Mars exploration database

All Missions

Every mission ever sent to the Red Planet: orbiters, landers, rovers and the helicopter that flew. Filter, explore the chronology and open each file.

64MissionsLaunched
8ActiveWorking now
50%Success rateReached their goal
7Rovers
13Landers
30Orbiters
1Helicopters

Chronology of Mars exploration

Drag, scroll or use the arrows. The bars show how many missions launched each year: they cluster around the launch windows that open every 26 months.

ActiveCompletedFailedUpcoming
All64 Active8 Completed25 Failed28 Upcoming5
All Orbiter30 Lander13 Rover7 Flyby14 Helicopter1 Sample return1
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Showing 7 of 7 missions

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Failed · landing failure
ESA

Schiaparelli EDM

Schiaparelli EDM (Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator Module), launched on March 14, 2016 as part of the ExoMars mission, was an ESA and Roscosmos technology demonstrator designed to validate entry, descent, and landing systems on Mars. After successfully separating from the TGO orbiter on October 16, the module began its atmospheric descent on October 19, but a saturation in the inertial measurement unit caused an erroneous altitude calculation, premature parachute deployment, and the subsequent fatal impact on the surface of Meridiani Planum.

Lander
Failed · landing failure
ESA

Beagle 2

Beagle 2, an ambitious British lander launched in 2003 alongside Mars Express, aimed to search for chemical traces of life in Isidis Planitia. After landing on Christmas Day, complete silence followed. In 2015, orbital images revealed its cruel fate: it landed intact, but its solar panels failed to fully deploy, trapping its radio antenna and condemning the probe to eternal isolation.

Lander
Failed · landing failure
NASA

Deep Space 2 (DS2)

Deep Space 2 (DS2), known as the Mars Microprobe Project, consisted of two innovative impact penetrator probes ("Scott" and "Amundsen") launched by NASA to study the Martian subsurface. Following their arrival on December 3, 1999, communication could not be established, and the mission was officially declared a failure on March 13, 2000.

Lander
Failed · landing failure
OKB-1

Mars 6

Launched on August 5, 1973, the Mars 6 mission consisted of a flyby bus and a lander. On March 12, 1974, the lander separated and entered the atmosphere, transmitting in-situ data for the first time for 224 seconds. However, contact was abruptly lost at the moment of retrorocket activation, resulting in a high-speed impact, likely due to the degradation of electronic components.

Lander
Failed · contact lost before meeting objectives
OKB-1

Mars 3 (Lander)

Part of Mars 3

The USSR's Mars 3 mission (1971) was a historic partial success. Its orbiter functioned, but the lander, despite achieving the first-ever soft landing on Mars, only transmitted for 20 seconds. A massive global dust storm is believed to have caused the failure.

Lander
Failed · landing failure
OKB-1

Mars 2 (Lander)

Part of Mars 2

The Mars 2 mission (USSR, 1971) was a dual orbiter and lander mission. It arrived during a global dust storm. The orbiter successfully entered orbit, but its science was limited by the dust. The lander failed due to an incorrect entry angle and crashed, becoming the first human object to impact Mars.

Lander
Failed · launch failure
Space agency

Sputnik 24 (Mars 2MV-3 No. 1)

Sputnik 24, launched by the Soviet Union on November 4, 1962, using a Molniya 8K78 rocket, was a lander-type mission designed to study the surface and atmosphere of Mars. However, a failure in the Block L upper stage prevented it from leaving low Earth orbit, causing its re-entry and disintegration weeks later without reaching the red planet.

Lander