SMS Mars was an artillery training ship of the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy), built in the late 1870s.

As a result, the navy realized by the mid-1870s that a new, purpose-built, iron-hulled gunnery training ship would be required, with design work for the new vessel being done in 1876.

This would begin to be remedied only in 1885, when August von Thomsen was appointed the chief gunner for the fleet, and he began to improve the training regimen, particularly with regards to longer range fire.

[5] Mars completed her trials quickly, and was assigned to the North Sea Naval Station, though she was technically under the control of the gunnery officers at the Kaiserliche Admiralität (Imperial Admiralty).

[8] In 1884, Mars was sent to tow the corvette Sophie back to Wilhelmshaven after she had been rammed and badly damaged by the Norddeutscher Lloyd steamer Hohenstaufen.