A spacecraft mission that sends more than one probe into the atmosphere or onto the surface of a planet or a moon. The Pioneer Venus multi-probe mission in 1978 deployed four atmospheric probes that sent data to Earth during their 55-minute descents through Venus’s atmosphere. The spacecraft’s large probe was released on 15 November and three small probes on 20 November. The Mars Exploration Rover mission of 2003 sent twin rovers to the Martian surface in January 2004.