Mariner Mars 1964, Mariners 3 and 4 to Mars: imaging plans? |
Mariner Mars 1964, Mariners 3 and 4 to Mars: imaging plans? |
Apr 28 2005, 05:05 PM
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Solar System Cartographer Group: Members Posts: 10256 Joined: 5-April 05 From: Canada Member No.: 227 |
I am currently working on a book about lunar exploration, but looking ahead to the next one, which will cover Mars. One question to which I think I have an answer - but I'd like to see what my fellow Mars enthusiasts think - is this:
Mariner 3 failed to leave Earth. But if it had flown successfully, what area on Mars would it have photographed? My understanding is that there was no specific plan. The MM64 press kit, for instance, says nothing about image coverage for either Mariner 3 or Mariner 4. I believe that navigation to planetary distances was still so uncertain that the flight team could not predict at launch the sub-spacecraft point at closest approach - uncertainties included the exact time of the flyby, the distance and the point at which the spacecraft would pass through the target plane. These things would be known closer to the flyby but they weren't precisely predictable at launch, so Mariner 3 never got to the stage of having an imaging plan. Am I right? Phil -------------------- ... because the Solar System ain't gonna map itself.
Also to be found posting similar content on https://mastodon.social/@PhilStooke Maps for download (free PDF: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...Cartography.pdf NOTE: everything created by me which I post on UMSF is considered to be in the public domain (NOT CC, public domain) |
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Jan 18 2008, 08:44 PM
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 55 Joined: 1-May 06 From: Cincinnati, Ohio Member No.: 758 |
For those who were born after 1970, you have to realize what an incredible undertaking that Mariner IV was. I remember very vidily the grainy pictures appearing in the local paper, and it was just WOW! Craters on another world, that didn't look that different, perhaps, than the Moon.
In the middle 1960s CBS had a program named "Spectrum" every Sunday night (I think at 7 PM) hosted by Walter Cronkite. The program on Mariner IV was incredible (and we watched it on our black and white RCA TV). The program (was it 30 minutes long?) covered the mission, spacecraft and the findings. The info about the transmission power from Mars to Earth was 8 1/3 watts just blew my mind away. The Mariner IV mission had a huge influence on me, and the whole Space Race led to me becoming an engineer. Those 22 grainy smeary pictures changed more lives than my own... Rob |
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Jan 20 2008, 04:50 AM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2530 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 321 |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Gl_iRDdIUc
Part one of a short film on Mariner 4. Link to part two should appear somewhere on the page. |
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