Colonizing Mars 2023

Viking 1 was the first of two spacecraft (along with Viking 2) sent to Mars as part of NASA’s Viking program.[2] On July 20, 1976, it became the second spacecraft to soft-land on Mars, and the first to successfully perform its mission. (The first spacecraft to soft-land on Mars was the Soviet Union’s Mars 3 on December 2, 1971, which stopped transmitting after 14.5 seconds.) Viking 1 held the record for the longest Mars surface mission of 2307 days (over 6​1⁄4 years)[2] or 2245 Martian solar days,[2] until that record was broken by the Opportunity rover on May 19, 2010.[6] read more

The Viking 2 mission was part of the American Viking program to Mars, and consisted of an orbiter and a lander essentially identical to that of the Viking 1 mission.[1] The Viking 2 lander operated on the surface for 1316 days, or 1281 sols, and was turned off on April 12, 1980 when its batteries failed. The orbiter worked until July 25, 1978,[1] returning almost 16,000 images in 706 orbits around Mars.[5]

Phobos 1 was an uncrewed Soviet space probe of the Phobos Program launched from the Baikonour launch facility on 7 July 1988.[1] Its intended mission was to explore Mars and its moons Phobos and Deimos. The mission failed on 2 September 1988 when a computer malfunction caused the end-of-mission order to be transmitted to the spacecraft. At the time of launch it was the heaviest interplanetary spacecraft ever launched, weighing 6200 kg.[2]

Phobos 2 was the last space probe designed by the Soviet Union. It was designed to explore the moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos. It was launched on 12 July 1988, and entered orbit on 29 January 1989.

Sample image taken by the Phobos 2 probe. Enhanced image released by the IKI. Taken 430 km away with a resolution of 80–420 m.
Phobos 2 operated nominally throughout its cruise and Mars orbital insertion phases on 29 January 1989, gathering data on the Sun, interplanetary medium, Mars, and Phobos. Phobos 2 investigated Mars surface and atmosphere and returned 37 images of Phobos[2] with a resolution of up to 40 meters. read more

The Mars Observer spacecraft, also known as the Mars Geoscience/Climatology Orbiter, was a robotic space probe launched by NASA on September 25, 1992, to study the Martian surface, atmosphere, climate and magnetic field. During the interplanetary cruise phase, communication with the spacecraft was lost on August 21, 1993, three days prior to orbital insertion. Attempts to re-establish communication with the spacecraft were unsuccessful.

Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) was an American robotic spacecraft developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and launched November 1996. Mars Global Surveyor was a global mapping mission that examined the entire planet, from the ionosphere down through the atmosphere to the surface.[2] As part of the larger Mars Exploration Program, Mars Global Surveyor performed monitoring relay for sister orbiters during aerobraking, and it helped Mars rovers and lander missions by identifying potential landing sites and relaying surface telemetry.[2] read more

Mars 96 (sometimes called Mars 8) was a failed Mars mission launched in 1996 to investigate Mars by the Russian Space Forces and not directly related to the Soviet Mars probe program of the same name. After failure of the second fourth-stage burn, the probe assembly re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere, breaking up over a 200-mile long portion of the Pacific Ocean, Chile, and Bolivia.[1] The Mars 96 spacecraft was based on the Phobos probes launched to Mars in 1988. They were of a new design at the time and both ultimately failed. For the Mars 96 mission the designers believed they had corrected the flaws of the Phobos probes, but the value of their improvements was never demonstrated due to the destruction of the probe during the launch phase. read more

Mars Pathfinder (MESUR Pathfinder)[1][4] is an American robotic spacecraft that landed a base station with a roving probe on Mars in 1997. It consisted of a lander, renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station, and a lightweight (10.6 kg/23 lb) wheeled robotic Mars rover named Sojourner,[5] which became the first rover to operate outside the Earth–Moon system.

Launched on December 4, 1996 by NASA aboard a Delta II booster a month after the Mars Global Surveyor was launched, it landed on July 4, 1997 on Mars’s Ares Vallis, in a region called Chryse Planitia in the Oxia Palus quadrangle. The lander then opened, exposing the rover which conducted many experiments on the Martian surface. The mission carried a series of scientific instruments to analyze the Martian atmosphere, climate, and geology and the composition of its rocks and soil. It was the second project from NASA’s Discovery Program, which promotes the use of low-cost spacecraft and frequent launches under the motto “cheaper, faster and better” promoted by then-administrator Daniel Goldin. The mission was directed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of the California Institute of Technology, responsible for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. The project manager was JPL’s Tony Spear. read more

Sojourner is the Mars Pathfinder robotic Mars rover that landed on July 4, 1997[1] in the Ares Vallis region, and explored Mars for around three months. It has front and rear cameras and hardware to conduct several scientific experiments. Designed for a mission lasting 7 sols, with possible extension to 30 sols,[2] it was in fact active for 83 sols (85 earth days). The base station had its last communication session with Earth at 3:23 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time on September 27, 1997.[1][3] The rover needed the base station to communicate with Earth, despite still functioning at the time communications ended.[3] Sojourner traveled a distance of just over 100 meters (330 ft) by the time communication was lost.[4] It was instructed to stay stationary until October 5, 1997 (sol 91) and then drive around the lander.[5] Sojourner is the first wheeled vehicle to rove another planet.[6] read more

Nozomi (Japanese: のぞみ, lit. “Wish” or “Hope,” and known before launch as Planet-B) was a Mars orbiter that failed to reach Mars due to electrical failures. The mission was terminated on December 31, 2003.[citation needed]

It was constructed by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, University of Tokyo and launched on July 4, 1998, at 03:12 JST (July 3, 1998, at 18:12 UTC) with an on-orbit dry mass of 258 kg and 282 kg of propellant.[citation needed]

Nozomi was designed to study the upper Martian atmosphere and its interaction with the solar wind and to develop technologies for use in future planetary missions. Specifically, instruments on the spacecraft were to measure the structure, composition and dynamics of the ionosphere, aeronomy effects of the solar wind, the escape of atmospheric constituents, the intrinsic magnetic field, the penetration of the solar-wind magnetic field, the structure of the magnetosphere, and dust in the upper atmosphere and in orbit around Mars. The mission would have also returned images of Mars’ surface.[citation needed] read more