After the successful launch of three new Mars missions in the summer of 2020, Mars exploration was looking to have a groundbreaking year in 2021. Astonishingly, all three missions — NASA’s Mars 2020, China’s Tianwen-1, and the United Arab Emirates’ Hope orbiter — successfully arrived at Mars in February, and have already sent back amazing data and images of the red planet.
Furthermore, missions like NASA’s Curiosity rover and InSight lander celebrated various milestones on Mars this year and sent back amazing results and findings that helped further our knowledge of Mars’ past and future. While new missions were landing on the surface of Mars, missions in orbit, such as NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and ESA’s Mars Express, continued to relay data to Earth and send back amazing images and science of their own.
The year 2022, like 2021, is already shaping up to be an amazing year on Mars, with new missions such as ExoMars 2022 with the Rosalind Franklin rover launching to the red planet, as well as new experiments planned to be performed by the collection of robots exploring the Martian wasteland.