Mars Madness – Walt Hickey

Mars Madness

Mars is fascinating, so fascinating that FiveThirtyEight is spending a whole month just writing about it. Given that it’s March Madness — and given humanity’s longstanding tradition of hurling robots and cameras at Mars with varying degrees of success, you know, like a free throw — we wanted to figure out the winner of the ultimate Martian bracket.

Seeds and such come later, but for now, merely select the cooler Mars mission or landmark:

Which is the cooler mission or landmark?

Battle: : Mars

Phobos-Grunt (2011)

Stranded in low earth orbit, eventually crashed into the Pacific Ocean.

Viking 2 Lander (1975)

Took many images and extensive atmospheric readings after successful landing in September of 1976. Lasted until 1980.