| * Past Missions * |
Launch
Date |
Nation
of
Origin |
Mission
Name |
Mars
Arrival
Date |
Mission Goal - Outcome |
| 10/10/1960 |
USSR |
1960A |
- |
Unannounced mission that resulted in a launch failure. The launch was timed to coincide with
Krushchev's visit to the United Nations. |
| 10/14/1960 |
USSR |
1960B |
- |
Same outcome as 1960A mission. |
| 10/24/1962 |
USSR |
1962A |
- |
Reached Earth orbit but failed to reach Mars transfer orbit. |
| 11/01/1962 |
USSR |
Mars 1 |
- |
A fly-by mission. Communications with the probe were lost on 03/21/1963 after it had
travelled some 104.6 million kilometers towards Mars. It passed within 193,100 kilometers
of Mars on 06/19/1969. |
| 11/04/1962 |
USSR |
1962B |
- |
Reached Earth orbit but failed to reach Mars transfer orbit. |
| 11/05/1964 |
US |
Mariner 3 |
- |
The shroud for this fly-by mission failed on launch and the probe wound up in a solar orbit. |
| 11/28/1964 |
US |
Mariner 4 |
07/14/1965 |
This first successful flyby of Mars returned 22 pictures of Mars while passing
9845 kilometers above the planet's surface. The most important finding of the mission
was that the atmospheric pressure was between 4 and 7 mbar, based on data from the
radio-occultation experiment. Contact with the probe was lost on 12/20/1967. |
| 11/30/1964 |
USSR |
Zond 2 |
- |
Contact lost with this fly-by mission when its batteries failed on 05/05/1965.
It passed within 1500 kilometers of Mars on 08/06/1965. |
| 07/18/1965 |
USSR |
Zond 3 |
- |
Used to test communications systems out to Mars' orbital distance. |
| 02/25/1969 |
US |
Mariner 6 |
07/31/1969 |
Flew by the Martian equator at a distance of 3,410 kilometers and returned 75
pictures of the Martian surface. |
| 03/27/1969 |
US |
Mariner 7 |
08/05/1969 |
This flyby mission passed Mars at 3,525 kilometers and returned 126 pictures of
the Martian surface. |
| 03/27/1969 |
USSR |
1969A |
- |
An unannounced mission that failed on launch. |
| 04/14/1969 |
USSR |
1969B |
- |
An unannounced mission that failed on launch. |
| 05/08/1971 |
US |
Mariner 8 |
- |
Wound up in the ocean as a result of a launch failure. |
| 05/10/1971 |
USSR |
Cosmos 419 |
- |
Reached Earth orbit but failed to reach Mars transfer orbit. If successful, this
would have been the first Mars orbiting mission. |
| 05/19/1971 |
USSR |
Mars 2 |
11/27/1971 |
The orbiter was successful and returned data through March 1972. However, no useful
pictures were taken as Mars was in the midst of a global dust storm and the orbiter's
picture taking sequence had been preprogrammed. Its other data was of poor quality.
The lander failed before its touchdown near 44° South, 313° West on 11/27/1971 |
| 05/28/1971 |
USSR |
Mars 3 |
12/02/1971 |
The orbiter was successful, but the lander, which touched down on 12/02/1971 at
45° South, 158° West, only worked for 20 seconds and returned no data.
The orbiter took no useful pictures as Mars was in the midst of a global dust storm
and the orbiter's picture taking sequence had been preprogrammed. |
| 05/30/1971 |
US |
Mariner 9 |
11/14/1971 |
An orbiter that mapped the surface and imaged Phobos and Deimos. Because it was not
preprogrammed ad the Mars 2 and Mars 3 orbiters were, it was able to wait out the dust
storm. It took 7329 pictures and returned other vital data on the Mars. It also provided
the first detailed pictures of the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos. Valles Marineris was
named in honor of the Mariner 9 orbiter, which returned data until 10/27/1972. |
| 07/21/1973 |
USSR |
Mars 4 |
02/10/1974 |
An orbiter mission that turned into a flyby mission when the retrorockets failed to fire.
The probe passed Mars at a distance of 2200 kilometers and returned a number of pictures. |
| 07/25/1973 |
USSR |
Mars 5 |
02/12/1974 |
A fully successful orbiter mission that carried a variety of instruments to study
Mars and returned 70 photographs over a nine day period. |
| 08/05/1973 |
USSR |
Mars 6 |
03/12/1974 |
A lander mission in which contact was lost with the lander as it was
descending to the surface. Some useful atmospheric data was returned during the descent |
| 08/09/1973 |
USSR |
Mars 7 |
03/09/1974 |
The craft arrived at Mars but a retrorocket that didn't fire resulted in the
lander missing the planet by 1300 kilometers. |
| 08/20/1975 |
US |
Viking 1 |
06/19/1976 |
Orbiter/lander mission. The orbiter imaged the surface as well as collecting UV
and IR data. The Orbiter shutdown 08/07/1980. The lander touched down on 07/20/1976 in
Chryse Planitia. The lander was more successful than expected returning vital data
about Mars until its last communications on 11/13/1982. |
| 09/09/1975 |
US |
Viking 2 |
08/07/1976 |
Orbiter/lander the same as Viking 1. The orbiter worked until shutdown on 07/25/1978.
The lander touched down on 09/03/1976 in Utopia Planitia and worked until it was turned
off on 04/11/1980. The Viking 1 and 2 orbiters and landers returned more than 50,000 pictures. |
| 07/07/1988 |
USSR |
Phobos 1 |
- |
An combination orbiter and lander destined for the moon Phobos, a wrong command
sent to the craft in September 1988 after it had travelled 19 million kilometers
resulted in its shutting down. |
| 07/12/1988 |
USSR |
Phobos 2 |
01/29/1989 |
A combination orbiter and lander destined for the moon Phobos, the craft arrived
at Mars and returned data until contact was lost on 03/27/1989 prior to releasing its
lander. |
| 09/25/1992 |
US |
Mars Observer |
- |
The orbiter mission was lost as it was going into Mars orbit on 08/21/1993. |
| 11/16/1996 |
USSR/
Intr'ntl |
Mars 96 |
- |
This orbiter mission, featuring an unprecedented level of international cooperation,
was lost shortly after launch. The space craft reentered over the Pacific and parts of
South America. |
| 12/04/1996 |
US |
Mars Pathfinder |
07/04/1997 |
This lander mission featured the first rover, Sojourner, to explore Mars. |
| 12/11/1998 |
US |
Mars Climate Orbiter |
09/23/1999 |
Also known as the Mars Surveyor 98 Orbiter, this orbiter mission was entering Mars orbit but crashed to the surface as a result of
a misunderstanding over English vs Metric units. It's definitely time that the US abandon the archaic English system and go metric. The primary mission was to study the martian climate. The orbiter was also to serve as a radio relay for the Mars Polar Lander mission. |
| 01/03/1999 |
US |
Mars Surveyor '98
Polar Lander |
12/03/1999 |
Contact with this lander mission, which was to study surface chemistry, topology, mineralogy, and meteorology, was lost as it was about to enter the martian atmosphere on its way to the martian surface near the south pole. No definitive answer as to what happened to the mission is available The spacecraft also carried, and was to deploy, two microprobes named Deep Space 2. |
| 01/03/1999 |
US |
New Millenium Deep Space 2 |
12/03/1999 |
This mission consisted of two surface penetrators that were carried to Mars aboard the Mars Surveyor '98 Polar Lander mission. They were to impact and penetrate the surface of Mars in the area of layered terrain that surrounds the south pole. No contact was ever established with either probe. See the entry for Mars Surveyor '98 Polar Lander. |
