Flowing dunes roll between rugged ridgelines in this orbital view of Mars.

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

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NASA Spacecraft in Orbit

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NASA Rovers on the Surface

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Illustration shows what Mars might have looked like if oceans covered part of its surface.

How did the ancient Martian climate went from potentially habitable to inhospitable to terrestrial life as we know it?

spacecraft orbiting red planet

The mission has produced a wealth of data about Mars’ atmosphere.

A rover sits on the hilly, orange Martian surface beneath a flat grey sky, surrounded by chunks of rock.

How NASA keeps Curiosity connected.

One of the navigation cameras aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover captured this view looking back at the “Bright Angel” area on July 30, the 1,224th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.

After 2½ years exploring Jezero Crater, the rover will ascend to an area where it will search for more discoveries that could rewrite Mars’ history.

An illustration set against a pale orange sky shows a coaster-shaped spacecraft hovering at the top of the frame, with rockets at four corners firing jets toward the ground. Suspended beneath it on three tethers is a Mars rover, with a light-colored flat bottom, and its six wheels retracted above its belly.

Twelve years ago, NASA landed its six-wheeled science lab using a daring new technology.

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.

The most puzzling, complex, and potentially important rock yet investigated by Perseverance.

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 – are serving as pathfinders to eventually get humans to the surface of the Red Planet.

Featured Story

NASA: New Insights into How Mars Became Uninhabitable

NASA’s Curiosity rover, currently exploring Gale crater on Mars, is providing new details about how the ancient Martian climate went…

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Artist concept image of an early wet Mars.

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.

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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: Interplanetary Internet

Mars Relay Network is the first link in a two-way communications bridge from Mars to Earth
NASA/JPL-Caltech/VTAD

How We Explore

  • This illustration shows a concept for multiple robots that would team up to ferry to Earth samples of rock and soil collected from the Martian surface by NASA's Mars Perseverance rover.

    Mars Sample Return

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

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  • 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.

    Mars Perseverance Rover (Mars 2020)

    The Mars 2020 mission Perseverance rover is the first step of a proposed roundtrip journey to return Mars samples to Earth.

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  • The hole visible to the left of the rover is where its robotic drill sampled a rock nicknamed "Nontron." The Curiosity team is nicknaming features in this part of Mars using names from the region around the village of Nontron in southwestern France.

    Mars Curiosity Rover (Mars Science Laboratory)

    Curiosity is investigating Mars to determine whether the Red Planet was ever habitable to microbial life.

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  • spacecraft orbiting red planet

    MAVEN

    The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission is the first mission devoted to understanding the Martian upper atmosphere.

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  • An illustration of a spacecraft over Mars

    Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

    Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter searches for evidence that water persisted on the surface of Mars for a long period of time.

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  • 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

    Mars Odyssey mission created the first global map of chemical elements and minerals that make up the Martian surface.

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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.

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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