List of artificial objects on extra-terrestrial surfaces

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Artist's Concept of rover on Mars
Artist's Concept of rover on Mars
Apollo 15 lunar rover in its final resting place on the moon
Apollo 15 lunar rover in its final resting place on the moon
Scale model of the Huygens probe which landed on Titan
Scale model of the Huygens probe which landed on Titan

List of artificial objects on Venus

List of artificial objects on the Moon

List of artificial objects on Mars


[edit] Artificial objects on other solar-system bodies

[edit] Objects that landed substantially intact

  • On the asteroid Eros, the NEAR Shoemaker probe touched down on the surface on February 12, 2001, although it had not been specifically designed for this purpose.
  • On Titan, a moon of Saturn, the Huygens probe from the Cassini-Huygens mission landed successfully on January 14, 2005. NASA currently has plans to steer the main spacecraft into Saturn's atmosphere after its mission ends to prevent the contamination of Titan's surface by any terrestrial microbes.
  • On the asteroid 25143 Itokawa, a target marker from the Hayabusa probe was released to the surface on November 19, 2005 which has a list of 880,000 names etched on it.

[edit] Objects destroyed or vaporized on impact

  • The Galileo spacecraft released a 339-kg probe into Jupiter's atmosphere in 1995. During the parachute-assisted decent, the probe vaporized as was expected. The main spacecraft stayed in orbit around Jupiter until 2003 when it was deliberately sent into Jupiter's atmosphere by ground controllers as a measure to prevent contamination of the moon Europa, which may have a subterranean ocean, by any terrestrial microbes and radioactive waste.
  • A projectile released by the Deep Impact probe struck the nucleus of Comet 9P/Tempel on July 4, 2005.

[edit] Estimated total masses

Surface Total Estimated Mass (kg)
Venus 22,628
The Moon 170,996
Mars 8,053
Eros 487
Itokawa  ?
Jupiter 2,564
Titan 350

[edit] See also

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