It's ridiculous and a little petty of me but I feel some kind off national pride that the U.S. is the only nation that has thus far been able to successfully land operative scientific equipment on Mars (as if I had anything to do with it). The United States holds the record with an operating rover lasting 12 years and counting. The next best us Russia, who had a lander last for 15 seconds before going dark. In truth any planetary science benefits us all and I feel super bad for the scientist and engineers have worked their entire professional careers to get more scientific instruments on Mars. The loss of any of these crafts is an unfortunate set back for all of mankind.
They got us beat to Venus, though. And nobody but the US has sent something to the outer solar system, well, ESA's Huygens probe did land on Titan, but it was our Cassini Probe that they tagged along with to get there. And NASA gets less money a year than we in the US spend on chips and cookies. literally the crumbs of our budget.The United States holds the record with an operating rover lasting 12 years and counting. The next best us Russia, who had a lander last for 15 seconds before going dark.