Dr. Weiler said that instruments for the canceled 2001 lander mission would be completed and used on later missions.

Each lander mission so far has used its own time zone, corresponding to average local solar time at the landing location.

Although lander missions have twice occurred in pairs, no effort was made to synchronize the sol counts of the two landers within each pair.

The orbiter began mapping the Martian terrain and weather to find suitable landing sites for upcoming lander missions.

The primary scientific objectives of the lander mission were to search for biosignatures and observe meteorologic, seismic and magnetic properties of Mars.

Beagle 3 - 2009 British lander mission meant to search for life, past or present.

There is the possibility that future lander missions could carry in situ instrumentation to perform the necessary measurements.

There will be no quick flybys among them; these are all long-duration orbiter and lander missions.

Its main objectives included determining the presence or absence of a subsurface ocean and identifying candidate sites for future lander missions.

On the basis of the lander mission, a lunar sample return mission will be undertaken, with up to two kilograms of lunar samples being returned to Earth.