Successful Space Landing Missions to the Red Planet Mars

As humans we are curious and thrive for information. We want to know more about our environment. We believe we have so much information about earth, it is no wonder we are investigating other planets in the solar system. The red planet mars has had a lot of attention from us. The belief that life does exist or more realistically might have existed makes us continue with our exploration of mars.

The exploration of the red planet mars has been accomplished with various space missions, each providing valuable information. Some of these space missions to the red planets were successful and some were not so. There have been six successful space landings in mars. We introduce these six successful landings on the red planet here.

So, what is a mars landing. A successful mars landing can be defined as the successful landing of a spacecraft of the surface of the red planet, mars.

Viking 1

Two spacecrafts were sent bound to the red planet by NASA’s Viking space programme. Viking 1 is the first spacecraft which was launched on 20^th August 1975. The time the spacecraft took to arrive at mars was approximately 10 months. The spacecraft entered the mars orbit on 19^th June 1976. Viking 1 successfully landed on the surface of the red planet on 20^th July 1976.

The landing area of Viking 1 is known as the Western Golden Plains, which is north of the equator of the red planet. Viking 1 was in service until 13^th November 1982, at which point contact was lost with ground control. The main tasks of Viking 1 were to analyse the soil on mars and search for life and feedback this information to earth.

Viking 2

The Viking 2 landing was also part of NASA’s Viking space programme. Viking 2 landed on the surface of the red planet on 3^rd September 1976, just a few weeks after the Viking 1 landing. Viking 2 landed in an area much further north and west than the Viking 1 landing spot. The landing area of Viking 2 is known as Utopia Planitia.

Viking 2 was in service for a shorter duration than Viking 1 until 11^th April 1980 when its batteries failed. The information search for Viking 2 were similar to that of Viking 1, which was to analyse the soil and search for life in the red planet mars and feedback information to earth.

Mars Pathfinder

The Mars Pathfinder landed on the red planet on 4^th July 1997, some 20 years after the Viking programme. The Mars pathfinder landed on a location that was not so far from the Viking 1 landing in the Golden Plains.

The main aim of the Mars Pathfinder programme was to prove that low cost space exploration was possible. The cost of the Pathfinder programme was significantly less at about 20% of the cost of the Viking programme. The Mars pathfinder’s duties include analyzing the soil of the red planet and collecting weather information about the planet.

Spirit Exploration Rover

The Spirit exploration rover landed on the red planet on the southern region of its equator on 4^th January 2004. Spirit was in service until 22^nd March 2010 when it lost communication with earth. The exploration was successful as the initial plan for Spirit was a 92 day exploration of the red planet. The aim of the mission was to acquire information by characterising the soil in mars in much more detail, especially for analyzing the possibilities of presence of water in the past.

Opportunity Exploration Rover

Opportunitylanded on Mars very close to its equator around 3 weeks after the landing of the Spirit Exploration Rover. Opportunity landed on 25^th January 2004. Similar to Spirit the anticipated operational duration was 92 days, but still to date Opportunity is operational on the red planet. TheOpportunity exploration rover has the same objectives on mars as the Spirit exploration rover.

Phoenix

Phoenixis the last and latest spacecraft to land on the surface of the red planet mars. Phoenix landed on the red planet on 25^th May 2008. Phoenix was in service a relatively short duration before it lost communications with earth on 2^nd November 2008. Aims of Phoenix were to collect information on the history of water in the planet and analyzing climate change. It was also to identify and collect information on the ability of inhabitants to be present in the past or currently on mars.

Currently, hopefully the seventh landing, Curiosity, on the red planet mars is in progress to collect more information about this planet. The exploration rover Curiosity is planned to land north of the Spirit exploration rover landing on approximately the 5^th August 2012. With the increased number of recent missions, we hope in the near future this red planet may provide more information and unveil the secrets it is hiding.