Did man ever landed on planet Mars ?
Only robotic probes. No manned missions (yet). The Soviet Union’s Mars 2 lander was the first Earth based mission to reach the surface of Mars in 1973, but communication was lost within a minute after touchdown, which occurred during one of the worst global dust storms since the beginning of telescopic observations of the Red Planet. Three other probes, Mars 3, Mars 5, and Mars 6, either crashed or failed to even enter the planet’s atmosphere during the 1973 and 1975/76 windows. All four landers were based on the Luna 9 lander, and employed an aeroshell-like heat shield during atmospheric entry. Viking 1 and 2 were launched respectively in August and September 1975, each comprising an orbiter vehicle and a lander. Viking 1 landed in July 1976 and Viking 2 in September 1976. The Viking program ended in May 1983, after both landers had died. Mars Pathfinder was launched in December 1996 and released the first rover on Mars, named Sojourner, in July 1997. It failed in September 1997, prob
