The Martian Piloted Complex or MPK was a

Soviet Union 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 ...

human mission to Mars The idea of sending humans to Mars has been the subject of aerospace engineering and scientific studies since the late 1940s as part of the broader exploration of Mars. Long-term proposals have included sending settlers and terraforming the p ...

proposed in 1956-62 by Mikhail Tikhonravov. It featured a six-cosmonaut crew on a 900-day mission, with a launch in 1975. The craft would have a mass of 1,630

metric tons The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton in the United States to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the sh ...

and employ traditional liquid propellants ( LOX/

Kerosene Kerosene, or paraffin, is a combustibility, combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in Aviation fuel, aviation as well as households. Its name derives from the Greek (''kērós'') meaning " ...

). It would take 25 N1 rocket launches to assemble the MPK in

low earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an geocentric orbit, orbit around Earth with a orbital period, period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an orbital eccentricity, eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial object ...

. When complete, it would travel from Earth to Mars on a 270 day Hohmann trajectory and maneuver into Martian orbit. Afterwards, a landing craft would descend to the surface for a one-year expedition. Return to Earth would take 270 days and the

re-entry vehicle Atmospheric entry (sometimes listed as Vimpact or Ventry) is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. Atmospheric entry may be ''uncontrolled entry ...

would weight 15 metric tons.

References

External links

MPK page
Soviet Mars missions Cancelled Soviet spacecraft Human missions to Mars {{USSR-spacecraft-stub

See also

References

External links