Current Mars Missions – An Overview
Mars is the most intensively studied planet in the solar system aside from Earth. A sophisticated fleet of orbiters, landers, and rovers is currently operating simultaneously, creating a continuous stream of data regarding the Red Planet’s geology, atmosphere, and potential for past habitability. This article provides a status overview of the primary active missions.
Surface Operations: The Rovers
The surface of Mars is currently dominated by two NASA rovers, following the silence of China’s Zhurong rover and the retirement of the InSight lander.
- Perseverance (NASA): Located in Jezero Crater, this rover is the vanguard of the Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign. Having completed its primary mission, it is currently in an extended phase, exploring the crater rim. Its primary function remains the collection and caching of sedimentary rock cores , which contain the chemical history of the crater’s ancient lake environment. These samples are hermetically sealed in titanium tubes, awaiting future retrieval.
- Curiosity (NASA): Despite landing in 2012, the Mars Science Laboratory remains fully operational in Gale Crater. Powered by a radioisotope thermo-electric generator (RTG) rather than solar panels, it is immune to the dust issues that ended other missions. Curiosity is currently ascending the foothills of Mount Sharp (Aeolis Mons), analyzing how the region’s water-rich environment dried out over billions of years.
- Zhurong (CNSA): China’s first rover, which landed in Utopia Planitia in 2021, has been silent since entering hibernation in May 2022. While no official termination has been declared, orbital imagery suggests the rover has not moved, likely due to dust accumulation on its solar arrays. Its data, however, continues to yield scientific papers, particularly regarding evidence of recent aqueous activity.
Mars Probes in the Orbit
The orbital infrastructure serves a dual purpose: conducting remote sensing science and acting as data relays for surface assets.
- Tianwen-1 (CNSA): The orbiter component of China’s mission remains highly active. Beyond mapping the Martian surface, it demonstrated exceptional capability in late 2025 by capturing high-resolution images of an interstellar comet passing through the solar system, proving its utility as a deep-space observatory.
- Hope Probe (UAESA): The United Arab Emirates’ orbiter continues to provide the most complete picture of the Martian atmosphere. Its unique high-altitude orbit allows it to track weather systems globally, linking lower atmospheric dust storms to the loss of hydrogen and oxygen into space.
- NASA & ESA Veterans: The network relies heavily on long-serving orbiters. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) continues to act as the primary high-speed data relay for Perseverance. Meanwhile, ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) monitors methane levels—a potential biomarker—and maps subsurface hydrogen, indicative of water ice.
Other Space Missions: The Juno Mission in the Jupiter System
The Path to Sustainability: Resource Extraction and Aerial Scouting
Beyond surface mobility, the current era of Mars exploration is defined by critical milestones in resource sustainability and aerial reconnaissance. A pivotal success in this field was the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE), an instrument on the Perseverance rover. MOXIE successfully demonstrated that high-purity oxygen can be extracted from the Martian atmosphere, which consists of 95% carbon dioxide. This proof-of-concept is fundamental for future crewed missions, as it proves that essential life-support gases and rocket propellants can be manufactured on-site, significantly reducing the mass required to be launched from Earth.
In tandem with resource testing, the legacy of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has fundamentally altered the paradigm of planetary exploration. Although Ingenuity concluded its flight operations in early 2024 after 72 successful flights, its data continues to inform the design of future aerial scouts. The validation of controlled flight in an atmosphere with only 1% of Earth’s density has paved the way for larger, more sophisticated hexa-copters. These future aerial assets will be capable of carrying scientific payloads to cliff faces, crater walls, and other rugged terrains that are currently inaccessible to wheeled rovers. Furthermore, by studying the “Planet-Sun Interaction” from orbit, current missions are quantifying the rate at which solar wind strips the Martian atmosphere of its volatiles. This comprehensive approach – combining resource extraction, aerial mobility, and atmospheric loss tracking – provides the necessary scientific framework for transitioning from temporary robotic surveys to a sustained human presence on the Red Planet.
Upcoming Missions
The exploration timeline remains dynamic. NASA’s twin ESCAPADE spacecraft are currently en route to Mars. Upon arrival, they will study the magnetosphere and the solar wind’s interaction with the upper atmosphere. Furthermore, JAXA (Japan) is preparing the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission, targeted for a late 2026 launch, with the ambitious goal of returning samples from Mars’ moon Phobos.