Feature

MARS
Historical
The escaping atmosphere Mars missions
Mars once had a thick atmosphere and
a significant amount of liquid water on Soviet Union/Russia
the surface, but much of the
atmosphere has leaked away over TIANWEN-1 United States

INVASION
Orbiter Europe
billions of years. Hope will assess how Other
China’s pioneering mission to Mars will
oxygen and hydrogen atoms and ions
carry an orbiter, rover and lander — it
are escaping into space. Mission failure
would be the first nation to achieve all
three. Both the rover and orbiter have
Flyby Lander
radar instruments for spotting water
Solar and ice on the surface and Orbiter Rover
wind Ions and underground. They will also study the
atoms

HOPE
planet’s geology and weather. Rover
escape 1960
Ultraviolet
The UAE mission will travel around radiation Mars
Mars in an elliptical orbit ranging from Mariner 4
Three spacecraft about 22,000 to 44,000 kilometres. It
carries two spectrometers and a
First flyby

Lander Mars 3
heading to the red
high-resolution imager to capture
information about how the atmosphere First lander to
changes over the day and throughout send back data

planet this year will send the seasons.

1970

back an unprecedented
stream of information
Mariner 9
First orbiter
Helicopter
about the alien world. Mastcam-Z
The robot geologist
Perseverance carries 43 tubes to hold rock samples
Search for life
Perseverance has several Viking 1, Viking 2
and SuperCam collected and stored by a series of 3 robots. When instruments that will hunt for
imagers the samples are eventually returned to Earth, they evidence of life. One of those is
could provide the first definitive evidence of whether SHERLOC, which illuminates rocks
By Richard Monastersky life once existed on Mars. with an ultraviolet laser and 1980
Design by Jasiek Krzysztofiak records spectra of the
1 The luminescence and reflectance. It
2.1-metre-long can identify the signal of organic
Robotic arm
robot arm drills molecules and minerals that
Never before will such a diverse array of MEDA a thin sample
with drill
formed in watery environments.
scientific gear have arrived at a foreign weather of rock.
station SHERLOC
planet at the same time, and with such
broad ambitions. Missions from China, the
RIMFAX
United States and the United Arab Emirates subsurface Carousel Coring bit
1990
(UAE) will include two orbiters, two rovers, radar
Ultraviolet
a stationary surface laboratory and even a 2 The arm delivers the laser

helicopter. They aim to study everything sample to a carousel,

which moves the sample Pathfinder
from Mars’s buried water deposits to the to the rover’s underside. Carousel
Scattering Fluorescence
MOXIE
top of its atmosphere, with a particular produces
oxygen
focus on the search for life. from carbon Sojourner
dioxide Rover First rover
body
2000
Robotic arm

Spectral
3 A second robotic arm map
carries the sample to Mars Express
Landing sites different instruments for Sealing, volume European
A US rover called Perseverance will land in Jezero Crater, initial measurements, then and vision stations Space Agency’s
near a delta formed by an ancient river — a prime location seals the tube. first orbiter
for finding signs of past life if it existed. China is considering

PERSEVERANCE
several landing sites for its Tianwen-1 mission. 2010
Tianwen-1 potential landing sites Previous missions Analysis of Curiosity
organic material rover
The US rover is a car-sized vehicle
and minerals India’s Mars
packed with seven instruments. Its main
Phoenix task is to collect rock samples destined Orbiter Mission
Sample
Viking 2 to be carried back to Earth in a future
Sample handling
Perseverance mission. It will also study the planet’s arm
storage
Viking 1 weather and geology, hunt for water,
produce oxygen from carbon dioxide,
Pathfinder record sounds for the first time and test
Spirit Opportunity PIXL SHERLOC
InSight a solar-powered helicopter. SOURCES: LANDING SITES, COMPILED BY
X-ray Ultraviolet E. LAKDAWALLA/PLANETARY SOCIETY; 2020
spectrometer spectrometer 4 A future mission will aim to
ATMOSPHERE GRAPHIC, ADAPTED FROM ESA/
HTTPS://GO.NATURE.COM/2ZDWJKA; HISTORICAL
Curiosity retrieve the cached samples MISSIONS, NASA; NASA ROVER, Planned
NASA/JPL-CALTECH; MARS BASE MAP, US
and send them back to Earth. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. missions

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