Upon arrival, the team discovers a bright white formation in the Cydonia region, which they suspect is an extrusion from a subsurface geothermal column of water, useful to future human colonization.

Realizing Luke could not have left because the pulse would have damaged the computer system of the Earth Return Vehicle (ERV) they repurpose the Mars II mission into a rescue.

They find Luke living in a greenhouse; he shows them pictures of the face, and reveals that the pulses in the low sound they heard represented a 3D model of human-like DNA, but missing a pair of chromosomes.

With a massive dust storm approaching Jim, Terri, and Luke head to the formation, while Phil stays to finish repairing the ERV.

A three-dimensional projection of the solar system depicts the planet Mars, covered with water, being struck by a large asteroid and rendered uninhabitable.

They barely escape the dust storm into space as Jim's capsule is launched from the crumbling formation and flies past them toward the Martians' home.

[6] Despite the fact that the film employed the use of numerous extensive special effects, it failed to garner any award nominations from mainstream motion picture organizations for its production merits.

[7] Furthermore, the film was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Brian De Palma in the category of 'Worst Director', where he lost to Roger Christian for Battlefield Earth.

When Robbins says, "OK, we're ready to light this candle" before ignition, it sounds like a parody of astronaut lingo.—Bob Graham, writing in the San Francisco Chronicle[14] Mark Halverson, writing in Sacramento News & Review, said "My inner child felt cheated that the film leapt from an astronaut barbecue to Mars without so much as a rocket launch and that the best special effect (a sandstorm nod to The Mummy) was unveiled in the first 20 minutes."

Graham characterized Mission to Mars as "a very mixed bag: rhapsodic cinematography, several genuine shocks amid a suffocating air of gooeyness, impressive visual effects – even if some seem to exist in a vacuum – and an absolutely loony conclusion.

Michael Wilmington of the NY Daily News, exclaimed the film was "One of the most gorgeous science-fiction movies ever - and probably also one of the most realistic in detail and scientific extrapolation".

"[19] Writing for The Austin Chronicle, Marc Savlov noted that the "Mission to Mars falls prey to an overwhelming sense of a man trying to please everyone all the time."

He went further, that "De Palma has reached out to embrace a larger audience and seemingly sacrificed those traits that drew us to him in the first place: his singular vision, his clinical stylistics, and the palpable sense of dread that his best films engender.

"[21] Describing a mixed opinion, J. Hoberman of The Village Voice said the film encompassed "a touchy-feely esprit that's predicated on equal parts Buck Rogers bravado and backyard barbecue, the whole burnt burger drenched in Ennio Morricone's elegiac western-style score".

[22] Unfortunately, the filmmakers' imagination flags in the closing sequences; the movie's final reel looks like a high-tech museum exhibit entitled '"2001: A Space Odyssey" for Dummies'.—Margaret A. McGurk, writing for The Cincinnati Enquirer[23] Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times, stated that the "visual design is spectacular, and the scenes on the Martian surface look so real that the picture could have been made on location.

"[24] Similarly, Todd McCarthy wrote in Variety that the film's "dramatic package that it arrives in is so flimsy, unconvincing and poorly wrought that it's impossible to be swept away by the illustrated version of creationism on offer."

De Palma and his frequent cinematographer Stephen H. Burum go for their patented swooping and twisting camera moves whenever possible, and there are some very nice ones onboard the recovery ship.

"[25] Lisa Schwarzbaum writing for Entertainment Weekly deduced that "Mission to Mars wants us to think about lofty things: the bravery of explorers, the ingenuity of our nation's space program, the humility required to comprehend the possibility that we earthlings are not the be-all and end-all of creation.