Mars 1M No.2, designated ''Mars 1960B'' by NASA analysts and dubbed ''Marsnik 2'' by the Western media, was a

spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, p ...

launched as part of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

Mars program The Mars program was a series of uncrewed spacecraft launched by the Soviet Union between 1960 and 1973. The spacecraft were intended to explore Mars, and included flyby probes, landers and orbiters. Early Mars spacecraft were small, and launche ...

me, which was lost in a launch failure in 1960. 1M No.2, which was intended to explore Mars from flyby trajectory, was destroyed after its Molniya carrier rocket failed to achieve orbit.

Launch

Mars 1M No.2 was the second Mars 1M spacecraft to be launched, lifting off four days after its sister craft,

Mars 1M No.1 Mars 1M No.1, designated ''Mars 1960A'' by NASA analysts and dubbed ''Marsnik 1'' by the Western media, was the first spacecraft launched as part of the Soviet Union's Mars programme. A Mars 1M spacecraft, it was intended for conducting flight t ...

, had been lost during the Molniya 8K78 rocket's maiden flight. 1M No.2 was carried by another Molniya, which had the serial number L1-5M. The launch took place from Site 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, with liftoff occurring at 13:51:03 UTC on 14 October 1960. During preparations for the launch, an oxidiser leak in the second stage caused

liquid oxygen Liquid oxygen—abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries—is the liquid form of molecular oxygen. It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an app ...

, at cryogenic temperature, to spill around the engine's fuel inlet valve. This froze the stage's

RP-1 RP-1 (alternatively, Rocket Propellant-1 or Refined Petroleum-1) is a highly refined form of kerosene outwardly similar to jet fuel, used as rocket fuel. RP-1 provides a lower specific impulse than liquid hydrogen (LH2), but is cheaper, is s ...

propellant, leaving the engine unable to ignite. As a result, the spacecraft failed to achieve Earth orbit.

Scientific Instruments

The spacecraft carried three scientific instruments in order to investigate Mars.Siddiqi, A. A., & Launius, R. (2002)
Deep Space Chronicle: A Chronology of Deep Space and Planetary Probes 1958-2000
They are as follows *

Ultraviolet Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 PHz) to 400 nm (750 THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation ...

Spectrometer *

Radiation Detector In experimental and applied particle physics, nuclear physics, and nuclear engineering, a particle detector, also known as a radiation detector, is a device used to detect, track, and/or identify ionizing particles, such as those produced by nuc ...

* Cosmic-ray Detector

References

1960 in the Soviet Union Spacecraft launched in 1960 Satellite launch failures Mars program Space accidents and incidents in the Soviet Union {{USSR-spacecraft-stub

Launch

Scientific Instruments

See also

References