Monday, March 26, 1990

Mars 3

  1971-049A


The third Mars-71 probe was the most successful. M-71 (3M) No. 172 was placed in solar orbit at the end of the May 1971 window and named Mars-3. It reached Mars in Dec 1971; a leak in its propellant system left it barely enough fuel for the orbit insertion burn but it did successfully become a Martian satellite. The lander reached the surface of Mars on 1971 Dec 2.

Launch mass was 4560 kg including the 1000 kg lander. Orbiter was about 3440 kg prior to MOI, probably 2050-2350 kg after.


Mars-3 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1971 May 28  1526:30 Launch by Proton-K  KB 
 1528  Stage 1 sep 
 1531  Stage 2 sep 
 1535  Stage 3 MECO 
 1535  Stage 3 sep 
 1539  Blok-D burn 
 1541? Blok-D MECO-1
 1644?  Blok-D MES-2 
 1647  Asc node 
 1650?  Blok-D MECO-2
 1650?  Blok-D sep 
1971 Jun 8   TCM-1 
1971 Nov   TCM-2 
1971 Dec 2  0914  SA module sep 
 1005Retrofire (MOI)  1500 x 200000 x 62 
1972 Aug   End of transmissions? 

The Mars-3 Spuskaemiy Apparat separated from Mars-3 on 1971 Dec 2 and landed on Mars, becoming the first spacecraft to transmit from the surface, albeit for less than two minutes. It carried a PROP-M `hopper' rover, a box-shaped vehicle with skis which was tethered to the lander and would have had a range of about 15 meters.


Mars-3 SA 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1971 Dec 2  0914  SA sep 
 0929  SA braking 0.10 km/s 
 0929? RDTT sep 
 1344  Mars atmosphere entry 
 1345?Heat shield sep 
 1347  Landed 45S 158W 
 1350:35  TV signal received
 1350:55  end of tx after 110s 

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