Mars Exploration timeline

I've always been awaiting the announcement from NASA or another country that they are working on putting a man/woman on Mars. Can you imagine having that place in history? The first person to set foot on another planet? * Please let's leave the conspiracy and Nibiru theories out of this *

One of the best posts I have had the privilege of reading....
A definite star and flag for you Internos!

Now quit it.....I have work to do!

Thanks to everyone for your kind replies

One of the reasons that brought me to lay out this work has been the
one pointed out by ArMaP:

there's a huge amount of failures that sometimes seems to have been forgotten:
we often believe that a mission to Mars is routine, but it's not, and probably it won't be for a long time yet,
especially if it includes a landing

Ive been working to some illustrated statistics, but i preferred to wait for page 2 (page one was overloaded of images now

)

Total missions (Phoenix included)


Missions divided by results


Comparison between US and USSR missions



Landings: successes and failures




Successful
Mars 3, USSR, landed 2 December 1971.
Viking 1, USA, landed 20 July 1976.
Viking 2, USA, landed 3 September 1976.
Mars Pathfinder lander and Soujourner rover, USA, landed 4 July 1997.
Spirit rover, USA, landed 3 January 2004.
Opportunity rover, USA, landed 25 January 2004.



Failed
Mars 2, USSR, crashed 27 November 1971.
Mars 6, USSR, crashed 12 March 1974.
Mars Polar Lander, USA, crashed 3 December 1999.
Deep Space 2 Microprobes 1 and 2, USA, crashed 3 December 1999.
Beagle 2 lander, GB (ESA mission), crashed 25 December 2003.


Thanks again to everyone

It may be more a question of luck, but ESA has a perfect record of 100% success with orbiters (the only one they did was successful and Beagle 2 was not a ESA mission ).

Internos, from your statistics above I see that there was a Japanese mission that failed (I went looking for it and I now know that it was called Nozomi), but I don't see it on the first page of the thread, along with the other missions, am I missing it or did you missed it?

reply to post by ArMaP


You are ABSOLUTELY right
It has to be happened when i was stick while looking for Nozomi's photos:

Launch: 3 July 1998
Name: Nozomi (Planet-B)



Country: Japan
Result: Failure
Reason: No orbit insertion; fuel problems

Mars flyby
The spacecraft flew by Mars on December 14, 2003 and went into a roughly 2-year heliocentric orbit. Though its mission has been abandoned the spacecraft is still active.

Intended Mars mission
Nozomi was to be inserted into a highly eccentric Mars orbit with a periareion 300 km above the surface, an apoareion of 15 Mars radii, and an inclination of 170 degrees with respect to the ecliptic plane. Shortly after insertion, the mast and antennas were to be deployed. The periareion would have been lowered to 150 km, the orbital period to about 38.5 hours. The spacecraft was to be spin stabilized at 7.5 rpm with its spin axis (and the dish antenna) pointed towards Earth. The periapsis portion of the orbit would have allowed in-situ measurements of the thermosphere and lower exosphere and remote sensing of the lower atmosphere and surface. The more distant parts of the orbit would be for study of the ions and neutral gas escaping from Mars and their interactions with the solar wind. The nominal mission was planned for one martian year (approximately two Earth years). An extended mission might have allowed operation of the mission for three to five years. The spacecraft was also to point its cameras at the martian moons Phobos and Deimos.

This image of the Earth and Moon was the first picture taken by the Nozomi camera. (Courtesy NASA/KSC)

www.stp.isas.jaxa.jp...
www.stp.isas.jaxa.jp...
moon.jaxa.jp...

Efforts to put the Nozomi spacecraft into martian orbit have been abandoned. An attempt to fire thrusters to orient the craft for a Mars orbit insertion burn failed on December 9. The smaller thrusters were successfully fired and Nozomi flew past Mars at a distance of 1000 km on 14 December and went into a heliocentric orbit with a period of roughly two years.

nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov...
solarsystem.nasa.gov...


Hope Lost, Japan Abandons Mars Probe
By Kenji Hall - Associated Press
posted: 10:58 am ET 09 December 2003

TOKYO (AP) _ Japan abandoned its troubled mission to Mars on Tuesday after space officials failed in their final effort to put the Nozomi probe back on course to orbit the Red Planet.

The probe, Japan's first interplanetary explorer, had been traveling for five years toward Mars and would have reached the planet next week.
But officials at JAXA, Japan's space agency, said Nozomi was off target and that scientists gave up trying to salvage the mission after an attempt to fire the probe's engines failed because it was short on fuel.
"Our mission to explore Mars is over,'' JAXA spokesman Junichi Moriuma told The Associated Press. "After today's attempt, almost all of the probe's fuel is gone.''
Nozomi -- which means "Hope'' -- was to have circled Mars at an average altitude of about 550 miles to determine whether the planet has a magnetic field.
It was also set to examine the evolving Martian atmosphere's interaction with the solar wind -- a stream of highly charged particles coming from the Sun -- and offer a close-up examination of the moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos.
But malfunctions during Nozomi's journey altered its trajectory, putting the dragonfly-shaped, 1,190-pound probe into a course that was too low and raising concerns it might crash into -- and possibly contaminate -- the planet's surface.
More than four years behind schedule, the probe was limping, nearly out of fuel, its electrical and communications equipment badly damaged by solar flares.
In sharp contrast with China's recent launch of its first manned rocket, Japan's space program, which sent a probe into lunar orbit and has another on its way to an asteroid, has suffered a string of setbacks.

Last month, an H-2A rocket carrying a pair of spy satellites strayed off course and was destroyed just minutes after liftoff. Because the H-2A is the workhorse of Japan's space program, a review of the failure is expected to force the postponement of several other missions.

The probe will remain in orbit. Moriuma said scientists will continue to modify Nozomi to carry out alternative missions, including monitoring solar activity, as it carves a wide path round the solar system. One lap is expected to take two years, he added.

Nozomi is part of an international fleet of Mars probes.

NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey are orbiting the planet and sending back images to Earth. Over the next month or so, the European Space Agency's Mars Express and three other spacecraft are expected to land on Mars.

www.space.com...

ArMaP, thanks for bringing it up to my attention: and thanks for finding the time to contribute here

Impressive.

You've included a myriad of information. Thanks for a job well done.

I spent the past half hour reading this lol, great job mate

Originally posted by Element-115

Originally posted by GorehoundLarry
reply to post by Element-115

 

No probs, I could be wrong and it could all really just be a big conspiracy, but who knows. Meh!!!

I'm confident that there's a lot of conspiracies out there... I'm sure of it...

But sometimes, like now I have had it, with conspiracies up the wazoo!!!

Couldn't we just get ONE or TWO solved already?

Mod Edit: Big Quote – Please Review This Link.
Mod Note: One Line Post – Please Review This Link.

[edit on 25-6-2008 by Gemwolf]

reply to post by Element-115


I think because there is a race now for fusion technology which needs helium3. helium3 is on the moon.

Awesome. Top-notch. this is the whole reason I started coming here.

I never saw the EM or gravity distribution graphs before. Thanks!!

Additionally, if you have an interest in Mars Orbiter Camera materials, but don't feel like going through the hassle, have a look at this:

www.abovetopsecret.com...'

I hate to plug this way, but I think it's important and overlooked.

Awersome thread Internos...

In many religions and cultures, planet Mars is know as planet of war... the planet was always considered agressive... and Red

when i see the pictures from Mars, I always feel like there was civilization but its no more... and NASA is gathering what ever it can from mars, so as to take lead in space techs... anyways... just a thought

great thread



[edit on 5-9-2008 by communicator]

Excellent thread Internos! Star+flag! I'm really enjoying this History of Mars Exploration in photos and texts, specially liking this one:




...ugly beast...but at least they tried!

Simply Amazing Post Internos

i cannot believe how much data you have put together here for us to see and i for one do appreciate your hard work on this

wish i could give you a hundred stars for this one

It is amazing to see all of this data in one place. It kind of makes you realize why they have not sent manned missions to Mars (at least not publisized ones) when you relize the Failure to Success rate being what it is.

Internos, another great thread, I would say keep up the good work, but I think it would be hard for you not to.

Thanks for compiling all of this solid info! That was a great read. I appreciate the hours & hours you obviously put into this thread. Flags & stars to you my friend.