Russia/U.S.S.R. U.S. Japan U.K./ESA member states Russia/China India MISSION POSSIBLE KORABL 4 LAUNCH About half of all Mars missions have KORABL 5 ) The frst U.S. succeeded. Here’s a complete history, up s KORAB e L 11 to Mars t spacecraft EARTH a to the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter d mysteriously lost ORBIT MARS 1 h power eight hours c n KORA after launch u BL 13 FAILURE SUCCESS a L ( MARINER 3 s Flyby Orbiter Lander 0 MA 6 RINER 4 9 1 ZOND 2 MARINER 6 IN TRANSIT MARS 1969A MARINER 7 MARS 1969B MARINER 8 S H KOSMOS 419 MA R T RS 2 ORBITER/LANDER The frst man-made object MARS 3 ORBITER/LAN DER A R to land on Mars. s MARINER 9 MARS But contact was lost 0 The frst 7 ORBIT 20 seconds after A MARS 9 4 successful touchdown M 1 Mars surface MARS 5 E exploration found all elements MARS 6 FLYBY/LAND ER essential to MARS 7 FLYBY/LANDER life VIKING 1 ORBITER/LANDER VIKING 2 ORBITER/LANDER s 0 PHOBOS 1 ORBITER/LANDER 8 9 PHOBOS 2 ORBITER/LANDER 1 Pathfinder’s Sojourner was the MARS OBSERVER frst wheeled MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR vehicle deployed on another planet s MARS 96 ORBITER/LANDER 0 9 MARS PATHFINDER 9 1 NOZOMI MARS CLIMATE ORBITER ONGOING ONGOING 2 PROBES/MARS POLAR LANDER The Phoenix ONGOING DEEP SPACE ONGOING lander frst MARS ODYSSEY confrmed the ONGOING presence of water /BEAGLE 2 LANDER MARS EXPRESS ORBITER in soil samples s RIT MARS EXPLORATION ROVER–SPI ONGOING 0 0 OVER–OPPORTUNITY 0 MARS EXPLORATION R ONGOING 2 ITER MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORB ENIX MARS LANDER PHO Curiosity descended on the -GRUNT/YINGHUO-1 PHOBOS frst “sky crane,” a s B/CURIOSITY highly precise landing DID YOU KNOW? The early missions had 0 MARS SCIENCE LA 1 system for large up to seven diferent names. For instance, 0 S ORBITER MISSION vehicles Korabl 4 also went by Marsnik 1 and Mars 2 MAR 1960A. SOURCE: NASA MAVEN.