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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.


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

NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
InSight's final selfie, taken in April 2022.

SMART NEWS

Dusty InSight Mars Lander Takes Its Final Selfie

A view of a Palouse Falls in Palouse Falls State Park in Washington. Geologists believe massive floods carved out this canyon and others in the Scablands.

SCIENCE

Devastating Ice Age Floods That Occurred in the Pacific Northwest Fascinate Scientists

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

SCIENCE

This Important Geophysical Robot on Mars May Die Soon

Featured Story

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

SCIENCE

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

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

SCIENCE

This Important Geophysical Robot on Mars May Die Soon

Robin George Andrews, Supercluster

NASA's Ingenuity helicopter arrived on Mars on February 18, 2021.

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

Why Did NASA Test a Helicopter on Mars?

Text by Natalie Hamilton

Mars as photographed by China’s Tianwen-1 probe after it entered the planet's orbit in February.

SMART NEWS

China's Zhurong Rover Lands on Mars

Alex Fox

The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter’s shadow seen on the surface of Mars and captured by its own down-facing camera during its second test flight on April 22.

SMART NEWS

NASA's Ingenuity Helicopter's Next Mission? Mapping the Red Planet From Above

Alex Fox

Soon after Ingenuity's lift-off and landing, the drone sent a black and white photo of its shadow during the flight back to engineers on Earth through the rover.

SMART NEWS

NASA's Mars Helicopter Completes First Historic Test Flight on Another Planet

Elizabeth Gamillo

Smithsonian Voices

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

Is There Life on Mars?

February 26, 2021


AT THE SMITHSONIAN

How the Perseverance Rover Paves a Path Into the Future

February 25, 2021

The Future Is Here

None

Adam Steltzner: NASAs Mars 2020 Mission and Beyond

From the Museum
National Air and Space Museum

Five Things On Board NASA's Artemis I Mission


National Air and Space Museum

Aerobatic Pilot Sean Tucker and Orbis International Will Speak at National Air and Space Museum


National Air and Space Museum

The Iconic Ears of Mr. Spock


See All

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