SpaceX founder Elon Musk says travel to Mars is within reach, with a goal to have one million people living on Mars within 100 years. SpaceX isn’t alone in working toward reaching Mars, however. In fact, there are quite a number of missions, both manned and unmanned, that currently planned or under proposal from government space organizations and private space flight companies across the globe.
Exploration of Mars and eventual human travel to it are nothing new. While manned missions have remained financial and logistical near-impossibilities, unmanned missions began in 1960. There have been 56 Mars missions so far, of which 26 have been successful — a testament to the difficulty in reaching the Red Planet.
As it stands right now, there is one rover currently operational, with another enroute to arrive late this year (as of the writing of this story, Opportunity is stuck in a massive dust storm with low chances for survival). Orbiting Mars are six satellites, providing massive amounts of data on our dusty neighbor.
It doesn’t end there either. Many more missions are planned for the 2020, 2022, and 2024 launch windows, and there are proposals to put humans on Mars by the 2030s.
Operational and En Route Missions
This portion of the list includes the world’s most notable past missions, most of which are still in operation.
Mars Odyssey – 2001
Named after the iconic sci-fi novel and film 2001: A Space Odyssey, Mars Odyssey is a NASA orbital satellite that is currently about 2,400 miles above Mars’ surface. It launched on April 7, 2001, and holds the record as the longest-operating spacecraft orbiting Mars. Mars Odyssey’s mission was to find proof of past or present water on Mars, using spectrometers and a thermal imager to map out the distribution of water, which was successfully proven on July 21, 2008, by the Phoenix lander. Mars Odyssey also serves as a communications relay between Earth and Martian rovers, the Mars Science Lab, and the Phoenix lander. It is projected to remain in operation until 2025.
Mars Express – 2003
Mars Express was launched along with the Beagle 2 lander by European Space Agency on June 2, 2003. While Beagle 2 suffered a lander failure, Mars Express has remained in successful communication with Earth. Mars Express was launched with the intent of surveying Mars’ surface using high-resolution camera, radars, and spectrometers. Thus far, Mars Express has discovered water ice and carbon dioxide ice in Mars’ southern ice cap along with an area of liquid water underneath, and has provided better detail of the elemental and chemical makeup of the planet’s surface and atmosphere. The project has also resulting in a topographical map of Mars, high-res surface images, and flybys of Mars’ moon Phobos. This data has been incredibly valuable, and has earned the craft several end-date extensions. It’s currently scheduled to remain in operation until the end of 2026.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter – 2005
On August 12, 2005, NASA launched the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which entered Mars’ orbit on March 10, 2006. The MRO has been observing the landscape, and has made numerous high-profile discoveries, including the recent observance of flowing salt water on the surface and subsurface of the planet. MRO was also used to find a landing zone for the Phoenix Lander, and also acts as a relay for communications between active rovers and Earth.
Curiosity Rover -2011
Like nearly all other unmanned craft listed here, NASA’s Curiosity was made to study the landscape and climate of Mars, comprising the rover portion of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). Specifically, Curiosity is looking for potential evidence of microbial life-sustaining conditions — either past or present — and assessing Mars’ habitability ahead of humans contact. It’s most notable discovery so far is the discovery of organic molecules on the planet’s surface in 2018. The rover is equipped with a vast array of instruments and cameras, and has been operational on Mars since 2012.
Mangalyaan (Mars Orbiter Mission) – 2013
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched its first interplanetary mission on November 5, 2013. Dubbed “Mangalyaan,” the craft is an orbiter that has primarily been used as a proof of concept for ISRO’s interplanetary tech capabilities, testing various flight and communications systems, and providing telemetry data. Mangalyaan is also outfitted with a small suite of research instruments designed to capture atmospheric data. It is also the cheapest Mars mission to date, costing only $73 million USD.
MAVEN – 2013
The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN) is currently searching for explanations for how and why Mars’ water and atmosphere have been slowly deteriorating and escaping. After entering orbit in 2014, it was quickly able to confirm that Mars’ atmosphere was escaping into space, and further observations found the planet’s magnetic field is more like a tail, disrupted by the solar wind. This could explain the Red Planet’s loss of atmosphere, but scientists are still investigating.
ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter – 2016
Launched in 2016, ExoMars is the first in a series of joint Mars missions through a partnership between the European Space Agency and Roscosmos. The mission actually included two probes, the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and the Schiaparelli EDM Lander, however the lander crashed on the Mars surface after being delivered by the TGO. Researchers hope to gain a better understanding of methane and other trace gases present in the Martian atmosphere that could be evidence for possible biological activity.
InSight Lander – 2018
Launched in May 2018 and due to arrive at Mars in November, the InSight Lander, short for ‘Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport,’ aims to study the core of Mars and observe any possible seismic activity on the planet’s surface. It is hoped through the data collected will lead to better understanding of how rocky planets such as Earth, Mars, Venus, and Mercury are formed. The current plans are for a two month deployment phase upon landing, followed by nearly two years of observations as part of the initial mission.
Planned Missions
Thanks to a ‘launch window’ (when Mars is closer to the Earth enabling shorter trips) and a bit of coincidence, there are quite a few Mars mission launches in the Summer of 2020. While we’ll start here, these are by no means the only ones. There are no less than seven already confirmed missions through 2024, and at least a dozen more through the mid 2040s.
For the purposes of brevity we’ll focus on the confirmed missions here in depth, but we’ll also talk about the proposed missions later on.
Hope Mars Mission – 2020
Hope is a notable mission for one big reason: it marks the first Mars probe launched by any Arab or Muslim country. Announced by Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, Hope aims to study the Martian atmosphere and discover why the planet has lost its atmosphere. The findings are also expected to help scientists better model our own atmosphere going back some one million years. The UAE is currently targeting a July 2020 launch.
Mars 2020 Rover – 2020
This upcoming NASA mission aims to study Martian astrobiology in an attempt to understand what environmental conditions may have been like on Mars in the past via a Martian sample return (or MSR). The objective would be to have the rover collect samples of rocks, minerals, and other materials on Mars and return them to Earth in a later mission. The launch window is currently set for July 2020.
ExoMars Rover – 2020
This rover comprises one part of the joint ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars 2020 mission, which aims to search for evidence of past or present life on Mars over the course of its six-month operation. ESA will provide the rover, while Roscosmos will supply the lander. The launch window was moved from 2018 to July 2020 due to production delays, but is now on track to meet its current launch date.
Mars Global Remote Sensing Orbiter, Lander and Small Rover – 2020
China’s National Space Science Center is preparing an interplanetary mission to Mars that will launch in summer 2020. The mission’s planned payload includes an orbiter, a lander, and a rover, and will serve as a technological demonstration of the resources and tech required for a Mars sample return mission, proposed to occur in the 2030s.
Mars Terahertz Microsatellite – 2020
To be launched as a piggyback payload with another Mars-bound mission (no partner has been announced yet), the Mars Terahertz Microsatellite is a joint venture of Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), and the University of Tokyo Intelligent Space Systems Laboratory (ISSL). The terahertz sensor will be sent to the surface of Mars to measure oxygen isotope ratios in the atmosphere to better understand the chemical reactions that resupply the Martian atmosphere with carbon dioxide. No design has been announced yet.
Mangalyaan 2 (Mars Orbiter Mission 2) – 2022
Mangalyaan 2 is the Indian Space Research Organization’s follow up to its initial interplanetary mission to Mars. An orbiter has been announced as the main component of the mission thus far, however, a lander and rover are potential additions. The mission is currently planned for the 2021-22 launch window.
Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) – 2024
Japan plans to send a probe to Mars’ largest moon Phobos in 2024. It will land on Phobos, collect samples, and also observe the smaller moon Deimos and Mars’ climate during flybys of both. The probe will then send the samples back to earth, arriving in July 2029.
Proposed Missions
With Mars missions so prohibitively expensive, there are not many approved missions that are government funded. If anything, the 2020s and beyond will see a dramatic increase in privately or crowd-funded missions, not only to Mars but elsewhere in the solar system and beyond.
As it stands right now, only NASA, China’s CNSA, and Roscosmos have any proposed government-backed missions to the Red Planet. NASA plans to send a telecom orbiter to Mars in the late 2020s, with very early plans for eventual manned missions in the 2030s following a successful return to the Moon.
China’s CNSA currently plans for a Martian return mission in 2030 to bring back samples collected by the 2020 Mars Global Remote Sensing Orbiter, Lander and Small Rover. Its current plans put Chinese on the moon in 2026. Finally, Roscosmos plans to have Russians on Mars somewhere between 2040 and 2045.
Private companies will not be as restricted. While SpaceX’s plans have been hard to pin down (likely due to its founder Elon Musk’s penchant to change his mind on things on a whim), some kind of mission to Mars still appears likely in the 2020s. Musk wants to land its first transport ship on Mars in 2022, followed by four vehicles, two of which would be crewed, in the 2024 launch window.
That seems pretty aspirational (in fact, Musk has called it just that), and other Mars-bound projects like Mars One have had to dial back their own plans when faced with the harsh reality of interplanetary space travel.
When it initially announced its plans in 2012, it originally planned for humans to be on Mars as soon as 2025. However, the organization has been criticized for its plans and lack of money. Now it says its earliest mission will be in 2022, followed by a host of communications, research and cargo missions throughout the 2020s, and the first humans on Mars by 2032.
