A brief summary of all successful Mars lander missions

The Soviet Union’s Mars 3 lander made the first successful soft landing on Mars. Transmissions ceased 20 seconds after it landed (one source says 14.5 seconds). It managed to send one gray image with no details.

That’s the sum total of information sent from the surface of Mars by all non-American landers.

In contrast, the United States has accomplished eight highly successful landings, four of them deploying rovers. The figure after each U.S. lander listed below is the total number of days it operated on the surface.

Viking 1 — 2,307 Earth days
Viking 2 — 1,316 Earth days
Mars Pathfinder (1st rover) — 85 Earth days
Spirit (2nd rover) — 2,269 Earth days
Opportunity (3rd rover) — 5,498 Earth days
Phoenix — 156 Earth days
Curiosity (4th rover) — 2,820 Earth days as of April 27

That’s a combined total of 14,451 Earth days of operations on Mars, or about 39.6 years.

Perseverance, a nearly identical twin of Curiosity, is scheduled for launch in 81 days. It will carry the Mars Helicopter, which if successful, will make the first powered flight on Mars.

I hope this puts things in perspective as China’s Tianwen-1 Mars lander and rover is readied for launch in July.

a reply to: Scapegrace

Are you not going to mention the ones that crashed into mars?

Other countries have done great work in space.

Is this just a USA USA USA USA USA thread?

You do get a star and a flag just because you did not mention COVID 19

P

a reply to: Scapegrace

This is an interesting list of mars missions.

List of missions to Mars

Lots of failures.

But the US has an excellent record for the last few decades.

NASA

a reply to: pheonix358

You do get a star and a flag just because you did not mention COVID 19

I was gonna star you, till you mentioned COVID 19

a reply to: Scapegrace

The US has had misfortune as well, in space exploration. Two US landers, that I have had high hopes for, have just disappeared, returning no valid data.

Mars is a long way away and before we had those early failures, we had to make guesses about what things were like there.

To have landed on Mars and returned any sort of data is a remarkable achievement for any country.

Kudos to Russia for getting there and to the US for a persistence that paid off.

originally posted by: pheonix358
a reply to: Scapegrace

Are you not going to mention the ones that crashed into mars?

Other countries have done great work in space.

Is this just a USA USA USA USA USA thread?

You do get a star and a flag just because you did not mention COVID 19

P

P, c'mon mate. If this was an Australian achievement I'd be proud too. 'Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi, an all.' I'd be proud too and would espouse this on ATS.

My thoughts P,

Bally

a reply to: bally001

I would have agreed with you and not reply as I did had the OP not taunted both Russia and China.

America does what she does because of the almighty $$$ advantage she has over other countries and can afford to plow ahead after setbacks ... and they have had many cough space shuttles X 2.

Russia had the first satellite, first animal, first man in space. First space walk, first space station and the OP wants to denigrate these accomplishments.

Yes, the US has done great ... after the pioneering work that Russia did

P

originally posted by: pheonix358
a reply to: bally001

I would have agreed with you and not reply as I did had the OP not taunted both Russia and China.

America does what she does because of the almighty $$$ advantage she has over other countries and can afford to plow ahead after setbacks ... and they have had many cough space shuttles X 2.

Russia had the first satellite, first animal, first man in space. First space walk, first space station and the OP wants to denigrate these accomplishments.

Yes, the US has done great ... after the pioneering work that Russia did

P

So , with all that said , what has Australia done except sign statements of intent ?

a reply to: Gothmog

We helped to bring the TV pictures of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the moon back in 1969 to a world wide audience.

We do not have a population size that is able to spend the money needed for space exploration.

P

originally posted by: pheonix358
a reply to: Gothmog

We helped to bring the TV pictures of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the moon back in 1969 to a world wide audience.

We do not have a population size that is able to spend the money needed for space exploration.

P

Did Australia do this from space ?

a reply to: LookingAtMars

Soviet Union /Russia attempts have always ended in failure

Only one that had even a modicum of success was MARS 3

Even then the landing probe only transmitted for few seconds before falling silent

The orbiter part of probe failed to enter correct orbit do failure of retro rocket

US Probes have only had few failure in over 50 years

Mariner 3 - payload shroud failure

Mariner 8 - Launch failure in booster

Mars Climate Orbiter - complete f*ck Up where one team was using metric to compute orbital insertion while other part of team used imperial measurements

Mars Polar Orbital - lost communication on atmospheric entry

That's while its called rocket science - otherwise even Zimbabwe could land probes on Mars

a reply to: pheonix358

Russia had the first satellite, first animal, first man in space. First space walk, first space station and the OP wants to denigrate these accomplishments.

While Soviets had some space firsts was more the result of political/bureaucratic bungling by US and to dumb luck than any Soviets superiority

US had capability to launch satellite full year before godless commies in 1956 using Von Braun Jupiter C

Eisenhower administration has insisted on pure civilian program . Jupiter C was military program run by Army researching re entry capsules and Von Braun and his team having association with certain political movement ……

US was prepared to launch an is pace weeks before Gagarin - incidents with Redstone lead to delays , one booster failed to leave pad (Mercury Redstone 1) when plug disconnected early triggering abort . Another test with chimp
HAM had problem with turbopump overspeed causing fuel to exhaust 2 seconds early and triggering abort sequence

Von Braun insisted on additional launch using boiler plate capsule - this was to have been Shephard launch ……

The first spacewalk (VOSKHOD 2) was to beat American attempt on upcoming Gemini mission

Almost ended in disaster when could not get through spacecraft hatch - had to depresurrize suit to fit in Even then the
spacecraft re entry system failed. Had to use auxiliary retro rocket on later orbit and landed in remote area of Urals

Spacecraft was so dangerous Soviets decommissioned it

Chinese space program is result of copying/ stealing technology from Russia and US …………..

originally posted by: pheonix358
a reply to: bally001

I would have agreed with you and not reply as I did had the OP not taunted both Russia and China.

America does what she does because of the almighty $$$ advantage she has over other countries and can afford to plow ahead after setbacks ... and they have had many cough space shuttles X 2.

Russia had the first satellite, first animal, first man in space. First space walk, first space station and the OP wants to denigrate these accomplishments.

Yes, the US has done great ... after the pioneering work that Russia did

P

What Russia has achieved is amazing. Less than 13 years after the horrendous destruction they suffered in WWII, the Russians launched the first satellite. They continued to beat America’s collective ass for eight years, achieving numerous space firsts, most importantly, the first man in space.

But by the mid-1960s, NASA and the USAF had learned how to make much more reliable launch vehicles, and Project Gemini would use one of these — Titan II — to pull well ahead of the Soviets in preparation for the Apollo Program.

By the early 1970s, NASA was launching the world’s finest probes and it’s been that way ever since. NASA was first to flyby: Mars, Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and recently, Pluto. NASA was first to orbit: Mars, Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn.

The imagery and data returned has been spectacular. I wouldn’t be surprised if half or more of the Solar System’s known moons were discovered by NASA probes. If anyone knows the answer re: moons discovered, please let us know.

The Russians have dominated the exploration of Venus and operation of space stations. However, the ISS and its components were mostly funded, launched (more than 70 percent of total mass) and assembled by the United States in 36 Space Shuttle flights.

Unlike NASA, which is never satisfied with its launch vehicles, the Russians wisely stuck with the same rocket used for Sputnik 1 and Gagarin to send people into orbit. But after relying on Russia for nine years to send our folks into space, U.S. companies and NASA will be launching as many as five different manned spacecraft over the next three years, beginning in May: Crew Dragon, Starliner, Orion, Dream Chaser and Starship. It’s going to be an unbelievable era for U.S. manned space flight, hoping and assuming, of course, that we recover from the pandemic.

Honestly, I have the greatest respect for Russian space achievements and technology. It should never be forgotten that putting anything into orbit is immensely difficult, and space is a dangerous environment that frail humans and their machines are ill equipped to survive.

But surely you can admit the United States has had unparalleled success in Mars exploration? I’m not denying we’ve had a lot of failures with Mars probes, along with every other nation that has tried — except India!

I’m extremely impressed with the Indian space program. They seem to have few failures in general and succeeded in orbiting Mars on their first attempt IIRC.

I’m sure the Chinese will eventually start doing things that haven’t been done by the United States or Russia 50 years ago, and use their own technology instead of borrowed Russian tech. Then I’ll be impressed with them.

May I ask what your nation has achieved in space? Are you relishing a sense of schadenfreude when you put down U.S. space achievements?

originally posted by: firerescue
a reply to: LookingAtMars

Soviet Union /Russia attempts have always ended in failure

Only one that had even a modicum of success was MARS 3

Even then the landing probe only transmitted for few seconds before falling silent

The orbiter part of probe failed to enter correct orbit do failure of retro rocket

US Probes have only had few failure in over 50 years

Mariner 3 - payload shroud failure

Mariner 8 - Launch failure in booster

Mars Climate Orbiter - complete f*ck Up where one team was using metric to compute orbital insertion while other part of team used imperial measurements

Mars Polar Orbital - lost communication on atmospheric entry

That's while its called rocket science - otherwise even Zimbabwe could land probes on Mars

It’s the Mars Curse. It’s real.

originally posted by: pheonix358
a reply to: Scapegrace

Are you not going to mention the ones that crashed into mars?

Why? They were not successful and accomplished nothing. And are we not going to mention the MRO? Yet another highly successful mission to Mars. Anyone else done of those? Guess not.

Other countries have done great work in space. Is this just a USA USA USA USA USA thread?

Granted. Other countries have, but they haven't done # on Mars, which is the point of this thread.

When Australia or someone else has landed a Rover on Mars, by all means tell us all about it. Until then, the USA is the only country that has had any success on Mars. So get over it.

a reply to: Scapegrace

What Russia has achieved is amazing. Less than 13 years after the horrendous destruction they suffered in WWII, the Russians launched the first satellite. They continued to beat America’s collective ass for eight years, achieving numerous space firsts, most importantly, the first man in space.

Both the USA and Soviets benefited from captured German rocket technology

It was the US Air Farce with its fixation on giant aerial battleships like the B 36 and such and that we didn't need an Army, Navy, Marines of Coast Guard 'cause nuke the bastards back to the stone age,

The crazed generals - Buck Turgidson and Jack D Ripper in DR STRANGELOVE are pretty close to the marks

The Air Farce monopolized money and political support It wasn't until mid way through the Korean Wat that the Pentagon decided to get serious and commit resources to the new fangled rockets and missile and even then was lot of opposition by the "bomber boys" because it threatened their turf

Number of years were lost to lackadaisical attitude

originally posted by: firerescue
a reply to: pheonix358

Russia had the first satellite, first animal, first man in space. First space walk, first space station and the OP wants to denigrate these accomplishments.

While Soviets had some space firsts was more the result of political/bureaucratic bungling by US and to dumb luck than any Soviets superiority

US had capability to launch satellite full year before godless commies in 1956 using Von Braun Jupiter C

Eisenhower administration has insisted on pure civilian program . Jupiter C was military program run by Army researching re entry capsules and Von Braun and his team having association with certain political movement ……

US was prepared to launch an is pace weeks before Gagarin - incidents with Redstone lead to delays , one booster failed to leave pad (Mercury Redstone 1) when plug disconnected early triggering abort . Another test with chimp
HAM had problem with turbopump overspeed causing fuel to exhaust 2 seconds early and triggering abort sequence

Von Braun insisted on additional launch using boiler plate capsule - this was to have been Shephard launch ……

The first spacewalk (VOSKHOD 2) was to beat American attempt on upcoming Gemini mission

Almost ended in disaster when could not get through spacecraft hatch - had to depresurrize suit to fit in Even then the
spacecraft re entry system failed. Had to use auxiliary retro rocket on later orbit and landed in remote area of Urals

Spacecraft was so dangerous Soviets decommissioned it

Chinese space program is result of copying/ stealing technology from Russia and US …………..

I have nothing but admiration for Soviet space achievements. Of course, their main advantage initially was having a launcher with a much, much heavier throw weight than early U.S. rockets. They had to be, because early Soviet nukes were much heavier than U.S. nukes.

Another advantage was that they were highly secretive, while NASA made its goals known well in advance and broadcast launches live. You never saw a Soviet rocket blow up on the launch pad, although they had at least as many spectacular failures as early U.S. launch attempts.

Secretiveness and a willingness to take foolish risks for the sake of propaganda is why the Soviets had the first EVA. They knew Ed White was due to space walk in Gemini 4. So the Soviets rigged up an inflatable airlock on Voshkod 2, a one-time expedient solely for the purpose of beating the Americans.

It’s simply amazing that the crew survived the mission, as one thing after another went wrong. Because the Soviets had to reduce weight to pull off their propaganda stunt on a spacecraft no larger than the Vostok Gagarin flew in, there was no provision for crew escape in the event of a launch emergency for the first two and half minutes (a shroud covered the Voshkod during that time).

Leonov almost died from heat stroke during his EVA. His suit inflated so much he couldn’t bend his fingers or the joints in his arms and legs. He had to vent air from his ballooned suit to re-enter the ship, and still barely managed to do so. The crew had trouble resealing the hatch.

The automatic landing system malfunctioned, forcing them to go manual.

Because it was so cramped inside, the suited-up cosmonauts couldn’t return to their seats for 46 seconds after orienting the ship for re-entry, thus throwing off the center of gravity.

Wikipedia: “The orbital module did not properly disconnect from the landing module, not unlike Vostok 1, causing the spherical return vehicle to spin wildly until the modules disconnected at 100 km.”

The 46-second delay caused the ship to land 240 miles from the Landing zone in a dense Siberian forest.

Flight controllers had no idea where they landed or if the crew was alive.

They were quickly found by aircraft, but helicopters couldn’t land, so they spent the night in the capsule, which was open to the 23 degree Fahrenheit temps because the hatch had been blown off by explosive bolts.

They survived of course, but the world wasn’t made privy to their numerous problems, unlike problems encountered on manned U.S. missions.

My point in bringing this up is the Soviets often devised missions solely for propaganda purposes, to be first at something: the first EVA, the first three-man mission (flown without spacesuits so they could cram three men in a Voshkod), the first woman in space.

Gemini 4 went relatively smoothly, although there were some problems, one of which could have been fatal. This was 1965 after all and only the second manned flight of a Gemini.

There were difficulties getting the hatch open for the EVA, but McDivitt encountered the same thing in rehearsals and was confident he could get it closed again. Depressurization of the capsule went smoothly, since Gemini was designed with EVAs in mind, unlike Voshkod.

Ed White had no problems on his EVA, easily maneuvering around the Gemini with his hand-held maneuvering device, which fired jets of nitrogen.

There were communications problems; White couldn’t talk to ground control during his EVA. After 20 minutes, Houston ordered White, through McDivitt, back inside the ship, even though he was enjoying the hell out of his space walk.

They had some trouble closing the hatch, which was necessary to prevent their deaths during re-entry. A computer malfunction (remember, this was 1965) caused the craft to roll too much during re-entry, leading to a rough landing 43 miles off target. But the crew was fine and quickly recovered.

originally posted by: firerescue
a reply to: Scapegrace

What Russia has achieved is amazing. Less than 13 years after the horrendous destruction they suffered in WWII, the Russians launched the first satellite. They continued to beat America’s collective ass for eight years, achieving numerous space firsts, most importantly, the first man in space.

Both the USA and Soviets benefited from captured German rocket technology

It was the US Air Farce with its fixation on giant aerial battleships like the B 36 and such and that we didn't need an Army, Navy, Marines of Coast Guard 'cause nuke the bastards back to the stone age,

The crazed generals - Buck Turgidson and Jack D Ripper in DR STRANGELOVE are pretty close to the marks

The Air Farce monopolized money and political support It wasn't until mid way through the Korean Wat that the Pentagon decided to get serious and commit resources to the new fangled rockets and missile and even then was lot of opposition by the "bomber boys" because it threatened their turf

Number of years were lost to lackadaisical attitude

Yeah, we had such a huge lead in bomber numbers and technology, we didn’t feel a pressing need to develop something as revolutionary as an ICBM. The Soviets, realizing they couldn’t match our bomber fleet, tried an end-around with long-range rockets and sent the nation into a panic with Sputnik 1. The Germans did the same thing prior to WWII, developing ballistic missiles as a way to get around restrictions placed on their artillery after WWI.

originally posted by: pheonix358
a reply to: bally001

Russia had the first satellite, first animal, first man in space. First space walk, first space station and the OP wants to denigrate these accomplishments.

You forgot first woman and first death.

a reply to: LookingAtMars

The Soviets attempted to be the first to the moon -

The ZOND program of 1967-68 was to launch a manned mission ro circle the moon in a circum lunar (Figure 8) mission

Using a stripped down and modified Soyuz, deleting the orbital module in front, adding a long range communication
and navigation equipment

Can go to ASTRONAUTIX for a detailed description of the ZOND spacecraft

www.astronautix.com...


Soviets figured NASA would follow its incremental approach and take several tears to reach moon

Zond 5, launched in September 1968, carried biologic payload or turtles, flies, fungus around the moon

This was after numerous failures in the Proton booster attempting to launch test spacecraft

The next mission, ZOND 6 in November , suffered a hatch seal failure which caused the parachute to jettison early and spacecraft into the ground

Because of the failure a manned mission was put off even though the flight crew said willing to assume the risk

US intelligence had detected plans for the manned ZOND mission. In August 1968 decided to flip the script and roll the dice

Apollo 8 was originally be checkout of the LEM in earth orbit.. Do to delays LEM would not be ready until spring 1969

NASA, rather than have another earth orbit mission of little value and with possibility of Soviets beating us to the moon
Decided to change mission to lunar orbit. This was after SATURN V experienced severe problems on April test flight (Apollo 6) Despite this Nasa rolled the dice, trusting that Von Braun could fix the problems

Rest they say is history as Apollo 8 circled moon at Christmas 1968