The first probe intended to be a
Mars impact lander was the
Soviet Mars 1962B unsuccessfully launched in 1962.[3]
In
1971 the
Soviet Union successfully sent probes Mars 2 and Mars 3, as part of the
Mars probe program M-71. The Mars 2 and 3 probes each carried a lander, both of which failed upon landing. They were the first human artifacts to touch down on Mars. Mars 2 lander impacted on Mars only, while Mars 3 was the first
Martian soft lander and was able to transmit from the
Martian surface during the first 20 seconds, the first data and a portion of the first picture. These spaceprobes also contained the first mini-Mars rovers, although they were broken on landing.
The Mars 2 and 3 orbiters sent back a large volume of data covering the period from
December 1971 to
March 1972, although transmissions continued through to August. By 22
August 1972, after sending back data and a total of 60 pictures, Mars 2 and 3 concluded their missions. The images and data enabled creation of surface relief maps, and gave information on the Martian gravity and magnetosphere.[4]
In
1973, the Soviet Union sent four more probes to Mars: the Mars 4 and Mars 5 orbiters and the Mars 6 and Mars 7 fly-by/lander combinations. All missions except Mars 7 sent back data, with Mars 5 being most successful. Mars 5 transmitted 60 images before a loss of pressurization in the transmitter housing, ended the mission. Mars 6 lander transmitted data during descent, but failed upon impact. Mars 4 flew by the planet at a range of
2200 km returning one swath of pictures and radio occultation data, which constituted the first detection of the nightside ionosphere on Mars.[5] Mars 7 probe separated prematurely from the carrying vehicle due to a problem in the operation of one of the onboard systems (attitude control or retro-rockets) and missed the planet by 1300 km.
Years earlier, in
1970 Soviet Union began the design of Mars 4NM and Mars 5NM missions with superheavy unmanned Martian spacecraft.
First was Marsokhod with planned date of start in 1973 and second was
Mars sample return mission planned to
1975. Both spacecraft intended to launch on N1 superrocket. But this rocket never flew successfully and Mars 4NM and Mars 5NM projects were cancelled.[6]
Later, double-launching Mars 5M (Mars-79) sample return mission was planned for
1979, but cancelled due to complexity and technical problems.
- published: 11 Mar 2016
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