Free Astronomy Magazine January-February 2020

ASTRONAUTICS 41 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2020 W hen, in 1993, NASA started a long-term program to explore Mars both from its orbit and its sur- face, it was hard to imagine what goals would have been achieved. The actual operational phase of the Mars Exploration Program began in the early years of this century, with the entry into Martian orbit of the Odyssey and MRO orbiters and with the descent to the planet of T his artist representa- tion shows the Mars 2020 rover exploring the Martian surface. [NASA/JPL-Caltech]