Mariner Mars 1964, Mariners 3 and 4 to Mars: imaging plans? Options

[Phil Stooke]

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

[edstrick]

Viking 1 was sort of trying to land on July 4, 1976 <200th anniv of signing of the Declaration of Independence>, but landing site certification blew that date, so they had to settle for the anniversary of the first manned moon landing, instead.

Both dates were available within the "optimum" timeline and didn't take any fudging to try to achieve.