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.
Table of Contents
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.
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