The Mariner 4 spacecraft flew past Mars on the 14th of July 1965 at a distance of about 9,800 kilometers. It returned the first close-up photographs of another planet to Earth showing impact craters and a surface resembling our Moon.
Every single one of the nine Soviet Union probes intended to reach Mars failed before completing its objectives due to issues like breaking up during launch or failing to achieve orbit. The first successful Soviet probe Mars 1 lost contact after traveling 106 million kilometers because an antenna orientation failure occurred.
Two functional rovers currently operate on the Martian surface including Curiosity which landed in Gale Crater on the 6th of August 2012 and Perseverance which arrived on the 18th of February 2021. Both are managed by NASA and have exceeded their original design lifespans while analyzing rock composition and scouting sites with the Ingenuity helicopter.
The Phoenix lander confirmed the presence of water ice in the north polar region on the 20th of June 2008. Its robotic arm dug into the soil to reveal the ice directly while Mars Odyssey found vast deposits of hydrogen within the upper three meters of soil near the south pole indicating large quantities of water ice.
NASA aims to put a person on Mars by 2037 as part of its long-term Vision for Space Exploration announced in 2004. The plan operates through three phases involving Earth Reliant Proving Ground and Earth Independent strategies to validate technologies and harvest resources.