[X] My Assistant

[Dominik]

I'm creating a personal list of soviet missions to the Moon, Mars and Venus with dates and times for special events. So far, I got the following for the Mars missions:

Mars 1 - Target: Mars
Time Date Event
n/a 01.11.1962 Spacecraft launched
n/a 21.03.1963 Communications ceased (Probably due to failure of the spacecrafts antenna orientation system)
n/a 19.06.1963 Distant Mars flyby (193,000 km)

Mars 2 - Target: Mars
Time Date Event
16:22:44 UTC 19.05.1971 Spacecraft launched
n/a 27.11.1971 Mars 2 enters orbit around Mars (1,380 x 24,940 km)
n/a 27.11.1971 Mars 2 lander seperated from orbiter
n/a 27.11.1971 Mars 2 lander malfunctioned (Parachute did not deploy)
n/a 22.08.1972 Mars 2 Orbiter completed its mission after 362 Orbits

Mars 3 - Target: Mars
Time Date Event
15:26:30 UTC 28.05.1971 Spacecraft launched
n/a 02.12.1971 Mars 3 enters orbit around Mars
09:14:00 UT 02.12.1971 Mars 3 lander seperated from orbiter
13:49:00 UT 02.12.1971 Mars 3 lander enters Martian atmosphere
13:52:10 UT 02.12.1971 Mars 3 lander touched down on Martian surface
13:52:25 UT 02.12.1971 Mars 3 lander transmission stopped for unknown reasons
n/a 22.08.1972 Mars 3 orbiter completed its mission after 20 orbits

Mars 4 - Target: Mars
Time Date Event
19:30:59 UTC 21.07.1973 Spacecraft launched
n/a 10.02.1974 Mars Flyby (2,200 km)
n/a 10.02.1974 Mars 4 didn't reach orbit due to a retro-rocket failure

Mars 5 - Target: Mars
Time Date Event
18:55:48 UTC 25.07.1973 Spacecraft launched
15:45:00 UT 12.02.1974 Mars 5 enters orbit around Mars (1,755 x 32,555 km)
n/a n/a Mars 5 orbiter fails due to loss of pressurization in the transmitter housing after 22 orbits

Mars 6 - Target: Mars
Time Date Event
n/a 05.08.1973 Spacecraft launched
n/a 12.03.1974 Mars 6 lander seperated at a distance of 48,000 km from Mars
n/a 12.03.1974 Mars 6 enters orbit around Mars
09:05:53 UT 12.03.1974 Mars 6 lander enters the Martian atmosphere
09:08:32 UT 12.03.1974 Mars 6 lander parachute opened
09:11:05 UT 12.03.1974 Contact to Mars 6 lander has been lost (Lander possibly hit surface with 61 m/s)
n/a n/a Mars 6 orbiter completed its mission?

Mars 7 - Target: Mars
Time Date Event
n/a 09.08.1973 Spacecraft launched
n/a 09.03.1974 Mars 7 lander seperated 4 hours too early (Lander misses Mars by 1,300 km)
n/a 12.03.1974 Mars 7 orbiter and lander entered heliocentric orbits
n/a n/a Mars 7 orbiter completed its mission?

______

I'm missing some timestamps for several events. Does somebody know precise dates and times for each mission events? Maybe even some additional events? I hope that my english is not too worse , I don't need it so often. Your help would be very appreciated.

[edstrick]

Mars 6 and 7 were flyby spacecraft carrying direct-descent landers. Neither entered orbit.
Mars 2 and 3, as I understand, deployed landers on final approach to the planet, then retrofired into orbit, so the landers were direct-descent vehicles as well.
Only Viking Orbiters carried the entire lander, aeroshell and bioshield into orbit, then separated the lander at apoapsis when they were good an ready, for descent-from-orbit entry and landing. Heating loads on the heatshields were therefore somewhat less than for direct entry missions, which may be related to the problems with MSL's heatshield design proving to be inadequate.

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

In November 1971, Mars 2 became actually the first man-made object on Mars and Mars 3 beamed back the first TV-signals from the Martian surface back to Earth in December 1971.
However, I’m more interested to know these Soviet-Russian spacecraft’s (increasing) masses:
Mars 1 & 1962B: 894 kg
Mars 1969a & 1969b: 3500 kg
Mars 2 & 3: 4650 kg
Mars 4 to 7: 4385 kg
Corrections welcomed !!!

[Dominik]

I've got those information from the german and international Wikipedia. Seems like i've to correct some parts of that list .

[Phil Stooke]

Never mind Wikipedia. Use this instead:

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/chrono.html

Phil

[remcook]

LOL I like the warning here:

"View the entire exploration timeline: 1957 - present - about 45 K"
that page must have started quite a while back!

[Dominik]

Thx Phil!

That site is really cool. Now I'm able to extend my list with some new entries .

[Mongo]

I have found the Deep Space Chronicle to be a treasurehouse of information about all deep space missions from 1958 to 1999.