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mission
8 milestones, in chronological order.
- October 1960 – March 1963First Contact
Five Soviet probes try for Mars and all five fail
Between 1960 and 1962 the Soviet Union launched five probes at Mars. Four never escaped Earth; the fifth, Mars 1, fell silent 106 million kilometres out.
- 31 July and 5 August 1969First Contact
Mariner 6 and 7 find more craters
Two flybys returned 201 pictures and pinned the atmosphere at 6 to 7 millibars, but both happened to cross the oldest, dullest terrain on Mars.
- 21 July 1973 – 12 March 1974First Contact
The Soviet 1973 armada fails four different ways
Four spacecraft launched in 19 days. Mars 4 flew past at 1,844 km, Mars 5 leaked after nine days, Mars 6 died at touchdown, and Mars 7 missed the planet by 1,300 km.
- 20 July and 3 September 1976First Contact
Viking 1 and 2 land and refuse to die
Two orbiters, two landers and roughly a billion 1970s dollars. Designed for 90 days on the surface, Viking 1 kept transmitting from Chryse Planitia for over six years.
- July 1988 – March 1989The Rover Decades
The Soviet Union loses both Phobos probes
Phobos 1 died in September 1988 to a flawed command sequence. Phobos 2 reached Mars orbit and failed in March 1989, weeks before dropping its landers.
- 6 August 2012Follow the Water
Curiosity survives the seven minutes of terror
A rocket-powered crane lowered an 899-kilogram rover onto the floor of Gale Crater on cables. The system had never been flown, and it worked first time.
- 24 September 2014Follow the Water
Mangalyaan reaches Mars orbit on the first try
India placed a 15-kilogram science payload in Mars orbit for about 74 million dollars, becoming the first nation to reach Mars orbit on its first attempt.
- 26 November 2018Follow the Water
Two CubeSats fly to Mars and call the landing live
MarCO-A and MarCO-B, 13.5 kilograms each, were the first CubeSats ever to leave Earth orbit — and they carried InSight's descent telemetry home live at 8 kilobits per second.