Comments, corrections, and propositions to this page are welcome ! Contact me !
Historic Mars Missions:
Both Viking missions were extremely fruitful in both the quality and
the quantity of accquired data: The orbiters collected some 52,000
images and cartographed 97 per cent of the Martian surface from orbit,
often from different angles so that the topography could be determined.
The landers returned some 4,500 photos and weather data from the
Martian surface, documenting seasonal changes, besides the well-known
soil investigations and bio experiments.
Viking spacecraft image
(inflight configuration with orbiter and lander; shown in this page);
Viking info, images and links at SEDS;
Viking homepage at Nasa's NSSDC;
Viking homepage at NASM;
Viking 1&2 (JPL)
For the time after 2020, a continuation of the research missions is planned. Detailed plans are still to be worked out, and should utilize the newly acquired knowledge of the current and scheduled Mars missions.
Crewed Missions to Mars
Since the 1950s and earlier, numerous investigations, plans and proposals have been outlined and published for a crewed mission or crewed missions to Mars. The relevant science and technology is basically longly known and steadily improving. Current preliminary estimates, given by current US government and elsewhere, place the timeframe to around the 2030s (see Nasa's Journey to Mars webpage, around 2016..). The opinion of the present author is that, persistent political willingness given, such a mission could be achieved within about 10 years after commencing the effort.
Formerly, Nasa officials had expressed their intention that these efforts should eventually be leading to a Mars mission with a human crew to be launched in 2018 (and to arrive at Mars in 2019), and to begin an era of permanent human presence on our neighbor planet. These dates are under steady review, with the aim to do the mission sooner: CNN reported of (now outdated) plans for a manned mission in 2012, while also dates as early as 2007 have been proposed.
A vision presented by the President of the United States in January, 2004 had proposed a crewed Mars mission following the establishment of a permanantly crewed Moon base which should be built between 2015 and 2020, after completing the assembly of the International Space Station and the development of a new space transportation system in about 2010. In the scenario of this plan, a crewed Mars mission could have occured in or after the year 2019, also to celebrate the 50th anniversary of 1969 Moon landing.
Modified mission - once scheduled to include Mars, eventually it went another way ..
Last Modification: July 31, 2022