NASA Mars Exploration (2024)

FAQs

What is the current status of Mars exploration? ›

Current status

There are two functional rovers on the surface of Mars, the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers, both operated by the American space agency NASA. Perseverance was accompanied by the Ingenuity helicopter, which is scouting sites for Perseverance to study.

Two out of three missions to the red planet have failed. One reason there have been so many losses is that there have been so many attempts.

NASA missions have found lots of evidence that Mars was much wetter and warmer, with a thicker atmosphere, billions of years ago.

China: They plan to launch their Tianwen-2 mission in September 2024, which aims to collect Martian soil and rock samples and return them to Earth. India: They have the Mangalyaan-2 (MOM 2) mission planned for sometime in 2024, which will study the Martian surface, atmosphere, and climate.

Perseverance, NASA's rover that's roaming on the Martian surface carrying out important observations, recently found evidence of gushing water.

Organizations have proposed plans for a human mission to Mars, the first step towards any colonization effort, but thus far no person has set foot on the planet, and there have been no return missions.

Significant technological hurdles need to be overcome for human spaceflight to Mars. Entry into the thin and shallow Martian atmosphere will pose significant difficulties with re-entry; compared to Earth's much denser atmosphere, any spacecraft will descend very rapidly to the surface and must be slowed down.

The failure occurred at the second ignition of the Proton Blok D-2 upper stage, while the spacecraft was out of range of Russian ground stations. The Mars 96 spacecraft carried 200 grams of plutonium-238 in the form of small pellets.

The highest atmospheric density on Mars is equal to the density found 35 km (22 mi) above the Earth's surface and is ≈0.020 kg/m³. The atmosphere of Mars has been losing mass to space since the planet's core slowed down, and the leakage of gases still continues today.

Mars water is not drinkable in its current form, as it mostly exists as frozen ice or as very salty brines, making it inhospitable for human consumption.

Did life exist on Mars? ›

To date, no proof of past or present life has been found on Mars. Cumulative evidence suggests that during the ancient Noachian time period, the surface environment of Mars had liquid water and may have been habitable for microorganisms, but habitable conditions do not necessarily indicate life.

When conditions on the surface of Mars turned nasty, life may have become extinct there. But fossils may have been left behind. It's even possible that life could have survived on Mars below the surface, judging from some microbes on Earth that thrive miles underground.

NASA has selected a crew of four for the next NASA's Human Exploration Research Analog mission, a simulated mission to Mars. From left are Kamak Ebadi, Susan Hilbig, Abhishek Bhagat, and Carli Domenico. Editor's Note, Jan. 26, 2024: The crew roster for this HERA mission has been updated.

Mars will be colonised by humans by the year 2050, as long as autonomous mining processes quickly become more commercially viable. That's the view of Professor Serkan Saydam from UNSW Sydney in the wake of the amazing landing on Mars by NASA's Perseverance rover.

It's unlikely you could live separately from the colony “city” because you need far too many resources from the city itself. Who owns Mars? Nobody does. This was established back in the 1960s with the Outer Space Treaty.

Mars' last 'close approach' was on 6 October 2020 and had three separate launches of Mars probes including Perseverance. The next will be on 8 December 2022.

Perseverance is a NASA Mars rover that landed on Feb. 18, 2021.

Robotic mining that can provide water and fuel is the key to developing a colony on the red planet within the next 30 years. Mars will be colonised by humans by the year 2050, as long as autonomous mining processes quickly become more commercially viable.