The Mars 2 lander was the first artificial object to reach the surface of Mars, landing in 1971.
The Soviet Union launched Mars 2 on May 19, 1971. Its descent module separated from the orbiter and entered the Martian atmosphere on November 27, 1971, but the landing system failed and the module crashed. Even though it did not make a successful soft landing or return surface data, it was the first human-made object to reach Mars’s surface.
Mars 3 followed soon afterward. Its lander achieved the first soft landing on Mars on December 2, 1971, but communications stopped after only a short time. This distinction is important: Mars 2 reached the ground first, while Mars 3 achieved the first soft landing.
The Viking 1 lander later became NASA’s first successful Mars lander in 1976, and Mars Pathfinder delivered the Sojourner rover in 1997. Those missions are sometimes remembered more prominently because they operated successfully after landing.