The craft in the Solar System LIVE
—
Top view of the ecliptic, real positions of Earth and Mars on the selected date; the arc is the trajectory flown (estimated when the arrival date is unknown).
Mission Control Room
Follow every mission ever sent to Mars, operating or not: local time and sunrise, distance and delay to Earth, the craft in the Solar System and the power it has left. And travel in time to see the console as it was on any day of the mission.
Choose a mission
Every mission ever sent to Mars: operating, finished, failed or on its way.
Pick a mission to open its console.
LIVE
—
Time travel: see the console as it was on any day of the mission
Landing sites
This mission does not land: it has no surface coordinates. Pick any landing site on the map to follow it.
LAT: --.----°LON: --.----°
How this tool works and what it shows
The Control Room gathers live data about Mars and the Earth–Mars relationship: Martian time and date, season, the distance between the two planets, communications delay and the status of active missions.
- Martian time (MTC): a sol lasts 24 h 39 min 35.244 s; the Martian clock shows 24 hours per sol.
- Distance and delay: light takes between about 3 and 22 minutes to go from one planet to the other depending on their orbital positions.
- Season (Ls): solar longitude measures where Mars is in its orbit; 0° is the start of spring in the northern hemisphere.