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

NASA Spacecraft in Orbit

NASA Rovers on the Surface

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.

Collected by the Perseverance Rover

Mars Rock Sample Montage

These high-resolution images highlight the diversity of materials obtained during the rover’s first thee and a half years on the Red Planet.

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How We Explore

NASA currently has five active missions at Mars.

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

Perseverance Mars Rover

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

Curiosity Mars Rover

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

MAVEN

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

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.

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: 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

News & Features

All Mars News & Features

News Release

3 min read

NASA Outlines Latest Moon to Mars Plans in 2024 Architecture Update

Article

5 min read

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Reaches Top of Jezero Crater Rim

5 min read

NASA Performs First Aircraft Accident Investigation on Another World

Article4 days ago

5 min read

Making Mars’ Moons: Supercomputers Offer ‘Disruptive’ New Explanation

Article3 weeks ago

5 min read

NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover Takes a Last Look at Mysterious Sulfur

Article4 weeks 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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