Mars-the red planet has always kept mankind fascinated and has driven numerous missions, the latest being the 2020 Perseverance rover mission. Let us have a trip back through time experiencing the quest of human beings towards Mars. In conclusion, we would reflect on how important the Perseverance Rover mission can become in the long term.

Mariner 4 launched by NASA in late 1964 was the first successful in a series of missions planned to study Mars in flyby mode. It was launched over Atlas LV 3 Agena-D rocket. In 1965 it performed a flyby of Mars transmitting the first-ever close-up pictures of Mars to earth. Mariner 6 and 7 were other flyby missions sent to Mars, but they did not receive that much coverage as they were launched after the July 1969 Moon landing. Both these missions helped in identifying ice craters and the Martian atmosphere. The next breakthrough was attained by the Soviets when they soft-landed the Mars 3 space probe on the red planet. Mars 3 was launched using Proton-K rockets, and it attained the first-ever successful soft landing on Mars after the Mars 2 lander crashed on Mars. Viking Missions from the USA were close in the race when Viking 1 became the second successful soft lander on Mars. The Viking missions were orbiter lander missions to Mars launched on Titan-Centaur rockets. Viking 2 lander analyzed the Martian soil near the landing site (somewhere near Utopia Planitia). The chemical analysis by the lander revealed that the regolith of Mars at that site was the result of the weathering of Basaltic rocks. More analysis revealed the presence of weathered mafic igneous rocks. 

The follow up on the Viking program was set in the year 1992 with the Mars geoscience/climatology orbiter. It was commonly known as the Mars observer. It was set to expand upon the data gathered by the Viking missions. Some of its targeted areas of Martian investigation were the data regarding the Martian magnetic field, spectral lines detection for the Martian minerals, and the analysis of the data of Martian global elevation. This mission was delayed due to the Challenger Space shuttle disaster and some of its mission objectives were stricken off the list. After its launch, communication with the mission was lost during the interplanetary cruise phase and it became a failure. Even then the mission became crucial as it provided learning ground for NASA in planning for upcoming missions like Climate Orbiter, Odyssey, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. 

Mars exploration program was launched in the year 1993 by NASA in the aftermath of the failure of Mars observer. In the year, 1996, under the Mars exploration program, a mission was launched which was known as the Mars Global Surveyor. Some of its main payloads were the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter, Thermal emission spectrometer, Mars Orbiter camera. Its main mission purpose was to perform global Martian mapping which would include everything from the ionosphere to its surface. It also helped in the understanding of the Martian topography, the gravitational field, the atmospheric thermal structure, the shape of the planet inter alia. Till the end of its mission in 2006, it helped in maintaining a continuous data stream with regards to monitoring of the Martian weather with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (2006). It helped in imaging of the possible sites of landing for the Phoenix spacecraft (2007) (part of Mars exploration program) and the Curiosity rover (2011).

Launched after a month of the launch of Mars global surveyor, the landmark spacecraft-Mars Pathfinder made its landing in the region known as the Chryse Planitia. It had a lander (named after Carl Sagan) and a robotic lightweight mars rover- Sojourner. It was important in the sense that the Sojourner was the first rover to operate outside the Earth-Moon system. Its mission objectives included the study of the Martian soil and air among others. Pathfinder, also, functioned as the proof of concept for various developments like airbag assisted touchdown and obstacle avoidance (automated). It was a very low-cost mission to Mars which functioned as the first component of the Mars Environment Survey. The Mars Odyssey of 2001 is a robotic orbiter spacecraft was launched to look for the presence of water on the red planet which was inserted in the orbit around Mars in October 2001. This Odyssey mission was also meant to perform a risk assessment for the radiation to collate relevant data for future astronauts who would land on Mars. It provides as a relay point of communications between earth and the Curiosity rover and earlier the Phoenix lander. In December 2010, Odyssey 2001 broke the record of the longest orbiting spacecraft around Mars. It is expected to function until 2025.

The European space agency also launched a Mars express mission in 2003 which consisted of an orbiter and lander-Beagle 2. The lander failed in its deployment after its landing on Mars. The orbiter of this mission is still functioning performing functions like radar mapping of the subsurface to detect Martian permafrost, mapping of minerals, atmospheric composition, and circulation analysis among others. Spirit and Opportunity were two rover missions sent to Mars in 2003-2004 in study various features on the Martian surface. They were landed on the opposite sides of Mars so that a wider area on Mars can be studied. Spirit got stuck in a sand trap but performed way longer than expected. It stopped functioning somewhere in 2010 and the Opportunity functioned till 2018. Another important orbiter mission sent by NASA is the MRO mission- Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter launched in 2005, which after five months of aerobraking entered in its final science orbit and began functioning in studying the red planet and as a relay point of contact (high-speed data relay) between the ground missions and Earth. NASA expects it to function through the 2020s and it can be expected to be an important bridge of communication with missions that would be launched by upcoming private players in space travel like SpaceX. Mars Orbiter Mission (launched in 2013) from India also locally known as the Mangalyaan is an orbiter mission sent by Indian space organization- ISRO to take a step towards studying Mars. This mission made India the first Asian country to reach the Martian orbit and the first country on the globe to be able to do it in its first attempt. MAVEN was a special mission launched by NASA in 2013 on an Atlas V launch vehicle to study the Martian atmosphere. Functioning from an elliptical orbit, MAVEN showed the effects of the solar storms on the Martian air. The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter was a mission of collaboration between the European Space Agency and the Roscosmos (Russian space agency) launched in 2016. This mission was intended to understand the role of methane and trace gases in the Martian air which could be a hint for the presence of biological activity. To monitor the internal seismic structure of Mars, NASA launched a lander mission named –InSight– Interior exploration using Seismic Investigations, geodesy and heat transport. Mars Cube One (Marco) was a flyby mission whose purpose was to set up a real-time communication link between the InSight mission on the Marian surface and the NASA link on earth. InSight mission was crucial in the sense that it dug deepest inside the Martian crust among all the landers and the data gathered by it would help in understanding the internal structure of earth- including the core. This would further help us to understand the evolutionary processes guiding the formation of the internal structure of Mars. This can be used in the future city planning and colonization efforts like the ones being planned by SpaceX and Mars City project of Elon Musk. UAE and China also sent their orbiter missions, Emirates Mars Mission and Tianwen-1 respectively towards Mars in July 2020. In the same month, NASA launched a rover mission Perseverance (with an onboard helicopter-Ingenuity) towards Mars with payloads like RIMFAX (to study the subsurface details), SuperCam to perform chemical analysis of the Martian regolith, and MEDA (Martian Environmental Dynamics Analyzer- to study the various atmospheric factors like humidity, pressure, radiation, and others). An important payload MOXIE– Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment is also onboard the Perseverance Rover. The function of this payload will be to generate oxygen from the Martian Carbon dioxide. This experiment can in the future be scaled up to provide oxygen support for human colonization efforts on Mars.

These missions might look like costly ventures taken by the different space agencies of the various countries, but they are necessary building blocks towards taking humanity to Mars. Expanding the human population is placing unsustainable pressure on the resources of the world and is questioning the very existence of many species including mankind. These rovers, landers, and orbiters are the guides that would help humanity leap towards Mars. With the presence of ambitious space technology firms like SpaceX, Blue origin, and Rocket Lab, these steps taken towards Mars would prove to be meaningful in helping humanity reach Mars.