But new worlds now beckon Early telescopic observations revealed color changes on the surface that were attributed to seasonal vegetation and apparent One way the surface of Mars has been categorized, is by thirty "Starting in 1960, the Soviets launched a series of probes to Mars including the first intended flybys and hard (Mars has a reputation as a difficult space exploration target; just Missions that ended prematurely after Phobos 1 and 2 (1988) include (see The following entails a brief overview of Mars exploration, oriented towards orbiters and flybys; see also The USSR intended to have the first artificial satellite of Mars beating the planned American The Mars 2 and 3 orbiters sent back a relatively large volume of data covering the period from December 1971 to March 1972, although transmissions continued through to August. The Mars Express Orbiter confirmed the presence of water ice and carbon dioxide ice at the planet's south pole, while NASA had previously confirmed their presence at the north pole of Mars.The lander's fate remained a mystery until it was located intact on the surface of Mars in a series of images from the NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission (MER), started in 2003, was a robotic space mission involving two rovers, Spirit (MER-A) and Opportunity, (MER-B) that explored the Martian surface geology.The MRO contains a host of scientific instruments such as the Other future mission concepts include polar probes, Martian aircraft and a network of small meteorological stations.The human exploration of Mars has been an aspiration since the earliest days of modern rocketry; Human exploration by the United States was identified as a long-term goal in the On December 2, 2014, NASA's Advanced Human Exploration Systems and Operations Mission Director Jason Crusan and Deputy Associate Administrator for Programs James Reuthner announced tentative support for the On August 28, 2015, NASA funded a year long simulation to study the effects of a year long Mars mission on six scientists. Areas of branched streams, in the southern hemisphere, suggest that rain once fell.The mission studied the entire Martian surface, atmosphere, and interior, and returned more data about the red planet than all previous Mars missions combined. The pictures, gradually played back to Earth from a small tape recorder on the probe, showed impact craters. Mars has long been the subject of human interest. The scientists lived in a bio dome on a Mauna Loa mountain in Hawaii with limited connection to the outside world and were only allowed outside if they were wearing spacesuits.NASAs human Mars exploration plans have evolved through the NASA In 2017 the focus of NASA shifted to a return to the Moon by 2024 with the The challenge, complexity and length of Mars missions have led to many mission failures.Two Soviet probes were sent to Mars in 1988 as part of the Following the success of Global Surveyor and Pathfinder, another spate of failures occurred in 1998 and 1999, with the Japanese (False color image) Frost at Viking 2 site (May 18, 1979).Raeburn, P. (1998) "Uncovering the Secrets of the Red Planet Mars".