Is it going to: 1) ‘soft land’ on the surface of Mars; 2) impact directly into the surface of Mars creating a crater with a bunch of junk at the bottom; 3) go into orbit and eventually burn up entering the atmosphere; or 4) go past Mars and keep on going “to infinity and beyond?”
I don’t believe they plan to land it anywhere. Mars or otherwise.
Small probability of 2) but more likely a solar system orbit for eons out to beyond what can be predicted.
4. Its headed toward the Astroid belt
‘Is it going to: 1) ‘soft land’ on the surface of Mars; 2) impact directly into the surface of Mars creating a crater with a bunch of junk at the bottom; 3) go into orbit and eventually burn up entering the atmosphere; or 4) go past Mars and keep on going “to infinity and beyond?”’
Actually none of the above. It was intended to stay in a Hohmann transfer orbit between Earth’s orbit and Mars’ orbit indefinitely, but apparently it got more delta-V than intended and will make it as far as the asteroid belt. The claim is that it could remain in orbit for as long as a billion years, I’m rather skeptical of that...