The Mars mission have served  a very important role in space history. The first rovers were launched at Mars in the 1960s. The most recent Mars rover is Phoenix. These mission have benefited  us by providing information on a very different planet. A couple of the things they provide us with are the climate, photographs, and data about Mars. The rovers can give us info like pressure of atmosphere. they can also pick up samples of the dust or rocks .This allows us to study the big red planet up close to see if it has life and all sorts of information. All the rovers are solar powered. The rovers are tested many times before getting sent away. The Mars missions rovers have been a very costly project for the government. Nearly two thirds of the spacecraft sent to Mars failed their mission. Some failed before lifting off. Some call it the "Great Galactic Ghoul". The Soviet unmanned probe called the Marsnik  was sent to launch 2 probes to do a flyby. The program failed when the third stage failed to ignite. This means that the two probes didn't make it to Mars. The Marsnik program was the first program to try and reach Mars. All the Mars missions have served us greatly.