At the end of 1971 - December 2 - a spacecraft landed on the surface of Mars. It was the world's first and so far the only soft landing of a descent vehicle on the Red Planet in the history of Soviet-Russian cosmonautics. This and other projects of the USSR for the exploration of Mars - in the review of "RG".
Interplanetary track scouts
In the context of the exploration of Mars, it is impossible not to say a few words about the lunar program of the USSR. It was the first flights to the Earth's satellite that made it possible to accumulate experience and work out the technology for creating interplanetary automatic stations.
The first spacecraft to reach space velocity, Luna 1, was launched on January 2, 1959. The second went flying in September of the same year. And although the launch was accompanied by malfunctions, "Luna-2" for the first time in the world reached the surface of a celestial body in the region of the Sea of Rains, in the northwestern part of the side of the satellite visible from Earth.
The device was simple in modern times: it did not have its own propulsion system, and from the scientific equipment it had a device for registering nuclear radiation and elementary particles, Geiger counters, magnetometers and micrometeorite detectors. But "Luna-2" delivered a pennant with the emblem of the USSR to the surface of the satellite.
trial balloon
Space colonization is an important step for the future of humanity, and Mars is the perfect launch pad like no other planet. Judge for yourself: it can be achieved in about 9 months; the Martian day is 24 hours 39 minutes and is almost equal to the earth; there is an atmosphere here that gives some protection from solar and cosmic radiation; recent NASA studies have confirmed the presence of water on the planet. These and many other factors, according to scientists, suggest that after the terraforming process, the planet may be quite suitable for life.
The superpowers - the USSR and the USA - have long been eyeing the Red Planet. Space exploration competitions were once an echo of the Cold War, but in fact they turned into an impetus for the development of both countries.
And although initially Soviet attempts to reach Mars were unsuccessful, already on November 1, 1962, Mars-1, developed by the Kaliningrad OKB-1, became the first spacecraft in history to be launched on a flight path to the Red Planet.
Especially for the launches of vehicles to Mars, a powerful radio-technical complex for deep space communications was built. It was recorded there: during the flight of the first device, 61 radio communication sessions were conducted with it, a large amount of telemetry information was received, and more than three thousand radio commands were transmitted to its board.
Unfortunately, the journey was short-lived: due to valve leaks, the pressure in the gas cylinder for the attitude control engines dropped. The last time Mars-1 made contact was at a distance of 106 million kilometers from Earth.
Based on ballistic data, scientists suggest that on June 19, 1963, Mars 1 flew at a distance of about 200 thousand kilometers from the surface of the planet after which it was named, and continued its flight around the Sun.
The flight of the apparatus provided new data on the physical properties of outer space between the orbits of the Earth and Mars, on the intensity of cosmic radiation, the strength of magnetic fields, and so on.
"Gift" to the Martians
It was assumed that the next apparatus would be able to study the planet not only from the outside, but also directly from the surface.
On May 19, 1971, the Mars-2 station was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The twin, Mars-3, followed into the sky (both stations were structurally identical: if the first mission had failed, the next device would have to complete what had been started).
"Mars-2" was intended to study the planet both from the orbit of an artificial satellite and with the help of a lander. To implement this program, the NPO Lavochkin actually developed modules from scratch, which were the latest generation of Soviet automatic interplanetary stations. The design solutions incorporated in them, according to the specialists of the Research Institute, have been successfully used for almost 20 years in the creation of interplanetary stations of the Mars, Venera, Vega series, space observatories Astron and Granat.
"In November 1971, they successfully carried out the second correction of the trajectories of motion. A few days remained before the arrival of the stations to Mars. The weather on the planet was unfavorable for observations from the orbital stations, and, moreover, for the landing of the descent vehicle: an unusually strong weather had been raging on Mars for several weeks a dust storm that engulfed the entire surface of the planet. Astronomers have not recorded such a powerful storm in the entire history of observations," the researchers said.
However, the device successfully reached its destination. True, the landing ended in failure: the on-board computer did not work correctly due to a software error, and the angle of entry into the atmosphere turned out to be greater than the calculated one. The descent module entered the Martian atmosphere too steeply, which is why it did not have time to slow down during the aerodynamic descent stage. The parachute system under such conditions was ineffective, and the device crashed on the surface of Mars, thus becoming the first "alien" object on the planet. The mass of the "gift" was 4650 kilograms.
Signal from Mars
After the loss of Mars-2, the main hopes were placed on the Mars-3 station approaching the Red Planet. The descent of the third apparatus of the Soviet program was a real breakthrough in the era of the study of the fourth planet from the Sun
A soft landing on Mars is still a complex scientific and technical problem, and at that time the surface relief of the planet and the features of the soil were poorly understood.
As one of the creators of the device said, the force of gravity on Mars is only two and a half times less than that of the earth, and the atmosphere rescued the device: despite the meager pressure, it was possible to use it for braking. But the apparatus still entered the atmosphere at great speed, and a soft landing was almost impossible. The solution was braking in several steps - aerodynamic, parachute.
Until now, automatic space stations have communicated directly with the Earth. The signal from the Martian apparatus was first received by the Marsa-3 orbital station, and from there it went to Earth, to the Center for Deep Space Communications. According to a specialist in radio engineering systems, such a complex circuit was necessary. To transmit information directly from the Martian lander, it is necessary to have a powerful radio transmitter and antenna on it.
Within a minute and a half after landing, the station was preparing for work, after which it began transmitting a panorama of the surrounding surface. The newspaper "Pravda" in December 1971 wrote about how scientists with bated breath were waiting for a signal from the apparatus, which was located on a vast plain blown by unearthly winds. The signal has gone! But after 14.5 seconds, the broadcast stopped. Mars-3 transmitted only the first 79 lines of the photo-television signal: the resulting image was a gray background without a single detail.
Subsequently, several hypotheses were put forward about what caused the sudden termination of the signal: they assumed a discharge in the transmitter antennas, damage to the battery, and so on.
Yes, Mars 3 made the world's first soft landing on the Red Planet, but was unable to transmit photographs or test the first walking rover. It wasn't until July 1976 that the American Viking spacecraft were able to transmit images of the surface and conduct scientific research, including tests for the presence of life.
To this day, the minds of space exploration enthusiasts are occupied with the question: what happened to Mars-3? A man-made object on an alien planet has been searched for in photographs of the surface for more than a dozen years. In the image obtained by modern devices in 2013, for example, at the calculated landing point of Mars-3, a bright spot resembling a parachute is noticeable.
Companion as a premonition
The last wanderer named "Mars" - the sixth in a row - was launched on March 12, 1974. The device reached the planet, but communication with it was lost even before landing, in the immediate vicinity of the surface.
Then the era of "Phobos" began. The project, led by academician Roald Sagdeev, a Soviet and American physicist, was launched in the wake of successful cooperation with Western scientific organizations.
Why did the satellite of Mars attract the attention of scientists? The fact is that due to the small mass, the geological structure of Phobos and Deimos has not undergone major changes since the formation of the solar system. The study of the chemical composition of the soil of Phobos would give scientists the opportunity to judge the conditions for the formation of the bodies of the solar system, their subsequent evolution, and, perhaps, to understand the reasons that led to the emergence of the Earth and the development of life on it.
So, on July 7 and 12, 1988, Phobos-1 and Phobos-2 were successively launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome to the flight path to Mars. Both devices ingloriously ended their days.
Contact was lost with the first Phobos two months later. The reason for this was a mistake made by a specialist of the Babakin Research and Testing Center when compiling the work program for the onboard equipment. An incorrect command led to the flight of "Phobos-1" in a mode not oriented relative to the Sun. For this reason, the onboard chemical batteries were discharged, the spacecraft lost the ability to receive radio commands. Failed to restore connection.
Phobos 2 was more fortunate: it flew safely to Mars. Preparatory maneuvers for rendezvous with Phobos were performed. On March 27, 1989, after the television shooting was completed, the on-board transmitter was supposed to turn on. However, the signal was not received on Earth at the estimated time. The exact moment of the accident is unknown: the design of Phobos-2 did not allow simultaneous photography and communication with the MCC. The last distorted signal received after the failed communication session showed: the on-board computer does not work, and the device itself rotates, having lost orientation.
The main task - the delivery of an automatic self-propelled mini-station to the surface of Phobos - remained unfulfilled. However, despite the loss of communication with both vehicles, the studies of Mars, Phobos and the near-Martian space, carried out for 57 days at the stage of orbital movement, made it possible to obtain unique scientific results. For example, to estimate the rate of erosion of the Martian atmosphere caused by interaction with the solar wind.
This ended the Soviet program for the study of Mars.
", And the M-71C that entered the near-Earth orbit received the open name "Cosmos-419".
AMS of the first and second generations were developed in OKB-1. AMS of the third and fourth generations were developed in NPO named after. Lavochkin.
The launches of the first and second generation AMS were carried out by a 4-stage Molniya medium-class launch vehicle. Launches of AMS of the third and fourth generations were carried out by a heavy-class carrier rocket "Proton-K" with an additional 4th stage - an upper stage D.
Specially for spacecraft launches to Mars, a radio engineering complex for deep space communications was built. The trajectory of the flight of the station was also monitored by the telescope of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory with a diameter of 2.6 m.
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Subtitles
Series KA
First generation spacecraft:
- M-60 ("Mars 1960A", "Mars 1960B") - project 1M flyover stations. Two launches in 1960 were unsuccessful due to launch vehicle failures.
Spacecraft of the second generation:
- M-62 ("Mars-1", "Mars 1962A", "Mars 1962B" - stations of the project of unified Martian-Venusian AMS 2MB. Landing "Mars-62A" 2MB-3 and the first flying "Mars-62B" 2MB-4 were launched on interplanetary trajectories due to failures of carrier rockets.The second flyby AMS 2MV-4 "Mars-1" was launched to Mars on November 1, 1962, but in the first days of the spacecraft's flight along an interplanetary trajectory, the orientation system failed after a gas leak.
- M-64 ("Zond-2") - a flight station of the project of unified Martian-Venusian AMS 3MV (improved second generation). AMC launched to Mars on October 30, 1964. However, due to the incomplete opening of the solar panels, a reduced level of power supply was recorded, approximately half as much as expected. The station could not perform research on Mars and was named Zond-2.
Third generation spacecraft:
- M-69 ("Mars 1969A", "Mars 1969B") - The M-69 series consisted of two heavy AMS. The stations are intended for the exploration of Mars from an artificial satellite (ISM) orbit. The first multi-ton interplanetary stations in the USSR and the world. Both AMSs were not put into interplanetary trajectories in 1969 due to accidents with Proton launch vehicles.
Spacecraft of the fourth generation:
- M-71 - The M-71 series consisted of three AMS designed to study Mars both from the ISM orbit and directly on the surface of the planet. To do this, the Mars-2 and Mars-3 AMSs included both an artificial satellite - an orbiter (OA) and an automatic Martian station, which soft landing on the surface of the planet was carried out by a descent vehicle (SA). The automatic Martian station was equipped with the world's first rover PrOP-M. AMS M-71C did not have a descent vehicle, it was supposed to become an artificial satellite of Mars. AMS M-71S was not launched into an interplanetary trajectory and was officially referred to as the satellite "Cosmos-419". Mars 2 and Mars 3 were launched on May 19 and 28, 1971. The orbiters "Mars-2" and "Mars-3" worked for more than eight months and successfully completed most of the flight program of artificial satellites of Mars (except for photography). The soft landing of the Mars-2 lander ended unsuccessfully, the Mars-3 lander made a soft landing, but the transmission from the automatic Martian station stopped after 14.5 seconds.
Fundamentally, the design of the M-73 series did not differ from the M-71 series. Modernization of individual units and devices was carried out.
- M-73 - The M-73 series consisted of four AMS designed to study Mars both from the ISM orbit and directly from the surface of the planet. In 1973, the speed required to bring AMS to an interplanetary trajectory increased. Therefore, the Proton launch vehicle could not bring the AMS, consisting of an orbital station - an artificial satellite of Mars and a descent vehicle with an automatic Martian station, to the trajectory necessary to get closer to Mars, as was possible in 1971. The Mars-4 and Mars spacecraft -5 "(modification M-73C), were supposed to go into orbit around Mars and provide communication with automatic Martian stations that carried AMS "Mars-6" and "Mars-7" (modification M-73P). Launched 21, 25 July and 5.9 August 1973. "Mars-4" - exploration of Mars from a flyby trajectory (failure, it was planned to launch a satellite of Mars). "Mars-5" - an artificial satellite of Mars (partial luck, the satellite's operating time is about two weeks). "Mars-6" - a flyby of Mars and a soft landing of an automatic Martian station (failure, communication was lost in the immediate vicinity of the surface of Mars), the first direct measurements of the composition of the atmosphere, pressure and temperature during the descent of the descent vehicle by parachute. "Mars-7" - flyby of Mars and soft landing of the automatic Martian station (failure, the descent vehicle flew past Mars).
Technical tasks and scientific results
"Mars-1"
Technical challenges
Since for its time the Mars project was the first project in history of such a scale as the exploration of interplanetary spaces in the Earth-Mars region, a number of technical questions arose before it - what power and type of engines and launch vehicles would be needed to launch into the Earth's orbit the necessary payload, how radio communication will behave over long distances, what problems electronics will face in the conditions of cosmic radiation of interplanetary space in the Earth-Mars region, and many others. other.
Based on ballistic data, it can be assumed that on June 19, 1963, the unmanned Mars-1 made its first flight at a distance of about 200 thousand km from Mars and continued its flight around the Sun.
Scientific results
Due to the failure of the orientation system, Mars-1 was unable to carry out a scientific study of Mars and near-Martian outer space from a flyby trajectory.
Nevertheless, the tasks of the first "Mars" included not only the flight near Mars and the direct study of the planet, but also the study of the properties of the interplanetary space between the Earth and Mars, where the physical conditions were not yet known.
The Mars-1 flight program was partially completed; on March 21, 1963, radio contact with the AMS was lost. At that moment, Mars-1 had covered half of the way and was more than a hundred million kilometers from the Earth, but managed to transmit important information about interplanetary space at a great distance from our planet. With the help of Mars-1, for the first time, data were obtained on the physical properties of outer space between the orbits of the Earth and Mars: on the intensity of cosmic radiation, the strength of the magnetic fields of the Earth and the interplanetary medium, on the flows of ionized gas coming from the Sun, and on the distribution of meteoric matter ( the spacecraft crossed 2 meteor showers).
"Mars-2", "Mars-3"
Fourth generation spacecraft (M-71 series - "Mars-2" / "Mars-3"). AMS duplicated each other. Each AMS consisted of an orbiter (OA), a descent vehicle (SA), and ProOP-M rovers.
Technical challenges
The main technical task of the Mars-2 and Mars-3 missions was to deliver automatic Martian stations and rovers to the orbit and surface of Mars, as well as the further implementation of well-coordinated work between them. Among other things, the tasks of Mars-2 included delivery to the surface of Mars of a capsule containing a pennant with the State Emblem of the USSR.
The descent vehicles and rovers of the Soviet AMS of the Mars program did not cope with the assigned tasks, while the orbiters completed all the main technical programs assigned to them. Due to the failures of the descent vehicles, the main technical task of the entire Mars program - the creation of a working automatic scientific complex on Mars - was not solved.
"Mars-2"
Orbiter AMS "Mars-2". He successfully completed all the main stages of his program and spent more than 8 months exploring Mars from orbit, up to the exhaustion of nitrogen in the orientation and stabilization system (August 23, 1972). When approaching Mars, the descent vehicle was separated from Mars-2, which delivered a pennant with the image of the State Emblem of the USSR to the surface of the planet.
AMS Mars-2 descent module. It was sent to the surface of the planet in November 1971. During landing on November 27, 1971, the apparatus crashed, becoming the first man-made object delivered to Mars.
Mars rover AMS "Mars-2" "PrOP-M". It was lost due to an accident during the landing of the descent vehicle.
"Mars-3"
Orbiter AMS "Mars-3". He successfully completed all the main stages of his program and spent more than 8 months exploring Mars from orbit, up to the exhaustion of nitrogen in the orientation and stabilization system (August 23, 1972).
AMS Mars-3 descent module. It was sent to the surface of the planet in December 1971. On December 2, 1971, the first ever successful soft landing on the surface of Mars took place. Shortly after landing, the station began transmitting a panorama of the surrounding surface, but the received part of the panorama was a gray background without a single detail. After 14.5 seconds, the signal disappeared. (According to the memoirs of academician M. Ya. Marov, the signal disappeared after 20 seconds).
Mars rover AMS "Mars-3" "PrOP-M". It was lost due to loss of communication with the descent vehicle.
Scientific results
scientific equipment
On board the orbiters "Mars-2" and "Mars-3" there was scientific equipment designed for measurements in interplanetary space, as well as for studying the environs of Mars and the planet itself from the orbit of an artificial satellite:
Scientific measurements, research and experiments
The orbital stations "Mars-2" and "Mars-3" carried out a comprehensive program of orbital exploration of Mars for more than 8 months. The following measurements and results were carried out and obtained:
Photo
The developers of the phototelevision installation (FTU) used the wrong Mars illumination model. Therefore, incorrect exposures were chosen. The pictures turned out overexposed, almost completely unusable. After several series of shots (each with 12 frames), the photo-television installation was not used.
"Mars-4", "Mars-5", "Mars-6", "Mars-7"
The study of Mars in 1973-1974, when four Soviet spacecraft "Mars-4", "Mars-5", "Mars-6", "Mars-7" almost simultaneously reached the outskirts of the planet, acquired a new quality. The purpose of the flight: determination of the physical characteristics of the soil, the properties of the surface rock, experimental verification of the possibility of obtaining television images, etc.
The scientific research carried out by the spacecraft "Mars-4", "Mars-5", "Mars-6", "Mars-7" is versatile and extensive. The Mars-4 spacecraft photographed Mars from its flyby trajectory. "Mars-5" - an artificial satellite of Mars "Mars-5 transmitted new information about this planet and the space surrounding it, made high-quality photographs of the Martian surface, including color ones. The Mars-6 descent vehicle landed on the planet, for the first time transmitting data on the parameters of the Martian atmosphere obtained during the descent. The spacecraft "Mars-6" and "Mars-7" explored outer space from a heliocentric orbit. "Mars-7" in September-November 1973 recorded a connection between the increase in the proton flux and the speed of the solar wind. Photographs of the surface of Mars, which are of very high quality, can distinguish details up to 100 m in size. This makes photography one of the main means of studying the planet. Since photography was carried out using color filters, color images of a number of surface areas were obtained by synthesizing. Color images are also of high quality and are suitable for areological-morphological and photometric studies.
With the help of a two-channel ultraviolet photometer with a high spatial resolution, photometric profiles of the atmosphere near the limb of the planet were obtained in the region of the spectrum 2600-2800 A, inaccessible to ground-based observations. -7", "Mariner-9" in terms of ozone belonged to the solid surface of the polar cap), as well as noticeable aerosol absorption even in the absence of dust storms. These data can be used to calculate the characteristics of the aerosol layer. Measurements of atmospheric ozone make it possible to estimate the concentration of atomic oxygen in the lower atmosphere and the rate of its vertical transport from the upper atmosphere, which is important for choosing a model to explain the stability of the carbon dioxide atmosphere existing on Mars. The results of measurements on the illuminated disk of the planet can be used to study its topography. Studies of the magnetic field in the near-Martian space, carried out by the Mars-5 spacecraft, confirmed the conclusion made on the basis of similar studies by the Mars-2, Mars-3 spacecraft that there is a magnetic field near the planet of the order of 30 gamma (in 7 -10 times the magnitude of the interplanetary undisturbed field carried by the solar wind). It was assumed that this magnetic field belongs to the planet itself, and Mars-5 helped to provide additional arguments in favor of this hypothesis. Preliminary processing of Mars-7 data on the intensity of radiation in the resonant line of atomic hydrogen Lyman-alpha made it possible to estimate the profile of this line in interplanetary space and to determine two components in it, each of which makes an approximately equal contribution to the total radiation intensity. The information obtained will make it possible to calculate the speed, temperature, and density of interstellar hydrogen flowing into the solar system, as well as to identify the contribution of galactic radiation to the Lyman-alpha lines. This experiment was carried out jointly with French scientists. For the first time, the temperature of atomic hydrogen in the upper atmosphere of Mars was directly measured using similar measurements from the Mars-5 spacecraft. Preliminary data processing showed that this temperature is close to 350°K.
The Mars-6 lander measured the chemical composition of the Martian atmosphere using a radio frequency mass spectrometer. Shortly after the opening of the main parachute, the mechanism for opening the analyzer worked, and the atmosphere of Mars gained access to the device. The mass spectra themselves were supposed to be transmitted after landing and were not obtained on Earth, however, when analyzing the current parameter of the magnetoionization pump of the mass spectrograph transmitted via the telemetry channel during the parachute descent, it was assumed that the argon content in the planet’s atmosphere could be from 25% up to 45%. (According to updated data, the proportion of argon in the atmosphere of Mars is 1.6%). The content of argon is of fundamental importance for understanding the evolution of the Martian atmosphere.
The descent vehicle also carried out pressure and ambient temperature measurements. The results of these measurements are very important both for expanding knowledge about the planet and for identifying the conditions in which future Martian stations should operate.
Together with French scientists, a radio astronomy experiment was also carried out - measurements of the radio emission of the Sun in the meter range. Receiving radiation simultaneously on Earth and on board a spacecraft hundreds of millions of kilometers away from our planet makes it possible to restore a three-dimensional picture of the process of generating radio waves and obtain data on the fluxes of charged particles responsible for these processes. In this experiment, another problem was also solved - the search for short-term bursts of radio emission, which can, as expected, arise in deep space due to explosive-type phenomena in the nuclei of galaxies, during bursts of supernovae, and other processes.
- In contrast to the automatic interplanetary stations of the Mariner series, the body of the Soviet automatic interplanetary stations Mars is sealed.
- Unlike the Soviet automatic interplanetary stations Mars, a large number of integrated circuits are used in the automatic interplanetary stations "Mariner-6" - "Mariner-10".
Soviet and Russian spacecraft for the exploration of Mars
Unrealized projects
- "Mars-4NM" is an unrealized project of a heavy rover, which was supposed to be launched by a super-heavy launch vehicle N-1, which was not put into operation.
- "Mars-5NM" is an unrealized AMS project for the delivery of soil from Mars, which was supposed to be launched by one launch of the N-1 launch vehicle. Projects 4HM and 5HM were developed in 1970 with a view to implementation around 1975.
- "Mars-79" ("Mars-5M") - an unrealized AMS project for the delivery of soil from Mars, the orbital and landing modules of which were supposed to be launched separately on the Proton launch vehicle and docked at the Earth to fly to Mars. The project was developed in 1977 with a view to implementation in 1979.
Partially successful launches
- Phobos - two AMS for the exploration of Mars and Phobos in 1989 of a new unified project, of which, due to failures, one got out of control on the way to the planet, and the second completed only part of the Martian program and partially completed the phobos one.
- "Phobos-Grunt 2" - a repeated, slightly modified AMS mission to deliver soil from Phobos, planned to be launched before 2021.
- "Mars-net" / MetNet - AMS with 4 new and 4 small PMs from the Mars-96 project, planned for launch in 2017.
- "Mars-Aster" - AMS for the study of Mars and asteroids since 2018
- "Mars-Grunt" - AMS for the delivery of soil from Mars around 2020-2033.
"Mars-3" - Soviet automatic interplanetary station (AMS) of the fourth generation of the space program "Mars". One of the three AMCs of the M-71 series. Mars-3 is designed to explore Mars both from orbit and directly from the surface of the planet. AMS consisted of an orbital station - an artificial satellite of Mars and a descent vehicle with an automatic Martian station.
The world's first soft landing of a descent vehicle on Mars and the only one in Soviet cosmonautics. Data transmission from the automatic Martian station began 1.5 minutes after it landed on the surface of Mars, but stopped after 14.5 seconds.
Specifications:
- AMC weight at launch: 4625 kg
- Mass of the orbital station at launch: 3625 kg
– The mass of the descent vehicle at launch: 1000 kg
- Mass of the automatic Martian station: 355 kg (after a soft landing on Mars)
AMS "Mars-3" was developed at the NPO named after S. A. Lavochkin, it consisted of an orbital station - an artificial satellite and a descent vehicle with an automatic Martian station. The layout of the AMS was proposed by a young designer V. A. Asyushkin. The control system, weighing 167 kg and power consumption 800 watts, was designed and manufactured by the Research Institute of Automation and Instrumentation.
The basis of the orbital station was a block of tanks of the main propulsion system of a cylindrical shape. Attached to this block were solar panels, a highly directional parabolic antenna, thermal control system radiators, a descent vehicle, and an instrument compartment. The instrument compartment was a toroidal sealed container that housed the onboard computer system, navigation and orientation systems, and so on. Outside, astronavigation instruments were attached to the instrument compartment.
The descent vehicle was a conical aerodynamic brake screen with a diameter of 3.2 meters and an angle at the top of 120 degrees, covering the automatic Martian station (close to spherical in shape). On top of the automatic Martian station, a toroidal instrument-parachute container was attached with tie-down straps, which contained the exhaust and main parachutes, and the instruments necessary to ensure withdrawal, stabilization, descent from near-Martian orbit, braking and soft landing, and a connecting frame. On the frame there is a solid-propellant engine for transferring the descent vehicle from a flying trajectory to an incoming trajectory and units of an autonomous control system for stabilizing the descent vehicle after it has undocked from the orbital station. A pennant with the State Emblem of the USSR was also fixed on board the descent vehicle. Before the flight, the descent vehicle was sterilized.
The structure of the automatic Martian station included the PrOP-M rover.
The station was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome using a Proton-K launch vehicle with an additional 4th stage - upper stage D on May 28, 1971 at 18:26:30 Moscow time. Unlike the AMS of the previous generation, Mars-3 was first launched into an intermediate orbit of an artificial satellite of the Earth, and then transferred to an interplanetary trajectory by upper stage D.
The flight to Mars lasted more than 6 months. On June 8 and in November 1971, corrections to the trajectory of movement were successfully carried out. Until the moment of approach to Mars, the flight proceeded according to the program. The arrival of the station to the planet coincided with a large dust storm.
Mars 3 lander
The Mars 3 lander made the world's first soft landing on the surface of Mars on December 2, 1971. Landing begins after the third correction of the AMS interplanetary flight path and separation of the descent vehicle from the orbital station. Before separation, the Mars-3 station was oriented so that the descent vehicle after separation could move in the required direction. The separation took place at 12:14 Moscow time on December 2, 1971, when the AMS flew up to the planet, before the orbital station slowed down and entered the Mars satellite orbit. After 15 minutes, the solid-fuel engine of the descent vehicle transfer from the flyby trajectory to the trajectory of rendezvous with Mars worked. Having received an additional speed equal to 120 m/s (432 km/h), the descent vehicle headed for the estimated point of entry into the atmosphere. The truss-mounted control system then deployed the descent vehicle with a conical drag screen forward in the direction of travel to ensure a correctly oriented reentry into the planet's atmosphere. To maintain the descent vehicle in this orientation during the flight to the planet, gyroscopic stabilization was carried out. The spin-up of the apparatus along the longitudinal axis was carried out with the help of two small solid-propellant engines installed on the periphery of the brake screen. The truss with control system and translation engine, now unnecessary, was separated from the descent vehicle. The flight from separation to re-entry lasted about 4.5 hours. On command from the program-time device, two other solid-propellant engines, also located on the periphery of the brake screen, were turned on, after which the rotation of the descent vehicle stopped. At 16:44, the descent vehicle entered the atmosphere at an angle close to the calculated one at a speed of about 5.8 km/s, and aerodynamic braking began. At the end of the aerodynamic braking section, still at supersonic flight speed, at the command of the overload sensor, using a powder engine located on the cover of the pilot chute compartment, the pilot chute was introduced. After 1.5 s, with the help of an elongated charge, the torus parachute compartment was cut, and the upper part of the compartment (lid) was taken away from the descent vehicle by a pilot chute. The cover, in turn, introduced the main parachute with a reefed dome. The lines of the main parachute were attached to a bunch of solid propellant engines, which were already attached directly to the descent vehicle. When the device slowed down to transonic speed, then, on a signal from the program-time device, a reefing was carried out - the main parachute canopy was fully opened. After 1-2 s, the aerodynamic cone was dropped and the radio altimeter antennas of the soft landing system were opened. During the descent on a parachute for several minutes, the speed of movement decreased to about 60 m / s (216 km / h). At an altitude of 20-30 meters, at the command of the radio altimeter, the braking engine of a soft landing was turned on. The parachute at this time was diverted to the side by another rocket engine so that its dome would not cover the automatic Martian station. After some time, the soft landing engine turned off, and the descent vehicle, separated from the parachute container, sank to the surface. At the same time, a parachute container with a soft landing engine was moved aside with the help of low-thrust engines. At the time of landing, a thick foam coating protected the station from shock loading. Landing was carried out between the areas of Electris and Phaetontia. Landing point coordinates 45° S. sh. 158°W (I) on the flat bottom of the large Ptolemy crater, west of the Reutov crater, and between the small Belev and Tyuratam craters.
Soft landing on Mars is a complex scientific and technical problem. During the development of the Mars-3 station, the relief of the surface of Mars was poorly studied, there was very little information about the soil. In addition, the atmosphere is very rarefied, strong winds are possible. The design of the aerodynamic cone, parachutes, and soft landing engine was chosen taking into account operation in a wide range of possible descent conditions and characteristics of the Martian atmosphere, and their weight is minimal.
Within 1.5 minutes after landing, the automatic Martian station prepared for work, and then began transmitting a panorama of the surrounding surface, but after 14.5 seconds the broadcast stopped. AMS transmitted only the first 79 lines of the photo-television signal (the right edge of the panorama). The resulting image was a gray background without a single detail. The same thing happened with the second telephotometer - a single-line optical-mechanical scanner. Subsequently, several hypotheses were put forward about what caused the sudden termination of the signal from the surface: they assumed a corona discharge in the transmitter antennas, damage to the battery, etc.
In modern times, after refined calculations, a version has been put forward that the reason for the loss of the signal was the departure of the orbital station from the visibility zone of the descent vehicle antenna.
The orbital station after the separation of the descent vehicle performed deceleration on December 2, 1971 and entered an off-design orbit of an artificial satellite of Mars with a period of revolution of 12 days 16 hours 3 minutes (an orbit with a period of revolution of 25 hours was planned. The discrepancy between the actual and planned period of revolution can be explained by the lack of time, which prevented proper testing of the automatic navigation system software).
Landing sites for robotic stations on Mars
For more than 8 months, the orbital station has been carrying out a comprehensive program of exploration of Mars, having made 20 orbits around the planet. AMS continued research until the exhaustion of nitrogen in the orientation and stabilization system. TASS announced the completion of the Mars exploration program on August 23, 1972. For four months, IR radiometry, photometry, measurements of the composition of the atmosphere, magnetic field and plasma were carried out.
The developers of the phototelevision installation (FTU) used the wrong model of Mars, because of which the wrong exposures of the PTU were chosen. The pictures turned out overexposed, almost completely unusable. After several series of shots (each with 12 frames), the photo-television installation was not used.
Image transmitted from the surface of Mars by an automatic Martian station in 14.5 seconds
As part of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter flight program, attempts were made to find the landing site of the Mars-3 apparatus, along with the search for other Martian automatic stations launched by mankind in the 20th century. For a long time, the station could not be found in the expected landing coordinates. In 2012-2013, astronautics enthusiasts, led by well-known blogger and space research promoter Vitaly Egorov (Zelenyikot), analyzed a high-resolution image of the proposed landing zone of the station, which was taken in 2007 by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter satellite. As a result, objects were identified that are presumably elements of the Mars-3 descent vehicle. The images identified an automatic Mars station, a parachute, a soft landing engine, and an aerodynamic drag shield. In their search, they were assisted by specialists from NASA, GEOKHI, RKS, NPO them. Lavochkin.
Postage stamp of the USSR. 1972. The descent vehicle of the Mars-3 station
Used sources:
1. Mars-3 [Electronic resource].- 2016 - Access mode: http://ru.wikipedia.org
2. Mars-3 [Electronic resource].- 2016 - Access mode: http://rusplt.ru
3. Mars-3 [Electronic resource].- 2016 - Access mode:
"Mars-6" (M-73P No. 50) is a Soviet automatic interplanetary station of the M-73 series under the Mars program launched on August 5, 1973 at 17:45:48 UTC. The descent vehicle of AMS "Mars-6", in contrast to the descent vehicle of the identical design of AMS "Mars-7", landed on the planet.
The spacecraft "Mars-6" ("M-73P" No. 50) is designed to deliver a research probe (AMS) to the Martian surface. The total mass of the Mars-6 spacecraft was 3880 kg, of which the mass of the scientific equipment of the orbital compartment was 114 kg, and the descent module was 1000 kg. The corrective propulsion system was filled with 598.5 kg of fuel: 210.4 kg of fuel and 388.1 kg of oxidizer. The mass of the descent vehicle upon entry into the atmosphere is 844 kg. The mass of the automatic Martian station after landing is 355 kg, of which the mass of scientific equipment is 19.1 kg.
During the flight of the spacecraft M-73P ("Mars-6 and 7"), designed to deliver the descent vehicle, the scheme of separation and landing of the descent vehicle on the Martian surface, which was developed for the previous expedition M-71, is completely repeated. The most important stage of the expedition - landing on the Martian surface - is carried out as follows. The entry of the descent vehicle into the atmosphere occurs in a given range of entry angles, at a speed of about 6 km/s. In the area of passive aerodynamic braking, the stability of the descent vehicle is ensured by its external shape and centering.
The orbital (flying) vehicle after the separation of the SA and during the subsequent approach to Mars (this is the difference from the M-71 flight pattern) is deployed using a gyroplatform in such a way that the meter-range antennas are turned to receive a signal from the descent vehicle, and the highly directional antenna is for transmission of information to earth. After completing work with the automatic Martian station, the apparatus continues its flight in a heliocentric orbit.
The Mars-6 spacecraft (M-73P No. 50) was launched from the left launcher of pad No. 81 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome on August 5, 1973 at 20 hours 45 minutes 48 seconds by the Proton-K launch vehicle. With the help of three stages of the Proton-K launch vehicle and the first switching on of the control unit of the upper stage, the spacecraft was launched into an intermediate AES (Orbit of an Artificial Earth Satellite) at a height of 174.9 km. The second switching on of the propulsion system of the upper stage after ~ 1 hour 20 minutes of passive flight made the transition of the spacecraft to the flight trajectory to Mars. At 22 hours 04 minutes 09.6 seconds, the spacecraft separated from the upper stage.
August 13, 1973 made the first correction of the trajectory. When the settings were set, the readiness of the first channel of the ACS on-board computer was removed, however, during the correction session, it was restored. The correction impulse was 5.17 m/s, the engine running time at low thrust was 3.4 seconds, and the fuel consumption was 11.2 kg.
Almost immediately, the first set of the EA-035 on-board tape recorder failed. The situation was corrected by switching to the second set. However, just a month after the launch, on September 3, 1973, telemetry failed on the device, as a result of which it became impossible to receive information in the direct transmission mode over the decimeter channel, and over the centimeter it was possible to transmit information only in playback mode, and only information from the FTU and a VCR. I had to change the control technology, and during the entire flight to issue all commands two or three times "blindly", controlling their passage only by indirect signs.
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M-73P (Descent vehicle) |
AMS "Mars-6" reached the vicinity of the planet Mars on March 12, 1974. When the station "Mars-6" approached the planet, the final correction of the trajectory of its movement was autonomously carried out using the onboard astronavigation system and the descent vehicle separated from the station (at a distance of 48,000 km from the planet). At the estimated time, the propulsion system was switched on, which ensured the transfer of the SA to the trajectory of the meeting with Mars. At the same time, the station itself continued to fly in a heliocentric orbit with a minimum distance of about 1600 km from the planet's surface. Fifteen minutes after separation, the descent vehicle's braking engine fired, and 3.5 hours later, the descent vehicle entered the Martian atmosphere at a speed of 5600 m/s. The entry angle was 11.7 degrees. At first, braking was due to the aerodynamic screen, and after 2.5 minutes, when the speed of 600 m / s was reached, the parachute system was put into operation.
At the stage of parachute descent at altitudes from 20 km to the surface and below, measurements of temperature and pressure were carried out, and the chemical composition of the atmosphere was also determined. Within 150 seconds, the results were transmitted to the flyby vehicle, but useful information was extracted only from the signal from the radio complex of the descent vehicle.
The entire descent section - from entry into the atmosphere and aerodynamic braking to descent by parachute, inclusive - lasted 5.2 minutes. During the descent, there was no digital information from the MX 6408M device, but information was received about overloads, changes in temperature and pressure.
The Mars-6 lander measured the chemical composition of the Martian atmosphere using an RF-type mass spectrometer. Shortly after the opening of the main parachute, the mechanism for opening the analyzer worked, and the atmosphere of Mars gained access to the device. The mass spectra themselves were supposed to be transmitted after landing and were not obtained on Earth, however, when analyzing the current parameter of the magnetoionization pump of the mass spectrograph transmitted via the telemetry channel during the parachute descent, it was assumed that the argon content in the planet’s atmosphere could be from 25% up to 45%.
Immediately before landing, communication with the descent vehicle was lost. The last telemetry received from it confirmed the issuance of a command to turn on the soft landing engine.
A new appearance of the signal was expected 143 seconds after the disappearance, but this did not happen.
The descent vehicle landed at the point with coordinates 23.9°S. and 19.5°W (on the border of the Pearly Land and Noah's Land).
It was not possible to unequivocally determine the reason for the unsuccessful completion of the operation of the descent vehicle. The most likely versions include:
The device crashed, including due to the failure of the radio complex, although the speed of descent and the operation of the soft landing engine corresponded to the calculated ones (the device was designed for impact acceleration during landing of 180 g, and in peripheral places up to 240 g);
- the excess of the amplitude of the vehicle oscillations under the influence of the Martian storm at the moment of switching on the soft landing engines led to an emergency situation.
On board the stations "Mars-6" and "Mars-7", in addition to Soviet scientific equipment, instruments made by French specialists were installed.
Together with French scientists, a radio astronomy experiment was also carried out - measurements of the radio emission of the Sun in the meter range. Receiving radiation simultaneously on Earth and on board a spacecraft hundreds of millions of kilometers away from our planet makes it possible to reconstruct a three-dimensional picture of the process of generating radio waves and obtain data on the fluxes of charged particles responsible for these processes. In this experiment, another problem was also solved - the search for short-term bursts of radio emission, which can, as expected, arise in deep space due to explosive-type phenomena in the nuclei of galaxies, during supernova explosions, and other processes.
The flight program of the Mars-6 spacecraft has been partially completed. The descent vehicle program ended in failure.
"Mars-7" (M-73P, USSR)
The spacecraft "Mars-7" ("M-73P" No. 51) is designed to deliver a research probe (AMS) to the Martian surface.
The launch of two identical devices "Mars-6" and "Mars-7" was planned not only to increase the overall reliability of the target mission, but also to study the surface of Mars in two different regions of the planet.
The total mass of the Mars-7 spacecraft was 3880 kg, of which the mass of the scientific equipment of the orbital compartment was 114 kg, and the descent module was 1000 kg. The corrective propulsion system was filled with 598.5 kg of fuel: 210.4 kg of fuel and 388.1 kg of oxidizer. The mass of the descent vehicle upon entry into the atmosphere is 844 kg. The mass of the automatic Martian station after landing is 355 kg, of which the mass of scientific equipment is 19.1 kg.
The Mars-7 spacecraft (M-73P No. 51) was launched from the right launcher of pad No. 81 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome on August 9, 1973 at 20 hours 0 minutes 17.5 seconds by the Proton-K launch vehicle. The launch to Mars was carried out by the second switching on of the propulsion system of upper stage D after ~ 1 hour and 20 minutes of passive flight in an intermediate near-Earth orbit with a height of 189 × 162 km. At 21:20:35.3 seconds, the spacecraft separated from the upper stage.
The Mars-7 spacecraft flew up to Mars on March 9, 1974 - earlier than Mars-6 - 212 days after launch. Even when setting the settings for the second correction, the readiness of the first and third channels of the C530 on-board computer was not formed. The reason is the same as on other devices of the M-73 series - the failure of the command ROM in the onboard computer due to the 2T312 transistor.
The decisive negative impact on the outcome of the expedition was caused by the incorrectly calculated settings for the spacecraft turn before the descent module was separated. For this reason, the SA along the flyby trajectory passed 1400 km from the surface of Mars and went into the expanses of space. The target task of the Mars-7 spacecraft was not fulfilled, although, while making an autonomous flight, the SA remained operational for some time and transmitted information to the flying vehicle via radio links KD-1 and RT-1.
Communication with the Mars-7 spacecraft was maintained until March 25, 1974.
The flight program of the Mars-7 station was not completed.
SCIENTIFIC RESULTS
The study of Mars in 1973-1974, when four Soviet spacecraft "Mars-4", "Mars-5", "Mars-6" and "Mars-7" almost simultaneously reached the vicinity of the planet, acquired a new quality.
Scientific research carried out by the Mars-4, 5, 6, 7 spacecraft is versatile and extensive. The Mars-4 spacecraft photographed Mars from its flyby trajectory. The artificial satellite of Mars, the Mars-5 spacecraft, transmitted to Earth new information about this planet and the space surrounding it; high-quality photographs of the Martian surface, including color photographs, were obtained from the satellite orbit. The Mars-6 descent vehicle landed on the planet, for the first time transmitting to Earth data on the parameters of the Martian atmosphere obtained during the descent. The spacecraft "Mars-6" and "Mars-7" explored outer space from a heliocentric orbit. The Mars-7 spacecraft in September-November 1973 recorded a connection between the increase in the proton flux and the speed of the solar wind.
A large series of experiments was devoted to the study of the surface of Mars. Photographs of the planet were carried out using various types of photo-television devices. There are about 60 photographs taken on the AMS "Mars-4", "Mars-5", many of them are of very high quality. They cover the area that was photographed by the American spacecraft "Mariner-9" during the dust storm and could not provide high quality images. Two cameras were used: a short-focus one with a resolution of about 1 km near the periapsis and a long-focus one with a resolution of about 100 m. In addition, images were obtained using scanning photoelectric photometers. The resulting photographs were studied by geologists, and their photogrammetric analysis was also carried out. Some photographs show traces of water erosion, which are cautiously estimated to be less than one billion years old. This is an independent support for the hypothesis of fluctuations in atmospheric density.
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SCIENTIFIC RESULTS |
An infrared (IR) radiometer on the Mars-5 AMS measured the surface temperature. The maximum recorded temperatures are 272 °K and refer to 13 h 10 m local time (Thaumasia region). In the terminator zone, the temperature drops to 230 °K, and at the end of the route at 21 h 00 m local time to 200 °K. Measurements with an IR radiometer show that the thermal inertia of the soil is in the range of 0.004-0.008 cal-deg-1 cm-2 sec-1/2. From here it is possible to estimate the characteristic value of the size of the soil grains - from 0.1 to 0.5 mm. On the other hand, photometric and polarimetric measurements show that these grains have a microstructure of a finer scale (on the order of a micron).
The composition of the soil and its structure determine the reflectivity of the planet in the range from 0.3 to 4 microns. The long-wavelength section of this interval was studied using an infrared spectrometer. Several hundreds of spectra were obtained in the range from 2 to 5 μm. Their most characteristic detail is the presence of a band of crystallized water about 3.2 µm. The combination of spectroscopic, photometric, and polarization properties of the Martian soil is consistent with the assumption of a silicate composition (oxidized basalt) with a small admixture of goethite.
The gamma-ray spectrometer on Mars-5 made it possible to obtain gamma-ray spectra of Martian rocks, which give an idea of their characteristic composition.
With the help of AMS "Mars-5" studies of the magnetic field on the evening and night side of the planet were continued. These studies made it possible to establish that a shock front is formed in the vicinity of the planet Mars. Behind the shock front, there is a characteristic transition region, where an enhanced fluctuating field is observed from the side of the planet. The transition region is bounded by a more regular magnetic field that increases as the pericenter is approached. This field at an altitude of 1100 km is about 30 gamma. As the station moved away from the periapsis, successive intersections of characteristic regions were observed in reverse order. The totality of data on the magnitude and topology of the magnetic field, the position of the shock front and the intensity of the solar wind can be explained in the most natural way under the assumption that the planet Mars has its own magnetic field with a moment M = 2.47 1022 gauss * cm-3 and a field strength of equator H = 64 gamma. At the altitudes of the satellite flight, the field is deformed by the action of the solar wind. The north pole of the Martian dipole is located in the northern hemisphere, and the axis of the dipole is inclined to the axis of rotation of Mars at an angle of 15-20°.
An analysis of the ion and electronic energy spectra obtained with the AMS Mars-5 instruments showed that there are three zones crossed by the satellite with significantly different plasma properties near the planet. Spectra corresponding to the undisturbed solar wind are recorded in the first zone, and the transition region behind the shock wave front is recorded in the second zone. The third plasma region lies within the plume of the Martian magnetosphere and is in some respects similar to the so-called plasma sheet in the plume of the Earth's magnetosphere.
Using a two-channel ultraviolet photometer with a high spatial resolution, photometric profiles of the atmosphere near the planet's limb were obtained in the 2600-2800 A spectral region inaccessible to ground-based observations. ” for ozone referred to the solid surface of the polar cap), as well as noticeable aerosol absorption even in the absence of dust storms. These data can be used to calculate the characteristics of the aerosol layer. Measurements of atmospheric ozone make it possible to estimate the concentration of atomic oxygen in the lower atmosphere and the rate of its vertical transport from the upper atmosphere, which is important for choosing a model to explain the stability of the carbon dioxide atmosphere existing on Mars. The results of measurements on the illuminated disk of the planet can be used to study its topography.
Two experiments on the AMS "Mars-5" were devoted to the study of the chemical composition of the atmosphere of Mars - the measurement of the content of water vapor and ozone. Data on measuring the content of H2O indicate that the content of H2O in some regions of Mars reaches 80 microns of precipitated water, i.e., much more than was observed in 1971-72. (data "Mars-3", "Mariner-9": 10 - 20 microns); there are significant spatial variations - in areas located at a distance of several hundred kilometers, the content of H2O in the atmosphere can vary by two to three times. The highest atmospheric humidity was observed west of the rugged terrain in the Araxes region. The second experiment confidently detected small amounts of ozone in the atmosphere - about 10-5% by volume. The height of the ozone layer is about 30 km. This result is important for understanding photochemical processes in the planet's atmosphere.
Studies of the magnetic field in the near-Martian space, carried out by the Mars-5 spacecraft, confirmed the conclusion made on the basis of similar studies of the Mars-2,-3 spacecraft that there is a magnetic field near the planet of the order of 30 gamma (in 7-10 times greater than the value of the interplanetary undisturbed field carried by the solar wind). It was assumed that this magnetic field belongs to the planet itself, and Mars-5 helped to provide additional arguments in favor of this hypothesis.
Preliminary processing of Mars-7 data on the intensity of radiation in the resonant line of atomic hydrogen Lyman-alpha made it possible to estimate the profile of this line in interplanetary space and to determine two components in it, each of which makes an approximately equal contribution to the total radiation intensity. The information obtained will make it possible to calculate the velocity, temperature, and density of interstellar hydrogen flowing into the solar system, as well as to isolate the contribution of galactic radiation to the Lyman-alpha lines. This experiment was carried out jointly with French scientists.
For the first time, the temperature of atomic hydrogen in the upper atmosphere of Mars was directly measured using similar measurements from the Mars-5 spacecraft. Preliminary data processing showed that this temperature is close to 350°K.
The Mars-6 lander measured the chemical composition of the Martian atmosphere using a radio frequency mass spectrometer. Shortly after the opening of the main parachute, the mechanism for opening the analyzer worked, and the atmosphere of Mars gained access to the device. A preliminary analysis allows us to conclude that the content of argon in the planet's atmosphere may be about one third. This result is of fundamental importance for understanding the evolution of the Martian atmosphere.
The descent vehicle also carried out pressure and ambient temperature measurements; the results of these measurements are very important both for expanding knowledge about the planet and for identifying the conditions in which future Martian stations should operate.
Together with French scientists, a radio astronomy experiment was also carried out - measurements of the radio emission of the Sun in the meter range. Receiving radiation simultaneously on Earth and on board a spacecraft hundreds of millions of kilometers away from our planet makes it possible to reconstruct a three-dimensional picture of the process of generating radio waves and obtain data on the fluxes of charged particles responsible for these processes. In this experiment, another problem was also solved - the search for short-term bursts of radio emission, which can, as expected, arise in deep space due to explosive-type phenomena in the nuclei of galaxies, during supernova explosions, and other processes.
Mars-2 is a Soviet automatic interplanetary station (AMS) of the fourth generation of the Mars space program. One of the three AMCs of the M-71 series. Mars-2 is designed to explore Mars both from orbit and directly from the surface of Mars. AMS consisted of an orbital station - an artificial satellite of Mars and a descent vehicle with an automatic Martian station.
The world's first attempt to soft-land a descent vehicle on Mars (unsuccessful). The first lander to reach the surface of Mars.
Mars-2 was developed at the NPO named after S. A. Lavochkin.
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MARS-2 |
Specifications:
Mass AMC at launch: 4625 kg
- The mass of the orbital station at launch: 3625 kg
- The mass of the descent vehicle at launch: 1000 kg
- Mass of automatic Martian station: 355 kg. (after soft landing on Mars)
Device design:
AMS consisted of an orbital station and a descent vehicle with an automatic Martian station.
The main parts of the orbital station: instrument compartment, propulsion tank block, corrective jet engine with automation units, solar battery, antenna-feeder devices and thermal control system radiators. AMS to ensure the flight had a number of systems. The control system included: a gyro-stabilized platform; onboard digital computer and space autonomous navigation system. In addition to orientation to the Sun, at a sufficiently large distance from the Earth (about 30 million km), simultaneous orientation to the Sun, the star Canopus and the Earth was carried out.
The orbital station contained scientific equipment intended for measurements in interplanetary space, as well as for studying the environs of Mars and the planet itself from the orbit of an artificial satellite: a fluxgate magnetometer; an infrared radiometer for obtaining a map of the temperature distribution over the surface of Mars; an infrared photometer for studying the surface topography by measuring the amount of carbon dioxide; optical device for determining the content of water vapor by the spectral method; photometer of the visible range for studying the reflectivity of the surface and atmosphere; a device for determining the radiobrightness temperature of the surface in the range of 3.4 cm, determining its dielectric constant and the temperature of the surface layer at a depth of up to 30-50 cm; ultraviolet photometer for determining the density of the upper atmosphere of Mars, determining the content of atomic oxygen, hydrogen and argon in the atmosphere; cosmic ray particle counter; energy spectrometer of charged particles; electron and proton flux energy meter from 30 eV to 30 keV. As well as two photo-television cameras.
The descent vehicle was a conical aerodynamic braking screen covering the automatic Martian station (close to spherical in shape). On top of the automatic Martian station, a toroidal instrument-parachute container was attached with tie-down straps, which contained the exhaust and main parachutes, and the instruments necessary to ensure withdrawal, stabilization, descent from near-Martian orbit, braking and soft landing and a connecting frame. On the frame there is a solid-propellant engine for transferring the descent vehicle from a flying trajectory to an incoming trajectory and units of an autonomous control system for stabilizing the descent vehicle after its undocking with the orbital station. Before the flight, the descent vehicle was sterilized.
The control system was developed and manufactured by the Research Institute of Automation and Instrumentation. The weight of the control system is 167 kg, the power consumption is 800 watts. The prototype of the control system was the computer system of the lunar orbital ship, the core of which was the C-530 on-board computer based on elements of the "Tropa" type.
Launch and mission results:
The station was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome using a Proton-K launch vehicle with an additional 4th stage - upper stage D on May 19, 1971 at 19:22:49 Moscow time. Unlike the AMS of the previous generation, Mars-2 was first launched into an intermediate orbit of an artificial satellite of the Earth, and then transferred to an interplanetary trajectory by upper stage D.
The flight of the station to Mars lasted more than 6 months. Until the moment of approach to Mars, the flight proceeded according to the program. The flight path passed at a distance of 1380 km from the surface of Mars. Mars-2 became the first multi-ton AMS successfully launched to Mars in the USSR and the world.
The Mars-2 descent vehicle was undocked on November 27, 1971, when the AMS flew up to the planet, before the orbital station was decelerating and moving into the orbit of a Mars satellite. Before the separation of the descent vehicle, the onboard computer malfunctioned due to a software error. As a result, erroneous settings were introduced into the descent vehicle, providing for an off-design orientation of the station before separation. 15 minutes after separation, the solid propellant propulsion system was switched on on the descent vehicle, which nevertheless ensured the transfer of the descent vehicle to the trajectory of hitting Mars. However, the angle of entry into the atmosphere turned out to be greater than the calculated one. The descent vehicle entered the Martian atmosphere too steeply, because of which it did not have time to slow down during the aerodynamic descent stage. The parachute system under such conditions of descent was ineffective, and the descent vehicle, having passed through the planet's atmosphere, crashed on the surface of Mars at a point with coordinates 4° N. latitude. and 47°W (Nanedi Valley in Xanth Land), reaching the surface of Mars for the first time in history. The Mars 2 lander was the first man-made object on the planet.
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PROJECT M-71 |
The orbital station after the separation of the descent vehicle performed braking on November 27, 1971 and entered the orbit of an artificial satellite of Mars with an orbital period of 18 hours.
The station carried out a comprehensive program of exploration of Mars for more than 8 months. During this time, the station made 362 revolutions around the planet. AMS continued research until the exhaustion of nitrogen in the orientation and stabilization system. TASS announced the completion of the Mars exploration program on August 23, 1972.
A large dust storm began on September 22, 1971 in the bright Noachis region in the southern hemisphere. By September 29, covered two hundred degrees in longitude from Ausonia to Thaumasia. September 30 closed the south polar cap. A powerful dust storm hampered scientific studies of the surface of Mars from the artificial satellites Mars-2, Mars-3, Mariner-9. Only around January 10, 1972 did the dust storm stop and Mars took on its normal form.
Due to the poor quality of the telemetry, almost all of the satellite's scientific data is lost. The developers of the phototelevision installation (FTU) used the wrong model of Mars. Therefore, incorrect FTU exposures were chosen. The pictures turned out overexposed, almost completely unusable. After several series of shots (each with 12 frames), the photo-television installation was not used.
"Mars-3" (USSR)
Structurally, "Mars-3" and "Mars-2" were similar and duplicated each other in case of a possible failure. The vehicles carried 2 photo-television cameras with different focal lengths for photographing the surface of Mars, and on Mars-3 there was also Stereo equipment for conducting a joint Soviet-French experiment to study the radio emission of the Sun at a frequency of 169 MHz. The spacecraft included an orbital compartment and a descent module.
The layout of the AMS was proposed by a young designer V. A. Asyushkin. The control system, weighing 167 kg and power consumption 800 watts, was designed and manufactured by the Research Institute of Automation and Instrumentation.
The structure of the automatic Martian station included the PrOP-M rover (Permeability Assessment Device - Mars).
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PrOP-M (Permeability Assessment Device - Mars) |
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MARS-3 |
Using the experience of working with the Lunokhod, the designers of the Institute of Transport Engineering (VNII-TRANSMASH), under the leadership of A.L. Kemurdzhian created a small robot, 25 cm x 22 cm x 4 cm in size and weighing 4.5 kg, which was to land on Mars.
The tasks of this mini-mars rover were modest - it had to travel only a short distance, remaining connected to the lander by a cable 15 m long. The properties of the Martian soil were unknown, therefore, in order not to fall into dust or sand, the rover was made steel supports in the form skis.
A conical stamp was installed on it, the indentation of which into the ground would give information about the strength of the Martian surface. According to the traces of the skis, fixed on a television panorama, it would also be possible to judge the mechanical properties of the soil. On the ground, in the field of view of television cameras, he was placed by a manipulator.
The movement was carried out as follows: leaning on the skis, the body was moved forward, the apparatus sat on the bottom and the skis moved to the next step. The turn was made by moving the skis in different directions. If the device encountered an obstacle (touching the two-contact bumper in front), it independently made a detour maneuver: retreat back, turn at a certain angle, move forward.
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Scheme of the descent of the rover to the ground and movement with obstacles. |
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MARS-3 |
Every 1.5 meters, a stop was provided to confirm the correct course of movement. This elementary artificial intelligence was necessary for the Martian mobile devices, since the signal from Earth to Mars takes from 4 to 20 minutes, and this is too long for a mobile robot. By the time the teams arrived from Earth, the rover might already be out of order.
Launch and mission results:
The station was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome using a Proton-K launch vehicle with an additional 4th stage - upper stage D on May 28, 1971 at 18:26:30 Moscow time. Mars-3 was first launched into an intermediate orbit of an artificial satellite of the Earth, and then the upper stage D was transferred to an interplanetary trajectory.
The flight to Mars lasted more than 6 months. Until the moment of approach to Mars, the flight proceeded according to the program. The arrival of the station to the planet coincided with a large dust storm.
The Mars 3 lander made the world's first soft landing on the surface of Mars on December 2, 1971. Landing begins after the third correction of the AMS interplanetary flight path and separation of the descent vehicle from the orbital station. Before separation, the Mars-3 station was oriented so that the descent vehicle after separation could move in the required direction. The separation took place at 12:14 Moscow time on December 2, 1971, when the AMS flew up to the planet, before the orbital station slowed down and entered the Mars satellite orbit.
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MARS-3 |
After 15 minutes, the solid-fuel engine of the descent vehicle transition from the flyby trajectory to the trajectory of rendezvous with Mars was activated. Having received an additional speed equal to 120 m/s, the descent vehicle headed for the calculated point of entry into the atmosphere. The truss-mounted control system then deployed the descent vehicle with a conical drag screen forward in the direction of travel to ensure a correctly oriented reentry into the planet's atmosphere. To maintain the descent vehicle in this orientation during the flight to the planet, gyroscopic stabilization was carried out. The spin-up of the apparatus along the longitudinal axis was carried out with the help of two small solid-propellant engines installed on the periphery of the brake screen. The truss with control system and translation engine, now unnecessary, was separated from the descent vehicle.
The flight from separation to re-entry lasted about 4.5 hours. On command from the program-time device, two other solid-propellant engines, also located on the periphery of the brake screen, were turned on, after which the rotation of the descent vehicle stopped. At 4:44 p.m., the descent vehicle entered the atmosphere at an angle close to the calculated one at a speed of about 5.8 kilometers per second, and aerodynamic braking began. At the end of the aerodynamic braking section, still at supersonic flight speed, at the command of the overload sensor, using a powder engine located on the cover of the pilot chute compartment, the pilot chute was introduced. After 1.5 s, with the help of an elongated charge, the torus parachute compartment was cut, and the upper part of the compartment (lid) was taken away from the descent vehicle by a pilot chute. The cover, in turn, introduced the main parachute with a reefed dome. The lines of the main parachute were attached to a bunch of solid propellant engines, which were already attached directly to the descent vehicle. When the device slowed down to transonic speed, then, on a signal from the program-time device, a reefing was carried out - the main parachute canopy was fully opened.
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Landing on Mars:
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PROJECT M-71 |
After 1-2 s, the aerodynamic cone was dropped and the radio altimeter antennas of the soft landing system were opened. During the descent on a parachute for several minutes, the speed of movement decreased to about 60 m / s. At an altitude of 20-30 meters, at the command of the radio altimeter, the braking engine of a soft landing was turned on. The parachute at this time was diverted to the side by another rocket engine so that its dome would not cover the automatic Martian station. After some time, the soft landing engine turned off, and the descent vehicle, separated from the parachute container, sank to the surface. At the same time, a parachute container with a soft landing engine was moved aside with the help of low-thrust engines. At the time of landing, a thick foam coating protected the station from shock loading.
Landing was carried out between the areas of Electris and Phaetontia. Landing point coordinates 45° S, 158° W on the flat bottom of the large Ptolemy crater, west of the Reutov crater, and between the small craters Belev and Tyuratam.
Soft landing on Mars is a complex scientific and technical problem. During the development of the Mars-3 station, the relief of the surface of Mars was little studied, there was very little information about the soil. In addition, the atmosphere is very rarefied, strong winds are possible. The design of the aerodynamic cone, parachutes, and soft landing engine was chosen taking into account operation in a wide range of possible descent conditions and characteristics of the Martian atmosphere, and their weight is minimal.
Within 1.5 minutes after landing, the automatic Martian station prepared for work, and then began transmitting a panorama of the surrounding surface, but after 14.5 seconds the broadcast stopped. AMS transmitted only the first 79 lines of the photo-television signal (the right edge of the panorama). The resulting image was a gray background without a single detail. The same thing happened with the second telephotometer - a single-line optical-mechanical scanner. Subsequently, several hypotheses were put forward about what caused the sudden termination of the signal from the surface: they assumed a corona discharge in the transmitter antennas, damage to the battery, etc. Nowadays, after refined calculations, a version has been put forward that the reason for the signal loss was the orbital station leaving the visibility zone SA antennas.
The orbital station after the separation of the descent vehicle performed deceleration on December 2, 1971 and entered an off-design orbit of an artificial satellite of Mars with an orbital period of 12 days 16 hours 3 minutes (an orbit with an orbital period of 25 hours was planned. The discrepancy between the actual and planned orbital period can be explained by the lack of time, which prevented proper testing of the automatic navigation system software).
For more than 8 months, the orbital station has been carrying out a comprehensive program of exploration of Mars, having made 20 orbits around the planet. AMS continued research until the exhaustion of nitrogen in the orientation and stabilization system. TASS announced the completion of the Mars exploration program on August 23, 1972. For four months, IR radiometry, photometry, measurements of the composition of the atmosphere, magnetic field and plasma were carried out.
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