Intriguing landforms carved into the surface of Mars resemble many-legged spiders.

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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Read More Mars Stories

Scientists Re-Create Mars ‘Spiders’ in a Lab for First Time

The spiders are strange, beautiful geologic features in their own right.

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.

Perseverance Begins Long Climb Up Martian Crater Rim

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.

How Curiosity’s Sky Crane Changed the Way NASA Explores Mars

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.

A Fascinating Mars Rock

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

NASA program scientist Lindsay Hays explains what defines potential signs of ancient life on other worlds and why they require future study. NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover is searching for these signs, collecting samples for future return to Earth, and helping pave the way for human exploration.

What is a Potential Biosignature?

Scientist Lindsay Hays explains what defines potential signs of ancient life on other worlds

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.

More Mars Facts
Featured Video

The Mars Report

No WiFi? No problem for the Mars Curiosity rover.

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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 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: Interplanetary Internet

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

How We Explore

  • 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. 

  • Perseverance Selfie with Ingenuity

    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.

  • Mars rover sitting on the red soil of mars and facing the camera for a selfie

    Mars Curiosity Rover (Mars Science Laboratory)

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

  • Artist's Concept of MAVEN

    MAVEN

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

  • 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.

  • 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.

Learn More About Our Robotic Explorers
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Mars Resources

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

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News & Features


All Mars News & Features
Article
5 min read

NASA Scientists Re-Create Mars ‘Spiders’ in a Lab for First Time

Article
6 min read

NASA’s Hubble, MAVEN Help Solve the Mystery of Mars’ Escaping Water

On a black background, a large orange and white orb is surrounded by a diffuse, grainy, orange halo. The halo appears to have more material on its right side than its left.
5 min read

NASA’s Perseverance Rover to Begin Long Climb Up Martian Crater Rim

Article1 month ago
5 min read

Here’s How Curiosity’s Sky Crane Changed the Way NASA Explores Mars

Article1 month ago
6 min read

NASA Trains Machine Learning Algorithm for Mars Sample Analysis

Article1 month ago

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
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Discover More Topics From NASA

Mars Science Laboratory: Curiosity Rover

Mars rover sitting on the red soil of mars and facing the camera for a selfie

Mars 2020: Perseverance Rover

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 Sample Return

Mars Exploration

The bright red-orange surface of Mars as seen from space.