The key to understanding the past, present, or future potential for life on Mars can be found in NASA’s four broad overarching goals for Mars exploration.
Water carved channels and transported sediments form fans and deltas within lake basins in this image of Mars' Jezero crater.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/JHU-APL
Mars is the only planet we know of inhabited entirely by robots.
From Robots to Humans
Recorded observations of Mars date back more than 4,000 years. Led by our curiosity of the cosmos, NASA has sent a carefully selected international fleet of robotic orbiters, landers and rovers to keep a continuous flow of scientific information and discovery from Mars. The science and technology developed through Mars Exploration missions will enable humans to one day explore the Red Planet in person.
Artist's concept depicts astronauts and human habitats on Mars.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
'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.
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
escapade to the red planet
NASA Launches Twin Satellites to Investigate Mars' Space Weather
NASA's Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission, which launched Nov. 13, will study Mars' real-time response to the solar wind, helping us better understand Mars' climate history — from a planet that hosted rivers, lakes, and floods billions of years ago, to the cold, dry desert we see on the surface today. The twin, refrigerator-sized orbiters are scheduled to arrive at Mars in September 2027, and begin their science mission the following spring.
Each robotic explorer sent to the Red Planet has its own unique capabilities driven by science. Many attributes of a rover take on human-like features, such as “heads,” “bodies,” and “arms and legs."
NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took a selfie with the Ingenuity helicopter.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Entry, Descent, and Landing
Parachutes, airbags, sky cranes, and more – learn how NASA gets its Mars landers and rovers through the atmosphere, past hazards and obstacles, to a safe touchdown on the Red Planet.
This artist's concept shows the sky crane maneuver during the descent of NASA's Curiosity rover to the Martian surface.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
60 years of mars exploration
Mariner 4: First Images From Another Planet
June 14, 1965 — NASA’s Mariner 4 became the first spacecraft to fly by Mars, and captured the first close-up views of another planet. Its "profound" images dispelled centuries-old notions of the Red Planet, and opened the era of Mars Exploration.
The first picture that Mariner 4 captured of Mars was the planet’s edge, against the blackness of space. But mission team members back on Earth were too eager to wait hours for their computers to process the image. So they printed out the data from Mariner, cut it into strips, and hand-colored the paper wherever the numbers said the picture should be dark, or light, or something in between.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Mars Missions
A carefully selected international fleet of robotic orbiters, landers, and rovers keeps a continuous flow of scientific information and discovery from Mars.
ESA’s (European Space Agency) Exobiology on Mars program consists of two missions: Trace Gas Orbiter, which entered Mars orbit in 2016, and the Rosalind Franklin rover, scheduled for launch no earlier than 2028.
NASA's longest-lasting spacecraft at Mars is making the first global map of the amount and distribution of chemical elements and minerals that make up the Martian surface. (2001-present)
Mars Polar Lander's mission was to dig for water ice near the edge of the south polar cap and deploy two small surface probes, but all spacecraft were lost on arrival. (1999)
Designed to function as an interplanetary weather satellite and a communications relay for Mars Polar Lander, Mars Climate Orbiter was lost on arrival after entering the atmosphere too low. (1999-1999)
Mars Global Surveyor studied the entire Martian surface, atmosphere, and interior, discovering repeatable weather patterns, gully formation, new boulder tracks, and recent impact craters. (1996-2006)
Mars Pathfinder demonstrated a new way to deliver an instrumented lander, and the first robotic rover, to the planet's surface, from which it returned data long past its primary design life. (1996-1997)
Mars Observer was designed to study the geology, geophysics, and climate of Mars, but contact with the spacecraft was lost shortly before it was set to enter orbit around the planet. (1992-1993)
The first U.S. mission to land a spacecraft safely on Mars and return images of the surface, Viking 1 was part of a pair of probes seeking signs of life on Mars. (1975-1982 )
NASA's Mariner 9, launched days after Mariner 8, was the first spacecraft to orbit another planet and to orbit Mars, mapping 85% of the surface. (1971-1972)
Through the Mars Exploration Program, NASA strategically invests in technology development that will enable future missions to explore in new and better ways. From advanced mobility and communication systems to innovative solutions for entry, descent, and landing, technologies developed by the Mars Exploration Program can bring benefits not only for exploring the Red Planet, but for the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
Researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California monitor a research drone in the Mojave Desert in September 2025 as part of a test campaign to develop navigation software to guide future rotorcraft on Mars. The work was among 25 projects funded by NASA’s Mars Exploration Program this past year to push the limits of future technologies.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
The Future of Mars
NASA is reimagining the future of Mars exploration, driving new scientific discoveries, and preparing for humans on Mars. NASA’s Mars Exploration Program will focus the next two decades on its science-driven systemic approach on these strategic goals: exploring for potential life, understanding the geology and climate of Mars, and preparation for human exploration.
NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter lands with a soft bounce after its fifth flight on May 7, 2021. The images in this GIF were captured by the Mastcam-Z imager aboard NASA's Perseverance rover.
