So far , many spacecraft have been sent to Mars from India , the United Arab Emirates and China , especially the United States , the European Space Agency and Russia . Although some of the missions , the majority of which were unsuccessful , reached Mars , they were terminated after a short time after losing contact with the Earth . Some vehicles that have successfully completed the Mars mission and sent us important data :
Mariner 4
The probe , sent by NASA in November 1964 , was the first mission to reach Mars and sent us the first close-up pictures of the Red Planet ' s surface .
Viking 1 and Viking 2
NASA ' s Viking Project was the first U . S . mission to land a spacecraft safely on Mars and return images of the surface . Mariner 8 failed during launch . Mariner 9 successfully became the first Mars orbiter , photo-mapping 100 percent of the planet ' s surface .
The Viking 1 and Viking 2 spacecraft were launched by NASA in 1975 . This mission is the first successful US Mars mission to land on the surface . The vehicles found no signs of life ; but they found all the essential elements needed for life , such as carbon , nitrogen , hydrogen , oxygen and phosphorus .