Welcome to NASA’s Mission to Mars Student Challenge! One of two rovers launched in 2003 to explore Mars and search for signs of past life, Spirit far outlasted her planned 90-day mission. NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover performed its first drive on Mars on March 4, 2021, covering 21.3 feet (6.5 meters) across the Martian landscape. Perseverance aims to help future astronauts brave that inhospitable landscape. NASA has also discussed plans to launch Mars missions from the Moon to reduce traveling costs. InSight will delve beneath the surface of Mars, detecting the fingerprints of the processes of terrestrial planet formation. Among her myriad discoveries, Spirit found evidence that Mars was once much wetter than it is today and helped scientists better understand the Martian wind. NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), the most advanced and powerful rocket under design, will launch future explorers on their journey to Mars. The Mars 2020 mission with its Perseverance rover is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the Red Planet. Get the latest updates on NASA missions, watch NASA TV live, and learn about our quest to reveal the unknown and benefit all humankind. Over the next five weeks, we will be leading you and your students through how to design, build, launch, and land a Mars mission. Humans to Mars. Get started by taking a look at what’s coming up. Inside the Mission Mars exhibit, stand beside a towering, 45-foot 1/8th scale model of the SLS and see the space launch system main engine, RS-25, the most efficient engine ever built. The mission’s main science goal is to look for signs of ancient life. Mission managers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California quickly received data from Mars satellites and the rover itself confirming a … Robots Blaze the Trail for Humans on Mars. With its rover named Curiosity, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission is designed to assess whether Mars ever had an environment able to support small life forms called microbes. A NASA mission on Mars has recorded evidence of seismic activity, including 174 seismic events across Mars--and 20 events with a magnitude of three or four. NASA is developing the capabilities needed to send humans to an asteroid by 2025 and Mars in the 2030s – goals outlined in the bipartisan NASA Authorization Act of 2010 and in the U.S. National Space Policy, also issued in 2010. NASA.gov brings you the latest images, videos and news from America's space agency. NASA's InSight lander is the first mission to explore Mars' deep interior. Be sure to register for a full list of tips and resources in your email inbox each week. “We know that Mars had a bad past,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. Mars Science Laboratory – USA Mars Rover – 750 kg - (November 26, 2011) The Mars Science Laboratory was launched on November 26, 2011. The Mars 2020 mission addresses high-priority science goals for Mars exploration, including key Astrobiology questions about the potential for life on Mars. Mars Society Germany – European Mars Mission (EMM) (2005) The Mars Society Germany proposed a crewed Mars mission using several launches of an improved heavy-lift version of the Ariane 5.