back to the ten probes that landed on Mars

“Thank you for coming with me. » The small NASA robot that has been exploring Mars since 2018, InSight, announced on Tuesday December 20 that its mission was coming to an end. Since Mars 3, a Soviet probe that arrived on the red planet in 1971, ten machines have managed to land there.

► March 3, Soviet pioneer

In 1971, Mars 3 was the first human spacecraft to land on the red planet. Developed by the Soviets, it unfortunately suffered a breakdown after twenty seconds on the ground. It therefore does not accomplish its scientific mission: to photograph the surface, to study the weather and the atmosphere of Mars.

Prior to Mars 3, Mars 2 had touched down on the planet’s surface but exploded upon landing.

► Viking 1, the American success

The American probe Viking 1 landed on Mars in 1976, quickly followed by a similar probe, Viking 2. These two objects have the mission of looking for traces of life and analyzing the soil.

The second manages to record an earthquake, confirming the telluric activity of the red planet. Viking 1 will remain in operation for 6 years and 116 days, the record for the duration of a Mars mission until the Spirit and Opportunity robots, thirty years later.

► Mars Pathfinder, the first to be able to move

The Mars Pathfinder mission reached the red planet in 1997. It was the first to use a small mobile robot, Sojourner. Mars had not had a visit from Earth for nearly 20 years.

If this new mission brings little new information, it will however be publicized, in particular thanks to the Internet. For the first time, the public is closely following the exploration of Mars and the operation is a major communication success.

► Spirit and Opportunity, the longest missions on Mars

Spirit and Opportunity land on Mars in 2004. The first must study geology and determine the role played by water in the history of the planet. Its mission, which was to be limited to 90 days, finally lasts until 2010. The robot travels 7.73 kilometers, while the initial objective was 600 meters. It ends up getting stuck in a dune at the end of 2009, and communicates for the last time with the Earth in March 2010.

Opportunity must also study the geology of Mars. Like Spirit, his mission is only to last 90 days but ultimately continues until… 2019! He finds clues on the planet proving that rocks were formed under the action of liquid water. Then, it detects clays that could only have been formed with water at a neutral pH. This discovery attests to an environment even more favorable to life than what previous discoveries suggested.

In 2018, Opportunity finds itself paralyzed by a gigantic sandstorm and no longer communicates with Earth. Numerous contact attempts fail, and NASA declares the mission complete in 2019.

► Phoenix discovers water ice

The Mars Odyssey orbiter determined in 2002 that water was indeed present on Mars. The Phoenix probe, fixed, unlike Spirit and Opportunity, was to deepen this find. It landed in May 2008 near the North polar cap and dug several trenches. In one of them, she discovers a layer of shallow water ice.

► Curiosity, in search of life

Curiosity lands in a Martian crater in 2012. This is home to formations that date from the Noachian period, a period that would have been conducive to the existence of life on Mars. Its cost, of 2.5 billion euros, makes it one of the most ambitious missions ever launched towards the red planet.

► InSight, which is coming to the end of its mission

InSight lands on Mars in November 2018. It carries out the first mission entirely devoted to the internal structure of the planet. It must make it possible to reconstruct the history of Mars. This also sheds light on how the other rocky planets in the solar system, Mercury, Venus and Earth, formed.

► Perseverance, in an ancient Martian lake

Perseverance lands on Mars in February 2021. Its mission is to explore the Jezero crater, which would have housed a lake 3.6 billion years ago. This formation also preserves the trace of several river deltas. Like many other probes before it, it is looking for evidence of the existence of life on another planet.

The robot is equipped with a small helicopter. He must therefore also test the capabilities of an air vehicle in the very tight atmosphere of Mars. In 2021, this one makes the first powered flight of a machine on another planet.

► Tianwen 1, the first Chinese probe

China is landing its first probe on Mars in 2021. Tianwen 1 is to study the planet’s geology, the current and past presence of water, and the planet’s internal structure. The country becomes the third space power to manage to land there, after the USSR and the United States, and the second to operate a mobile device there.