Back to where we left in the last article about Venus! Next was Mars exploration, isn’t it?

Yes, it is indeed one of the most talked about topics in the world.

Mars, Mars, and Mars expeditions!

So how long have been Earthlings tried for Mars?

If you carefully observe, our details about different Mars missions, both successful and unsuccessful ones’ date back to the time when a coordinated space mission system and division came into existence. When these consolidated systems began understanding that our future might not be very bright on Earth, given we were already exploiting it for our needs.

Solid data about attempts of being on Mars has existed since the 1960s when systemic launches began from different space stations to Mars.

There is a list of launches that were made by us to Mars.

Had all these missions & Mars explorations been successful, we would have been on Mars by now but that is not the case. There have been so many failed missions through which there was nothing that we could find out, unfortunately.

But then, Mars was built bit by bit by us, by our people, so it seems with the data that we seem to have collected over the years.

Let’s talk of the successful drives that led to where we are today.

Successful Mars Missions until 1999

Mars Mission	Findings	Endings
Mariner 4 (14th July 1965) (The US)	First pictures of Mars and its craters	Lost in space
Mariner 8 & 9 (1971) (The US)	Mars 9: Pictures of Mars that help in developing substantial understanding about the planet like Nix Olympica was found to be the highest volcanic mountain in the entire solar system	Lost in space after helping decide the presence of water on the planet before.
Mars2 (1971) Soviet	The first man made object to land on Mars	Crashlanding led to system malfunctions
Mars 3 (1971) Soviet	Malfunctioned after 14.5 secs on Mars	Sent back 60 pictures of space until 1972
Mars 4,5,6 & 7 (1973) (Soviet)	Mars 4: Detected the first nighttime ionosphere picture of Mars Mars 5: transmitted back 60 pictures Mars 6: landing data transmitted Mars 7: Did not work at all	Mars 4: lost in space Mars 5: Pressurization loss puts an end to the Mars mission Mars 6: failed to impact Mars 7: got damaged while landing on Mars
Viking 1 & 2 (1975) The US	Showed presence of microbial life on Mars	Ended as inconclusive data and program
Mars Pathfinder with rover Sojourner (1997) The US	First Martian rover to land on Mars	–
Mars Global Surveyor (1997) The US	Observations of the planet included studies, the lower altitudes, nearly polar orbit, entire Martian surface study, magnetometer readings (not globally generated magnetic core instead localized) magnetic cores), Martian Moon Phobos’s pictures	Lost contact with Earth on 5th November 2006.

Successful Mars Missions after 2000

Mars Odyssey (2001) The US	Observed a large amount of hydrogen in the atmosphere. It shows the presence of water or ice deposits, 3 meters from the Mars soil in the South Pole at a 60-degree latitude	–
Mars Express (2003) European Space Agency	Confirmed presence of water & carbon dioxide in ice form in the planet while NASA confirmed water in North pole	Malfunctioned on Martian surface
Beagle 2 (2003) ESA	First European aircraft to do a soft landing on Mars	–
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (2006) The US	Monitors Martian weatherDetects ice, water & mineralsFaster data transfer from and to the Earth’s surface
Dawn (2009) The US	Used Mar’s gravitational force to alter direction & speed en-route. Checked on Dawn’s cameras
Curiosity rover (2011) The US	Is deemed to study Mar’s habitability
MAVEN (2013) The US	It will investigate the upper atmosphere of Mars
Insight (2012)	Telemetry insight provider
Mars Orbiter Mission (2013) India	It will study the Martian atmosphere & will take up technology demonstrations on Mars
HOPE (2020) UAE	With a Japanese H-IIA booster, this machine studies the Martian atmosphere and weather
Tianwen-1 and the Zhurong rover (2020) Republic of China	Is deploying cameras on the Martian surface at strategic locations
Mars 2020 (2020) The US	Is set for a year on Mars (685 Earth days) and will study traces of ancient life on Earth

Still, a long way to go, is it, or have we already reached the end of Mars explorations and can we finally set mankind’s foot on Mars?

This is the question that needs answers in the next few years. Till then keep a close watch on this blog for every happening on Mars.