Destination Mars: A timeline of Red Planet landings

Sky Crane in aerial ballet mode at some level of the descent of NASA’s Curiosity rover to the Martian surface.

(Portray: © NASA/JPL-Caltech)

NASA’s latest Mars rover is set to construct a landing as the company starts a protracted quest to raise the predominant Red Planet samples abet to Earth.

The Perseverance rover, carrying the Ingenuity helicopter for testing flight on Mars, is scheduled to contact down on Feb. 18. The rover’s entry, descent and landing is similar to the Curiosity rover’s “seven minutes of apprehension” in 2012, which contains a rocket powered sky crane to lower the rover to the surface.

The fresh rover follows a protracted heritage of landers, rovers and totally different craft that dangle tried to to find the Red Planet.

Linked: Mars explored: landers and rovers since 1971 (infographic)

That is a ogle on the full earlier missions that dangle tried to land on Mars:

Mars 2: (FAILED) USSR, launched Also can 19, 1971. The Mars orbiter and lander arrived on Nov. 2, 1971, however returned no helpful records, and the lander burned up attributable to steep entry.

Mars 3: (FAILED) USSR, launched Also can 28, 1971. The Mars orbiter and lander arrived on Dec. 3, 1971. The lander operated on the surface of Mars for 20 seconds before failing.

Mars 6: (FAILED) USSR, launched Aug. 5, 1973. The Mars flyby module and lander arrived on March 3, 1974 however the lander failed attributable to a instant affect.

Mars 7: (FAILED) USSR, launched Aug. 9, 1973. The Mars flyby module and lander arrived on March 3, 1974 however the lander overlooked the planet.

Viking 1: U.S., launched Aug. 20, 1975. The Mars orbiter operated from June 1976 to 1980 and the lander operated from July 1976 to 1982.

Viking 2: U.S., launched Sept. 9, 1975. The Mars orbiter operated from Aug. 1976 to 1987, and the lander operated from Sept. 3, 1976 to 1980. Mixed, the Viking orbiters and landers returned bigger than 50,000 photos.

Phobos 1: (FAILED) USSR, launched July 7, 1988. The Mars orbiter and Phobos lander were misplaced in Aug. 1988 en route to Mars. 

Phobos 2: (FAILED) USSR, launched July 12, 1988. The Mars orbiter and Phobos lander were misplaced in March 1989 end to the Martian moon Phobos.

Mars 96: (FAILED) Russia, launched Nov. 16, 1996. The orbiter, two landers and two penetrators were misplaced after the rocket failed.

Mars Pathfinder: U.S., launched Dec. 4, 1996. The Mars lander and rover, known as Sojourner, landed on July 4, 1997 and communicated with ground groups final on Sept. 27, 1997.

Mars Polar Lander/Deep Home 2: (FAILED) U.S., launched Jan. 3, 1999. The lander and two penetrators were misplaced on arrival in December 1999.

Beagle 2: (FAILED) European Home Company, launched June 2, 2003. Beagle 2 launched on ESA’s Mars Particular orbiter, which complet­ed its top mission in November 2005 and is currently on an extended mission. The Beagle 2 lander, however, used to be misplaced on arrival on Dec. 25, 2003.

Mars Exploration Rover Spirit: U.S., launched June 10, 2003. The Mars rover landed on the Red Planet on Jan. 4, 2004 for 3-month mission to see for signs of past water process on Mars, and came all the contrivance by intensive evidence over decades. Ground controllers misplaced communication with Spirit in March 2010, and repeated makes an strive to evoke the rover failed. The rover a ways outlived its supposed guarantee, and is belief of a success. NASA declared Spirit tiresome in Also can 2011.

Mars Exploration Rover Different: U.S., launched July 7, 2003. The Mars rover landed on Jan. 25, 2004 for a 3-month top mission within the Meridiani Planum self-discipline. The rover has logged bigger than 20 miles on the Red Planet and used to be in the end felled by an absence of energy attributable to a spacious sandstorm on Mars in 2018. The mission used to be declared over on Feb. 13, 2019, having lasted for 15 years — a ways past originate expectations — and finding grand evidence of water on the surface.

Phoenix Mars Lander:  U.S., launched Aug. 4, 2007. The Mars lander touched down on Also can 25, 2008 and dug by Martian soil to substantiate the presence of water ice below the surface. Phoenix’s photo voltaic panels suffered severe wound from the harsh Martian winter, and communication with the $475 million lander used to be misplaced in November 2008. After repeated makes an strive to reestablish contact, NASA declared Phoenix broken and tiresome in Also can 2010.

Phobos-Allege: (FAILED) Russia, launched Nov. 8, 2011 on a mission to return samples from the Mars moon Phobos. The $163 million robotic probe suffered a crippling malfunction almost at the moment after launch, stranding it in Earth orbit. Mission managers said Phobos-Allege spacecraft’s thrusters did not hearth in a maneuver that would dangle despatched the spacecraft on to Mars. The spacecraft plummeted abet to Earth and used to be destroyed on Jan. 15, 2012.

Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity: U.S., launched Nov. 26, 2011. The $2.5 billion Curiosity rover landed at Gale crater on the night of Aug. 5, 2012, and has spent the final various year investigating Mount Inspiring/Aeolis Mons to match the historical past of water all the contrivance by Martian geologic sessions. The Mars rover is investigating whether the planet used to be ever hospitable to lifestyles, and has came all the contrivance by grand evidence of organic molecules and water within the past decade. Its important mission has been extended various instances.

Schiaparelli (FAILED): European Home Company, launched March 14, 2016 with a failed landing strive on Oct. 19, 2016. Schiaparelli used to be a landing demonstrator intended to verify future landing applied sciences for Martian missions. It arrived safely on the Red Planet with the Price Gas Orbiter, however conflicting records prompted the minute probe to crash into the surface. Happily, however, TGO safely remained in orbit as deliberate and continues to obtain records.

InSight: U.S., launched Also can 5, 2018 and landed Nov. 26, 2018. InSight is equipped to probe the internal of Mars and has came all the contrivance by grand evidence of marsquakes. One in every of its bigger targets is to higher realize the historical past and formation of rocky planets more in general, the usage of Mars as a take a look at bed for our theories. Engineers spent two Earth years making an strive to keep a warmth-looking out for mole below the surface, however the effort within the break used to be known as off as a result of the regolith (soil) used to be more difficult than anticipated. InSight is now on an extended mission, having met its important mission targets. 

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