Mars has been a place NASA and other organizations have wanted to conquer after the Apollo missions. It has been several decades since anyone has sent anything to Mars. Lately though Mars has been the main focus to space engineers and scientists. This is because in 1989 President George Bush called for a manned mission to Mars (Sky & Telescope). This will cost a lot of money and effort.
             In 1969 people were celebrating the first manned mission to the moon. People were in awe of their own ability. So when Mariner 6 and 7 went to mars nobody really cared because they were so caught up about the lunar missions. Mariner 6 and 7 were two flybys of Mars. Their main job was to measure the ionosphere (the shell of charged particles high in the atmosphere) of Mars. They found that Mars' atmosphere was mainly Carbon Dioxide. NASA then sent two Viking landers in 1976. The Viking landers confirmed that the atmosphere of Mars was mainly Carbon Dioxide. Nobody realized though that tons of rocket fuel could be synthesized out of Mars' air. Then in the 1980's Martian meteorites showed that the planet's soil contained a material that could be easily made into a building substance. For the past 15 years space scientists and engineers have worked quietly on unmanned missions to Mars. (Newsweek)
             In the first couple of decades in the 21st century Mars is going to be visited more often then any other planet or moon. NASA, Russia, and other countries are going to be sending spacecraft towards Mars about every two years. The first ones were NASA's Mars Pathfinder, Mars Global Surveyor, and Russia's ill-fated Mars '96 mission. The next group is NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter, Mars Polar Lander, and the Japanese spacecraft Nozomi. Before Mars Polar Lander arrives it will drop two probes. The two probes will crash into Mars and penetrate about 2 meters in search for water ice. (Sky and Telescope)
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