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A selfie taken in April 2021 by the WATSON Camera of NASA's Perseverance Rover

NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS

Special Report

Exploring Mars

In February 2021, NASA landed the cutting-edge Perseverance rover on the Red Planet. The loaded vehicle includes tools for looking for signs of life, a battery-sized device built to turn carbon dioxide into oxygen and a solar-powered helicopter designed to fly in the thin Martian atmosphere. Here, Smithsonian Magazine provides news about the rover, past explorations of the planet and future missions.

In 1980, the Viking Orbiter took 102 individual images of Mars that scientists eventually assembled into this stunning composite photo. The dark gash across the planet’s face is the Valles Marineris, a canyon that’s up to 6 miles deep and over 2,500 miles long.

The Seven Most Amazing Discoveries We’ve Made by Exploring Mars

Scientists have learned a lot since they started sending crafts and rovers to our red neighbor

InSight's final selfie, taken in April 2022.

Dusty InSight Mars Lander Takes Its Final Selfie

The Red Planet probe will likely stop operating sometime later this year

This illustration shows NASA's InSight spacecraft with its instruments deployed on the Martian surface.

This Important Geophysical Robot on Mars May Die Soon

The InSight observatory has a seismometer and a heat probe, which have enabled it to gather data on rock layers below the planet's soil

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NASA's Perseverance rover will store rock and soil samples in sealed tubes on the surface of Mars.

Inside NASA's Elaborate Effort to Bring Rocks From Mars to Earth

The decade-long mission requires dozens of glass tubes, two rovers and three more rocket launches, including the first from another planet

More Stories on the Red Planet

Mars regularly experiences dust storms, like this one captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2012. Scientists say they found evidence of "mini lightning" during some of these storms.

Scientists Say These Small Electrical Discharges May Be the First Direct Evidence of Lightning on Mars

Rather than big bolts of lightning as seen on Earth, NASA’s Perseverance rover recorded audio of small zaps similar to those from static electricity

December 1, 2025

NASA's InSight lander peers down at the Martian surface. The mission recorded more than 1,300 quakes during its four years of operation.

Mars’ Most Powerful Quake Likely Triggered by Tectonic Forces

Researchers searched for signs of a meteorite impact that caused the quake but were unable to find any

October 20, 2023

In 1980, the Viking Orbiter took 102 individual images of Mars that scientists eventually assembled into this stunning composite photo. The dark gash across the planet’s face is the Valles Marineris, a canyon that’s up to 6 miles deep and over 2,500 miles long.

The Seven Most Amazing Discoveries We’ve Made by Exploring Mars

Scientists have learned a lot since they started sending crafts and rovers to our red neighbor

October 18, 2023

Artist’s rendition of the Rosalind Franklin rover.

The Mission That Could Transform Our Understanding of Mars

A next-generation instrument on a delayed Martian rover may be the key to answering the question of life on the Red Planet

May 10, 2023

This illustration shows NASA's InSight spacecraft with its instruments deployed on the Martian surface.

This Important Geophysical Robot on Mars May Die Soon

The InSight observatory has a seismometer and a heat probe, which have enabled it to gather data on rock layers below the planet’s soil

March 21, 2022