List of missions to Mars.

Mars and its moons have been a target for many spacecraft, with flyby, orbiter, lander and rover missions visiting the planet. In addition, two spacecraft, Rosetta and Dawn, have made flybys to get gravity assists for other missions; the former en route to comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, and the latter en route to asteroid 4 Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres. Three missions were dedicated to Phobos, but they did not achieve their goals.

Missions:~

Spacecraft	Launch date	Operator	Mission	Outcome	Remarks	Carrier rocket
1M No.1	10 October 1960	OKB-1 Soviet Union	Flyby	Launch failure	Failed to orbit	Molniya
1M No.2	14 October 1960	OKB-1 Soviet Union	Flyby	Launch failure	Failed to orbit	Molniya
2MV-4 No.1	24 October 1962	Soviet Union	Flyby	Launch failure	Booster stage ("Block L") disintegrated in LEO	Molniya
Mars 1 (2MV-4 No.2)	1 November 1962	Soviet Union	Flyby	Spacecraft failure	Communications lost before flyby	Molniya
2MV-3 No.1	4 November 1962	Soviet Union	Lander	Launch failure	Never left LEO	Molniya
Mariner 3	5 November 1964	NASA United States	Flyby	Launch failure	Payload fairing failed to separate	Atlas LV-3 Agena-D
Mariner 4	28 November 1964	NASA United States	Flyby	Successful	Closest approach at 01:00:57 UTC on 15 July 1965	Atlas LV-3 Agena-D
Zond 2 (3MV-4A No.2)	30 November 1964	Soviet Union	Flyby	Spacecraft failure	Communications lost before flyby	Molniya
Mariner 6	25 February 1969	NASA United States	Flyby	Successful		Atlas SLV-3C Centaur-D
2M No.521	27 March 1969	Soviet Union	Orbiter	Launch failure	Failed to orbit	Proton-K/D
Mariner 7	27 March 1969	NASA United States	Flyby	Successful		Atlas SLV-3C Centaur-D
2M No.522	2 April 1969	Soviet Union	Orbiter	Launch failure	Failed to orbit	Proton-K/D
Mariner 8	9 May 1971	NASA United States	Orbiter	Launch failure	Failed to orbit	Atlas SLV-3C Centaur-D
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
Mariner 9	30 May 1971	NASA United States	Orbiter	Successful	Entered orbit on 14 November 1971, deactivated 516 days after entering orbit	Atlas SLV-3C Centaur-D
Mars 2 (4M No.171)	19 May 1971	Soviet Union	Orbiter	Mostly successful	Entered orbit 27 November 1971, operated for 362 orbits. Mapping operations unsuccessful due to dust storms on the surface	Proton-K/D
Mars 2 lander (SA 4M No.171)	19 May 1971	Soviet Union	Lander	Spacecraft failure	Deployed from Mars 2, failed to land during attempt on 27 November 1971	Proton-K/D
Mars 3 (4M No.172)	28 May 1971	Soviet Union	Orbiter	Mostly successful	Entered orbit 2 December 1971, operated for 20 orbits. Mapping operations unsuccessful due to dust storms on the surface	Proton-K/D
Mars 3 lander (SA 4M No.172)	28 May 1971	Soviet Union	Lander	Partial failure	Deployed from Mars 3; landed at 13:52 UTC on 2 December 1971; contact lost 14.5 seconds after transmission start	Proton-K/D
Prop-M Rover rover (SA 4M No.172)	28 May 1971	Soviet Union	Rover	Spacecraft failure	Failed to deploy	Proton-K/D
Mars 4 (3MS No.52S)	21 July 1973	Soviet Union	Orbiter	Spacecraft failure	Failed to perform orbital insertion burn	Proton-K/D
Mars 5 (3MS No.53S)	25 July 1973	Soviet Union	Orbiter	Partial failure	Failed after 9 days in Mars orbit; returned 180 frames	Proton-K/D
Mars 6 (3MP No.50P)	5 August 1973	Soviet Union	Lander Flyby	Spacecraft failure	Contact lost upon landing, atmospheric data mostly unreadable. Flyby bus collected data.	Proton-K/D
Mars 7 (3MP No.51P)	9 August 1973	Soviet Union	Lander Flyby	Spacecraft failure	Separated from coast stage prematurely, failed to enter Martian atmosphere	Proton-K/D
Viking 1 orbiter	20 August 1975	NASA United States	Orbiter	Successful	Operated for 1385 orbits	Titan IIIE Centaur-D1T
Viking 1 lander	20 August 1975	NASA United States	Lander	Successful	Deployed from Viking 1 orbiter, operated for 2245 sols	Titan IIIE Centaur-D1T
Viking 2 orbiter	9 September 1975	NASA United States	Orbiter	Successful	Operated for 700 orbits	Titan IIIE Centaur-D1T
Viking 2 lander	9 September 1975	NASA United States	Lander	Successful	Deployed from Viking 2 orbiter, operated for 1281 sols	Titan IIIE Centaur-D1T
Fobos 1 (1F No.101)	7 July 1988	Soviet Union	Orbiter Phobos lander	Spacecraft failure	Communications lost before reaching Mars; failed to enter orbit	Proton-K/D-2
Fobos 2 (1F No.102)	12 July 1988	Soviet Union	Orbiter Phobos lander	Partial failure	Orbital observations successful, communications lost before landing	Proton-K/D-2
Mars Observer	25 September 1992	NASA United States	Orbiter	Spacecraft failure	Lost communications before orbital insertion	Commercial Titan III
Mars Global Surveyor	7 November 1996	NASA United States	Orbiter	Successful	Operated for seven years	Delta II 7925
Mars 96 (M1 No.520)	16 November 1996	Rosaviakosmos Russia	Orbiter Penetrators	Launch failure	Never left LEO	Proton-K/D-2
Mars Pathfinder	4 December 1996	NASA United States	Lander	Successful	Landed at 19.13°N 33.22°W on 4 July 1997	Delta II 7925
Sojourner	4 December 1996	NASA United States	Rover	Successful	Operated for 84 days	Delta II 7925
Nozomi (PLANET-B)	3 July 1998	ISAS Japan	Orbiter	Spacecraft failure	Ran out of fuel before reaching Mars	M-V
Mars Climate Orbiter	11 December 1998	NASA United States	Orbiter	Spacecraft failure	Approached Mars too closely during orbit insertion attempt due to unit conversion error and burned up in the atmosphere	Delta II 7425
Mars Polar Lander	3 January 1999	NASA United States	Lander	Spacecraft failure	Failed to land	Delta II 7425
Deep Space 2	3 January 1999	NASA United States	Penetrators	Spacecraft failure	Deployed from MPL, no data returned	Delta II 7425
Mars Odyssey	7 April 2001	NASA United States	Orbiter	Operational	Expected to remain operational until 2025.	Delta II 7925
Mars Express	2 June 2003	ESA Europe	Orbiter	Operational	Enough fuel to remain operational until 2026.	Soyuz-FG/Fregat
Beagle 2	2 June 2003	ESA Europe	Lander	Lander failure	Deployed from Mars Express. Successful landing, but two solar panels failed to deploy, obstructing its communications.	Soyuz-FG/Fregat
Spirit (MER-A)	10 June 2003	NASA United States	Rover	Successful	operated for 2208 sols	Delta II 7925
Opportunity (MER-B)	8 July 2003	NASA United States	Rover	Operational		Delta II 7925H
Rosetta	2 March 2004	ESA Europe	Gravity assist	Successful	Flyby in February 2007 en route to 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko	Ariane 5G+
MRO	12 August 2005	NASA United States	Orbiter	Operational		Atlas V 401
Phoenix	4 August 2007	NASA United States	Lander	Successful		Delta II 7925
Dawn	27 September 2007	NASA United States	Gravity assist	Successful	Flyby in February 2009 en route to 4 Vesta and Ceres	Delta II 7925H
Fobos-Grunt	8 November 2011	Roskosmos Russia	Orbiter Phobos sample	Spacecraft failure	Never left LEO (intended to depart under own power)	Zenit-2M
Yinghuo-1	8 November 2011	CNSA PR China	Orbiter	Failure Lost with Fobos-Grunt	To have been deployed by Fobos-Grunt	Zenit-2M
Curiosity (Mars Science Laboratory)	26 November 2011	NASA United States	Rover	Operational		Atlas V 541
Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan)	5 November 2013	ISRO India	Orbiter	Operational	Entered Mars orbit on 24 September 2014. Mission extended by six months.	PSLV-XL
MAVEN	18 November 2013	NASA United States	Orbiter	Operational	Orbit insertion on September 22, 2014	Atlas V 401
ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter	14 March 2016	ESA/Roscosmos Europe/Russia	Orbiter	Operational		Proton-M/Briz-M
Schiaparelli EDM lander	14 March 2016	ESA Europe	Lander	Partial failure	Carried by the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. Lander crashed, but test declared successful.	Proton-M/Briz-M

Locations of selected Mars landers and rovers:~

Interactive imagemap of the global topography of Mars, overlain with locations of Mars landers and rovers (Red label = Rover; Blue label = Lander; bold red/blue = currently active). Hover your mouse to see the names of over 25 prominent geographic features, and click to link to them. Coloring of the base map indicates relative elevations, based on data from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor. Reds and pinks are higher elevation (+3 km to +8 km); yellow is 0 km; greens and blues are lower elevation (down to −8 km). Whites (>+12 km) and browns (>+8 km) are the highest elevations. Axes are latitude and longitude; Poles are not shown.

 

There is a number of derelict orbiters around Mars whose location is not known precisely;there is a proposal to search for small moons, dust rings, and old orbiters with the Optical Navigation Camera on Mars Recon. Orbiter. There should be 8 derelict Mars orbiters barring unforeseen events if they have not decayed as of 2016. One example is Mariner 9, which entered Mars orbit in 1971 and is expected to remain in orbit until approximately 2022, when the spacecraft is projected to enter the Martian atmosphere and either burn up or crash into the planet's surface. The Viking 1 orbiter is predicted not to decay until at least 2019. One orbiter that is confirmed to have undergone Mars atmospheric entry is Mars Climate Orbiter

Future missions.

In development:~

Mission	Launch	Notes	Country or Space Agency
InSight	May 5, 2018	Lander	NASA
Red Dragon	2018	Lander	SpaceX, USA
Mangalyaan 2	2020	Orbiter. Optional: lander, rover.	Indian Space Research Organisation
Emirates Mars Mission	July 2020	Orbiter	United Arab Emirates
Mars 2020	July 2020	Rover	NASA
ExoMars Rover	July 2020	Rover	ESA
2020 Chinese Mars Mission	2020	Orbiter, lander, rover	China National Space Administration

Proposals:~

Mission	Launch	Notes	Country or Space Agency
NASA 2022 orbiter	2022	Telecomm orbiter	NASA
	2024	Crewed mission to Mars	SpaceX, USA
Mars to Stay		Settlement	United States
	2040-2060	Crewed phase of the Chinese Mars exploration program	China National Space Administration
	2040-2045	Crewed phase of the Russian Mars exploration program	Roscosmos

Missions to the moons of Mars.

Phobos' stickney crater

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

Phobos by Mars Global Surveyor in 1998

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. 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.



In Japan, the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) is assessing a sample return mission to Phobos. This mission is called MMX (Martian Moons Explorer) and is proposed as a flagship Strategic Large Mission. If funded, MMX will build on the expertise the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) would gain through the Hayabusa 2 and SLIM missions. As of January 2016, MMX is under review by JAXA, and is proposed to be launched in 2022.

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.

The 'Red Rocks Project', a part of Lockheed Martin's "Stepping stones to Mars" program, proposed to explore Mars robotically from Deimos.