List of missions to Mars
This is a list of spacecraft missions to the planet Mars, such as orbiters, landers, and rovers. Mission time is often measured in Mars sols, solar days on Mars.
Missions
;Mission Type Legend:Landing locations
In 1999, Mars Climate Orbiter accidentally entered Mars's atmosphere and either burnt up or left Mars's orbit on an unknown trajectory.There are a number of derelict spacecraft orbiting Mars whose location is not known precisely. There is a proposal to use the Optical Navigation Camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to search for small moons, dust rings and old orbiters. As of 2016, there were believed to be eight derelict spacecraft in orbit around Mars. The Viking 1 orbiter was not expected to decay until at least 2019. Mariner 9, which entered Mars orbit in 1971, was expected to remain in orbit until approximately 2022, when it was projected to enter the Martian atmosphere and either burn up, or crash into the planet's surface.
Missions to the moons of Mars
There have also been proposed missions dedicated to explore the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos. Many missions to Mars have also included dedicated observations of the moons, while this section is about missions focused solely on them. There have been three unsuccessful dedicated missions and many proposals. Because of the proximity of the Mars moons to Mars, any mission to them may also be considered a mission to Mars from some perspectives.; Past missions
Three missions to land on Phobos have been launched; the Soviet Phobos program in the late 1980s saw the launch of Phobos 1 and Phobos 2, while the Russian Fobos-Grunt sample return mission was launched in 2011. None of these missions were successful: Phobos 1 failed en route to Mars, Phobos 2 failed shortly before landing, and Fobos-Grunt never left low Earth orbit.
| Mission | Target | Outcome | Reference |
| Phobos 1 | Phobos | ||
| Phobos 2 | Phobos | ||
| Fobos-Grunt | Phobos |
; Planned missions
In Japan, the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science is developing a sample return mission to Phobos. This mission is called Martian Moons eXploration and is a flagship Strategic Large Mission. MMX will build on the expertise the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency would gain through the Hayabusa2 and SLIM missions. As of December 2023, MMX is scheduled to launch in 2026.
| Planned mission | Target | Reference |
| Martian Moons eXploration | Phobos and Deimos |
; Past proposals
There have been at least three proposals in NASA's Discovery Program, including PADME, PANDORA, and MERLIN. The ESA has also considered a sample return mission, like Martian Moon Sample Return.
Osiris-Rex 2 was a proposal to make OR a double mission, with the other one collecting samples from the two Mars moons. In 2012, it was considered the quickest and least expensive way to get samples from the moons.
The "Red Rocks Project", a part of Lockheed Martin's "Stepping Stones to Mars" program, proposed to explore Mars robotically from Deimos.
| Proposal | Target | Reference |
| Aladdin | Phobos and Deimos | |
| DePhine | Phobos and Deimos | |
| DSR | Deimos | |
| Gulliver | Deimos | |
| Hall | Phobos and Deimos | |
| M-PADS | Phobos and Deimos | |
| Merlin | Phobos and Deimos | |
| MMSR | Phobos or Deimos | |
| OSIRIS-REx 2 | Phobos or Deimos | |
| Pandora | Phobos and Deimos | |
| PCROSS | Phobos | |
| Phobos Surveyor | Phobos | |
| PRIME | Phobos | |
| Fobos-Grunt 2 | Phobos | |
| Phootprint | Phobos | |
| PADME | Phobos and Deimos |
Statistics
Mission milestone by country
;Legend† First to achieve
| Country/Agency | Flyby | Orbit | Impact | Lander | Rover | Drone | Sample return | Crewed Landing |
 Future missionsProposed missions
|