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Mars 1M was a series of two
uncrewed spacecraft Uncrewed spacecraft or robotic spacecraft are spacecraft without people on board. Uncrewed spacecraft may have varying levels of autonomy from human input, such as remote control, or remote guidance. They may also be autonomous, in which th ...
which were used in the first
Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
missions to explore
Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...
. They were the earliest missions of the
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 exploration of Mars, explore Mars, and included planetary flyby, flyby probes, Lander (spacecraft), landers an ...
. The Western media dubbed the spacecraft "''Marsnik''", a
portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.
of ''
Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...
'' and ''
Sputnik Sputnik 1 (, , ''Satellite 1''), sometimes referred to as simply Sputnik, was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space progra ...
''.


Spacecraft

Mars 1M No.1, known in the West as Marsnik 1, Mars 1960A and Korabl 4, was destroyed in a launch failure on October 10, 1960. In 1962,
NASA Administrator The administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the highest-ranking official of NASA, the national List of space agencies, space agency of the United States. The administrator is NASA's chief decision maker, responsible ...
James E. Webb James Edwin Webb (October 7, 1906 – March 27, 1992) was an American government official who served as Undersecretary of State from 1949 to 1952. He was the second Administrator of NASA, Administrator of NASA from February 14, 1961, to Octob ...
informed the
United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...
that NASA believed the mission was an attempt at a
Mars flyby A Mars flyby is a movement of spacecraft passing in the vicinity of the planet Mars, but not entering orbit or landing on it. Page 15-16 in Chapter 3 of David S. F. Portree's ''Humans to Mars: Fifty Years of Mission Planning, 1950 - 2000,'' NASA ...
probe. Some Soviet scientists involved with the program at that time claim no knowledge of this mission, stating that only the second launch was an intended Mars mission. However, V. G. Perminov, the leading designer of planetary spacecraft at the Lavochkin design bureau, states that this mission was indeed intended for Mars and was identical to the later mission. Mars 1M No.2, known in the West as Marsnik 2, Korabl 5 and Mars 1960B, was launched on October 14, 1960. Both Mars 1M spacecraft were launched by Molniya rockets. The unproven third stage malfunctioned on both flights as cavitation in the fuel lines prevented the engines from developing adequate thrust, and, as a result, neither spacecraft achieved its initial
geocentric In astronomy, the geocentric model (also known as geocentrism, often exemplified specifically by the Ptolemaic system) is a superseded description of the Universe with Earth at the center. Under most geocentric models, the Sun, Moon, stars, an ...
parking orbit. Mars 1M No.2 reached an altitude of 120 km before reentry. Soviet premier
Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...
had planned to bring models of the Mars probes for showcasing at his visit to the UN that month, but as both launches failed, they remained packed.


Mission profile

The objectives of the mission were to investigate interplanetary space between Earth and Mars, to study Mars and return surface images from a flyby trajectory, and to study the effects of extended spaceflight on onboard instruments and provide radio communications from long distances.


Spacecraft and subsystems

NASA describes the spacecraft as:
nearly identical to the
Venera 1 ''Venera 1'' ( meaning ''Venus 1''), also known as Venera-1VA No.2 and occasionally in the West as ''Sputnik 8'', was the first spacecraft to perform an interplanetary flight and the first to fly past Venus, as part of the Soviet Union's Venera ...
design, a cylindrical body about 2 meters high with two
solar panel A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are made of materials that produce excited electrons when exposed to light. These electrons flow through a circuit and produce direct ...
wings, a 2.33 meter high-gain net antenna, and a long antenna arm, and had a mass of about 650 kg. It carried a 10 kg science payload consisting of a
magnetometer A magnetometer is a device that measures magnetic field or magnetic dipole moment. Different types of magnetometers measure the direction, strength, or relative change of a magnetic field at a particular location. A compass is one such device, ...
on a boom,
cosmic ray Cosmic rays or astroparticles are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the ...
counter, plasma-ion trap, a
radiometer A radiometer or roentgenometer is a device for measuring the radiant flux (power) of electromagnetic radiation. Generally, a radiometer is an infrared radiation detector or an ultraviolet detector. Microwave radiometers operate in the micro ...
, a
micrometeorite A micrometeorite is a micrometeoroid that has survived entry through the Earth's atmosphere. Usually found on Earth's surface, micrometeorites differ from meteorites in that they are smaller in size, more abundant, and different in composition. T ...
detector, and a spectroreflectometer to study the CH band, a possible indicator of
life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...
on Mars. These instruments were mounted on the outside of the spacecraft. A photo-television camera was held in a sealed module in the spacecraft and could take pictures through a viewport when a sensor indicated the Sun-illuminated martian surface was in view. Attitude was controlled by a Sun-star sensor with attitude correction performed by a
dimethylhydrazine Dimethylhydrazine is the name of two compounds with the molecular formula C2H8N2. These are: * unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (1,1-dimethylhydrazine), with both methyl groups bonded to the same nitrogen atom * symmetrical dimethylhydrazine (1,2 ...
/
nitric acid Nitric acid is an inorganic compound with the formula . It is a highly corrosive mineral acid. The compound is colorless, but samples tend to acquire a yellow cast over time due to decomposition into nitrogen oxide, oxides of nitrogen. Most com ...
bipropellant rocket A liquid-propellant rocket or liquid rocket uses a rocket engine burning liquid propellants. (Alternate approaches use gaseous or solid propellants.) Liquids are desirable propellants because they have reasonably high density and their combusti ...
engine. The spacecraft orientation was to be maintained so that the solar panels faced the Sun throughout the flight. Power was provided by the two-square meter solar panels which charged
silver-zinc batteries A silver zinc battery is a secondary cell that utilizes silver(I,III) oxide and zinc. Overview Silver zinc cells share most of the characteristics of the silver-oxide battery, and in addition, is able to deliver one of the highest specific energy, ...
. Radio communications were made using a decimeter band transmitter via the high gain antenna for spacecraft commands and telemetry. Radio bearing was used to maintain the antennas' orientation to Earth. Images were to be transferred using an 8-cm wavelength transmitter through the
high-gain antenna A directional antenna or beam antenna is an antenna that radiates or receives greater radio wave power in specific directions. Directional antennas can radiate radio waves in beams, when greater concentration of radiation in a certain direction ...
. A fourth stage was added to the booster, the Molniya (rocket) or 8K78, the new launcher was designated SL-6/A-2-e. (public domain)


References


External links


The Soviet Mars program
Professor Chris Mihos, Case Western Reserve University
The beginnings of planetary exploration
Andrew J. LePage, ''The Space Review'', Oct 11 2010. Includes details about launch failures. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mars 1M 1960 in spaceflight 1960 in the Soviet Union Mars program