A Mars flyby is a movement of spacecraft passing in the vicinity of the planet Mars, but not entering orbit or landing on it. Uncrewed space probes have used this method to collect data on Mars, as opposed to orbiting or landing. A spacecraft designed for a flyby is also known as a "flyby bus" or "flyby spacecraft".
This shows two of the frames from the Mariner 4 flyby projected over a grid
Photograph by Philae's ROLIS camera of Rosetta and Mars in February 2007
An image taken during the Mariner 4 Mars flyby is presented to the U.S. President
Mariner 7 lift-off
A flyby is a spaceflight operation in which a spacecraft passes in proximity to another body, usually a target of its space exploration mission and/or a source of a gravity assist to impel it towards another target. Spacecraft which are specifically designed for this purpose are known as flyby spacecraft, although the term has also been used in regard to asteroid flybys of Earth for example. Important parameters are the time and distance of closest approach.
Illustration of the MarCO 6U cubesat relay flyby probes and technology demonstrators for the Mars InSight lander; the flybys provided bent pipe communication support during the landing in 2018