WHAT DECIDES HOW LONG A LANDER WORKS ON ANOTHER WORLD? SURFACE LIFETIMES OF 55 LANDERS ON THE MOON, VENUS, MARS, TITAN AND SMALL BODIES IN THE GCAT CATALOGUE, 1966-2025

Abstract

Landers that reach the surface of another world have kept working there from under two minutes to several years. This study asks what decides that time: the environment of the target body, the era, the landing method or the country that built the lander. All 55 landers in Jonathan McDowell's public GCAT lander catalogue (version of 11 October 2026) that reached the surface and kept transmitting for a measurable time were analysed, and each was also coded by whether its stay was planned to be short or its job ended once a rover was delivered. Surface time is most strongly associated with the target body: all 11 Venus landers stopped within 20 to 127 minutes, the median lunar lander worked 3.1 days and the median Mars lander 94 days (Kruskal-Wallis across the three bodies, p < 0.001). Three apparent effects in the full table largely reflect where landers went: all four landings of the 1980s and 10 of the 12 landings the catalogue codes LP (parachute assisted) were on Venus, and the 184-fold gap between Soviet and American landers falls to 13-fold without Venus and to 4-fold on the Moon alone. On the Moon a second factor appears: 13 of the 14 shortest lunar surface times belong to landers coded as ended by design (12 that ended as planned and the damaged sample-return lander Luna-23), and every lander whose ascent stage left the Moon, American, Soviet or Chinese, stayed between 0.9 and 3.1 days before it did. Among the 14 lunar landers whose surface phase was not ended by design, seven stopped within about 15 days and seven worked a month or more; only two, Chang'e-3 (2,460 days) and Chang'e-4 (at least 2,278 days and still listed as operating), lasted years.

Keywords: planetary landers, surface lifetime, Venus, Moon, Mars, lunar night, mission design, GCAT

Әдебиеттер тізімі

1. Landis G.A. Robotic Exploration of the Surface and Atmosphere of Venus // 55th International Astronautical Congress, Vancouver, 4-8 October 2004. NASA Technical Reports Server, document 20050203799. URL: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20050203799 (accessed: 11.10.2026).
2. Lorenz R.D., Lemmon M.T., Maki J. et al. Scientific Observations With the InSight Solar Arrays: Dust, Clouds, and Eclipses on Mars // Earth and Space Science. 2020. Vol. 7, No. 5. Art. e2019EA000992. DOI: 10.1029/2019EA000992. URL: https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC7375148 (accessed: 12.10.2026).
3. NASA. NASA Retires InSight Mars Lander Mission After Years of Science. 21.12.2022. URL: https://www.nasa.gov/missions/insight/nasa-retires-insight-mars-lander-mission-after-years-of-science/ (accessed: 11.10.2026).
4. NASA Science. Viking 1. URL: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/viking-1/ (accessed: 11.10.2026).
5. Lebreton J.-P., Witasse O., Sollazzo C. et al. An overview of the descent and landing of the Huygens probe on Titan // Nature. 2005. Vol. 438, No. 7069. P. 758-764. DOI: 10.1038/nature04347.
6. Bates J.R., Lauderdale W.W., Kernaghan H. ALSEP Termination Report. NASA Reference Publication 1036. Washington: NASA Scientific and Technical Information Office, 1979. URL: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19790014808 (accessed: 11.10.2026).
7. McDowell J.C. General Catalog of Artificial Space Objects. Release 1.8.8. 2020-2026. URL: https://planet4589.org/space/gcat (accessed: 11.10.2026).
8. McDowell J.C. GCAT: Lander Catalog Column Descriptions. URL: https://planet4589.org/space/gcat/web/cat/landercols.html (accessed: 11.10.2026).
9. NASA Science. Mars Pathfinder. URL: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-pathfinder/ (accessed: 11.10.2026).
10. European Space Agency. Rosetta's grand finale: frequently asked questions. URL: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Rosetta/Rosetta_s_grand_finale_frequently_asked_questions (accessed: 12.10.2026).
11. NASA Science. Pioneer Venus 2. URL: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/pioneer-venus-2/ (accessed: 12.10.2026).
12. Siddiqi A.A. Beyond Earth: A Chronicle of Deep Space Exploration, 1958-2016. 2nd ed. Washington: NASA History Division, 2018. (NASA SP-2018-4041). URL: https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/beyond-earth-tagged.pdf (accessed: 12.10.2026).
13. Zou Y., Zhu Y., Bai Y. et al. Scientific objectives and payloads of Tianwen-1, China's first Mars exploration mission // Advances in Space Research. 2021. Vol. 67, No. 2. P. 812-823. DOI: 10.1016/j.asr.2020.11.005.
14. Li C., Liu J., Ren X. et al. The Chang'e 3 Mission Overview // Space Science Reviews. 2015. Vol. 190, No. 1-4. P. 85-101. DOI: 10.1007/s11214-014-0134-7.
15. Wimmer-Schweingruber R.F., Yu J., Böttcher S.I. et al. The Lunar Lander Neutron and Dosimetry (LND) Experiment on Chang'E 4 // Space Science Reviews. 2020. Vol. 216, No. 6. Art. 104. DOI: 10.1007/s11214-020-00725-3.
16. Indian Space Research Organisation. Chandrayaan-3 Details. URL: https://www.isro.gov.in/Chandrayaan3_Details.html (accessed: 12.10.2026).
17. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Conclusion of Lunar Activities of the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM). 26.08.2024. URL: https://global.jaxa.jp/press/2024/08/20240826-1_e.html (accessed: 12.10.2026).
18. NASA. Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment 1 (PRIME-1). URL: https://www.nasa.gov/mission/polar-resources-ice-mining-experiment-1-prime-1/ (accessed: 12.10.2026).
19. NASA Science. Moon Facts. URL: https://science.nasa.gov/moon/facts/ (accessed: 11.10.2026).
20. China National Space Administration. China's Chang'e-4 probe wakes up after first lunar night. 01.02.2019. URL: https://www.cnsa.gov.cn/english/n6465652/n6465653/c6805358/content.html (accessed: 11.10.2026).
21. NASA Science. Cassini Significant Events 01/13/05 - 01/19/05. URL: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/cassini/cassini-significant-events-011305-011905/ (accessed: 12.10.2026).
22. European Space Agency. Huygens descent timeline. URL: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Cassini-Huygens/Huygens_descent_timeline (accessed: 12.10.2026).

Дәйексөз келтіру үлгісі

Kashkinov A. WHAT DECIDES HOW LONG A LANDER WORKS ON ANOTHER WORLD? SURFACE LIFETIMES OF 55 LANDERS ON THE MOON, VENUS, MARS, TITAN AND SMALL BODIES IN THE GCAT CATALOGUE, 1966-2025 // Central Asian Scientific Journal. – 2026. – No. 4(32), Vol. 1. – Pp. 251–262.