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A view of Mars showing a large crater across the middle of the red planet.

Mars

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the seventh largest. It’s the only planet we know of inhabited entirely by robots.

Mission Status

03

NASA Spacecraft in Orbit

02

NASA Rovers on the Surface

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Read More Mars Stories

Seismograph waves are superimposed over an illustration of Mars.

InSight Finds Marsquakes From Meteoroids Go Deeper Than Expected

This map, as of October 2024, shows Perseverance's traverse path of over 18.65 miles, with marked locations where 24 samples were collected of rock and regolith as well as one air sample.

Perseverance Rover Reaches Top of Jezero Crater Rim

Read the Mars Exploration Science Goals

Mars in 4K: Perseverance’s Rock Sample Collection

This image shows an artist concept of NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission.

MAVEN Marks 10 Years at Mars

Mars Overview

Mars is no place for the faint-hearted. It’s dry, rocky, and bitter cold. The fourth planet from the Sun, Mars, is one of Earth's two closest planetary neighbors (Venus is the other). Mars is one of the easiest planets to spot in the night sky — it looks like a bright red point of light.

Despite being inhospitable to humans, robotic explorers — like NASA's Perseverance rover and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter — serve as pathfinders to eventually get astronauts to the surface of the Red Planet.

'a really harsh, tough place'

How Perseverance Is Helping Prepare Astronauts for Mars

Mars has freezing temperatures, excessive solar radiation, fine dust that can damage solar panels and spacesuits, and a surface rife with toxic, corrosive salt. So while NASA's Perseverance rover explores the Red Planet searching for signs of ancient microbial life, it's also testing spacesuit materials to protect life and limb for future astronauts.

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The calibration target for SHERLOC, one of the instruments aboard NASA's Perseverance Mars rover, features a slice of Martian meteorite, plus spacesuit materials, including helmet-visor material that doubles as a geocache target.

The calibration target for SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals) an instrument on the end of the Perseverance Mars rover's 7-foot-long (3-meter-long) robotic arm, includes a geocaching target, spacesuit materials, and a slice of a Martian meteorite. Scientists rely on calibration targets to fine-tune instrument settings using materials with known properties. The bottom row of this target features spacesuit materials that scientists will observe to see how they react over time to the irradiated Martian atmosphere. The first sample at left is polycarbonate for use in a helmet visor; inscribed with the address of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, it doubles as a geochache for the public. Other materials in the bottom row, from left: Vectran; Ortho-Fabric; Teflon; coated Teflon. Top row, from left: aluminum gallium nitride on sapphire; a quartz diffuser; a slice of Martian meteorite; a maze for testing laser intensity; a separate aluminum gallium nitride on sapphire with different properties. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24261

NASA/JPL-Caltech

How We Explore Mars

NASA has five active missions at the Red Planet and a future mission under study.

More Mars Missions

A rover appears to be looking up at a launching rocket as it lifts off into the skies of Mars.

MARS SAMPLE RETURN | Future Mission

NASA and the ESA (European Space Agency) are planning ways to bring the first samples of Mars material back to Earth for detailed study.
Launch: TBD

Read More About MSR

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took this selfie, made up of 62 individual images, on July 23. A rock nicknamed “Cheyava Falls,” which has features that may bear on the question of whether the Red Planet was long ago home to microscopic life, is to the left of the rover near the center of the image.

PERSEVERANCE MARS ROVER | Active Mission

The Mars 2020 mission Perseverance rover is the first step of a proposed roundtrip journey to return Mars samples to Earth.
Launch: July 30, 2020 | 11:50 UTC
Mars Landing: Feb. 18, 2021 | 20:55 UTC

Read More About Perseverance

CURIOSITY MARS ROVER | Active Mission

Curiosity is investigating Mars to determine whether the Red Planet was ever habitable to microbial life.
Launch: Nov. 26, 2011 | 15:02 UTC
Mars Landing: Aug. 6, 2012 | 05:32 UTC

Read More About Curiosity

Artist's concept of the MAVEN spacecraft in orbit above Mars.

MAVEN | Active Mission

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission is the first mission devoted to understanding the Martian upper atmosphere.
Launch: Nov. 18. 2013 | 18:28 UTC
Mars Arrival: Sept. 22, 2014 | 02:24 UTC

Read More About MAVEN

MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER | Active Mission

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter searches for evidence that water persisted on the surface of Mars for a long period of time.
Launch: Aug. 12, 2005
Mars Arrival: Mar. 10, 2006

Read More About MRO

A gold-colored spacecraft orbits over Mars, with a dish antenna extending from its top, a spindly boom extending from the front of it toward the viewer, and a large three-paneled solar array attached vertically to its left side. Mars appears as a dusty tan color covering the lower half of the frame, with patches of white at its top, against a black sky flecked with stars in the upper frame.

MARS ODYSSEY | Active Mission

Mars Odyssey mission created the first global map of chemical elements and minerals that make up the Martian surface.
Launch: April 7, 2001 | 15:02:22 UTC
Mars Arrival: Oct. 24, 2001

Read More About Odyssey

The mars Report

Meet the Mars Samples: Sapphire Canyon (Sample 25)

Meet the 25th Martian sample collected by NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover – “Sapphire Canyon” – a sample taken from a vein-filled rock named “Cheyava Falls.” The arrowhead-shaped rock contains compelling features that may help answer whether Mars was home to microscopic life in the distant past.

Why Do We Go?

Mars is one of the most explored bodies in our solar system, and it's the only planet where we've sent rovers to explore the alien landscape. NASA missions have found lots of evidence that Mars was much wetter and warmer, with a thicker atmosphere, billions of years ago.

Explore Mars with Us

A composite image of Earth and Mars was created to allow viewers to gain a better understanding of the relative sizes of the two planets.

Earth-Mars Comparison: This composite image, from NASA Galileo and Mars Global Survey orbiters, of Earth and Mars was created to allow viewers to gain a better understanding of the relative sizes of the two planets.

JPL

Mars Relay Network: Communications Bridge Between Mars & Earth

Mars Relay Network is the first link in a two-way communications bridge from Mars to Earth

NASA/JPL-Caltech/VTAD

Multimedia

Mars Resources

View the one-stop shop for all Mars iconic images, videos, and more!

Explore All Mars Resources

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News & Features

All Mars News & Features

NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover Studies Trove of Rocks on Crater Rim

Perseverance Rover Witnesses One Martian Dust Devil Eating Another

How NASA’s Perseverance Is Helping Prepare Astronauts for Mars

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Detects Largest Organic Molecules Found on Mars

NASA’s Europa Clipper Uses Mars to Go the Distance

Beyond the Moon

Humans to Mars

Like the Moon, Mars is a rich destination for scientific discovery and a driver of technologies that will enable humans to travel and explore far from Earth.

Mars remains our horizon goal for human exploration because it is one of the only other places we know in the solar system where life may have existed. What we learn about the Red Planet will tell us more about our Earth’s past and future, and may help answer whether life exists beyond our home planet.

Learn More About Humans to Mars

Illustration of an astronaut on Mars, using a remote control drone to inspect a nearby cliff.

Illustration of an astronaut on Mars, using a remote control drone to inspect a nearby cliff.

NASA

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Mars Science Laboratory: Curiosity Rover

Part of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission, at the time of launch, Curiosity was the largest and most capable rover…

Mars 2020: Perseverance Rover

NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover seeks signs of ancient life and collects samples of rock and regolith for possible Earth return.

Mars Sample Return

Mars Sample Return would be NASA’s most ambitious, multi-mission campaign that would bring carefully selected Martian samples to Earth for…

Mars Exploration

Mars is the only planet we know of inhabited entirely by robots. Learn more about the Mars Missions.