Pictures: Five "Cursed" Mars Missions

Up in the Air

Photograph from Roscosmos via European Pressphoto Agency

Russian space workers study the gleaming Phobos-Grunt spacecraft a week before its November 9 launch from Kazakhstan. Now decades of planning poured into the ship seem likely to go to waste.

A gargantuan spacecraft loaded with experiments from around the world, Phobos-Grunt was supposed to be Russia's comeback mission to Mars. The spacecraft's ill-fated predecessor, Mars 96, tumbled into the Pacific Ocean in November 1996. Russia's two previous Mars missions, both launched in 1988, also ended in failure.

Shortly after launch, Phobos-Grunt was slated to fire its engine and boost the craft into a higher orbit so it could be pushed out of Earth's gravity and toward Mars. But the engine missed its cue, stranding the craft high above Earth. If the problem is not fixed by early December, Phobos-Grunt will miss its window for flying to Mars, Russian space agency chief Valery Popovkin told reporters earlier this month.

The "chances to accomplish the mission are very slim," Russia's deputy space chief Yitaly Davydov said Tuesday, according to Russia's Interfax news agency. Later in the day, though, the European Space Agency established contact with the craft for the first time, raising hopes it can be saved.

(Related pictures: "Mock Mars Mission 'Returns' to Earth.")

Published November 23, 2011

Missing Beagle

Illustration courtesy D. Ducros, ESA

The diminutive Mars lander Beagle 2 pulls away from its mothership to start a solo journey to the planet's surface in an artist's rendering.

The discus-shaped British probe launched from Kazakhstan in June 2003 along with the Mars Express spacecraft. That craft made it into orbit, and Beagle 2 was successfully deployed for its planned Christmas Day landing.

But then the probe vanished without a trace. Investigators said the lander's airbags or parachutes might have failed, slamming Beagle 2 into the ground at high speed—but the exact cause of the loss remains a mystery. (See "Mars Lander Beagle 2 Remains Silent.")

"It is difficult to land on Mars, there's no doubt about it," Colin Pillinger, who led the spacecraft's development, told reporters shortly after Beagle 2 went quiet. "You are facing hazards that you cannot quantify and you cannot prejudge."

Published November 23, 2011

Failure to Unfold

Photograph by Otis Imboden, National Geographic

Crowds of photographers in Florida document the seemingly flawless launch of the first U.S. spacecraft sent to Mars, Mariner 3, in November 1964. Liftoff was the last stage of the mission to go right.

The NASA spacecraft was due to fly by Mars and photograph the planet up close. Success would have given the United States bragging rights as the first country to send a functional spacecraft to the red planet. By the time Mariner 3 launched, all five of the Mars-bound craft launched by the Soviets had failed.

However, Mariner 3 did no better. A cover that was supposed to peel off a few minutes after launch clung to the spacecraft, preventing its solar panels from unfolding. The useless, unpowered ship entered orbit around the sun.

The Mars curse may have claimed Mariner 3, but NASA's Mariner 4 mission, launched less than a month later, escaped the hex to send back the first closeups of the Martian surface.

(Also see "Seven Great Mars Pictures From Record-Breaking Probe.")

Published November 23, 2011

No Return

Photograph from Corbis

Engineers tinker with the Mars Observer spacecraft two weeks before its launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida in September 1992.

Bristling with instruments to study Mars's minerals, atmosphere, and magnetic field, Mars Observer was billed as NASA's triumphant return to Mars after a 17-year gap. The United States hadn't sent a mission there since launching the wildly successful Viking landers in 1975. (Related: "Viking Mission May Have Missed Mars Life, Study Finds.")

"America is going back to Mars," proclaimed Wesley Huntress, NASA's head of solar system exploration, just before launch.

Three days before the vehicle was scheduled to start orbiting Mars, though, engineers lost contact. A NASA investigation concluded that the most probable cause of the accident was a fuel-pipe explosion that would have thrown Mars Observer into what NASA called "a catastrophic spin," draining the batteries and disrupting the craft's software.

In all likelihood, investigators said, the crippled spacecraft continues to circle the sun, still spinning.

Published November 23, 2011

Metric Miscommunication

Illustration courtesy NASA

Solar panels catching the sun, the Mars Climate Orbiter circles the red planet in an artist's rendering. Unfortunately for NASA, life did not imitate art.

After the 1992 failure of the $1.6-billion Mars Observer, NASA decided to focus on smaller, cheaper missions to Mars. The Mars Climate Orbiter, which cost less than $200 million and was meant to study Martian weather, was a product of NASA's new way of doing business.

After launching from Florida's Cape Canaveral in December 1998, the spacecraft got all the way to Mars before vanishing on September 23, 1999. Engineers determined that the ship had dipped too low into the Martian atmosphere and had probably burned up. (Related pictures: "Mars Probe Lost in Space?")

A review found that one set of engineers had relied on metric measurements while another had stuck with the old, nonmetric values, leading to fatal software errors.

Less than three months after Mars Climate Orbiter was lost, its sister spacecraft, the Mars Polar Lander, smashed into the Martian surface.

"These two failures have given us a wake-up call," NASA science official Ed Weiler told reporters afterward. "And we are going to respond to it." The troubles led to management shake-ups and the cancellation of a 2001 Mars lander.

Published November 23, 2011