elevations of Martian surface.

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Clickable image: Clicking on the labels will open a new article.

Legend:   Active (white lined, ※) •   Inactive •   Planned (dash lined, ⁂)

(view • discuss)

Beagle 2

Curiosity ※

Deep Space 2

Rosalind Franklin ⁂

InSight

Mars 2

Mars 3

Mars 6

Mars Polar Lander ↓

Opportunity

Perseverance ※

Phoenix

Schiaparelli EDM

Sojourner

Spirit

Zhurong

Viking 1

Viking 2

Mars landing sites (16 December 2020)

In 1999, Mars Climate Orbiter accidentally entered Mars' atmosphere and either burnt up or left Mars' orbit on an unknown trajectory.

There are a number of derelict spacecraft orbiting Mars whose location is not known precisely. There is a proposal to use the Optical Navigation Camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to search for small moons, dust rings and old orbiters.[43] As of 2016, there were believed to be eight derelict spacecraft in orbit around Mars (barring unforeseen event).[44] The Viking 1 orbiter was not expected to decay until at least 2019.[45] Mariner 9, which entered Mars orbit in 1971, was expected to remain in orbit until approximately 2022, when it was projected to enter the Martian atmosphere and either burn up, or crash into the planet's surface.[46]

Timeline

Phobos' Stickney Crater

Deimos (lower left) and Phobos (lower right) compared with the asteroid 951 Gaspra

Phobos by Mars Global Surveyor in 1998[47]

There have also have been proposed missions dedicated to explore the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos. Many missions to Mars have also included dedicated observations of the moons, while this section is about missions focused solely on them. There have been three unsuccessful dedicated missions and many proposals. Because of the proximity of the Mars moons to Mars, any mission to them may also be considered a mission to Mars from some perspectives.

There have been at least three proposals in the United States Discovery Program, including PADME, PANDORA, and MERLIN.[48] The ESA has also considered a sample return mission, one of the latest known as Martian Moon Sample Return or MMSR, and it may use heritage from an asteroid sample return mission.[49]

In Japan, the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) is developing a sample return mission to Phobos,[66][67] due to launch in 2024. This mission is called Martian Moons Exploration (MMX)[68] and is proposed as a flagship Strategic Large Mission.[69] MMX will build on the expertise the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) would gain through the Hayabusa2 and SLIM missions.[70] As of January 2018, MMX is set for launch in September 2024.[71]

Three missions to land on Phobos have been launched; the Phobos program in the late 1980s saw the launch of Fobos 1 and Fobos 2, while the Fobos-Grunt sample return mission was launched in 2011. None of these missions were successful: Fobos 1 failed en route to Mars, Fobos 2 failed shortly before landing, and Fobos-Grunt never left low Earth orbit.

Missions sent to the Martian system have returned data on Phobos and Deimos and missions specifically dedicated to the moons are a subset of missions Mars that often include dedicated goals to acquire data about these moons. An example of this is the imaging campaigns by Mars Express of the Mars moons.

Osiris-Rex 2 was a proposal to make OR a double mission, with the other one collecting samples from the two Mars moons.[72] In 2012, it was stated that this mission would be both the quickest and least expensive way to get samples from the Moons.[57]

The 'Red Rocks Project,' a part of Lockheed Martin's "Stepping Stones to Mars" program, proposed to explore Mars robotically from Deimos.[73][74]