Monday, March 23, 1992

Mars 7

  1973-053A


The Mars-7 (3MP No. 51P) spacecraft suffered a computer failure; the landing probe was deployed in the wrong direction, causing it to miss the planet.

Mars-7 carried an IKI/CNRS photometer which measured Lyman alpha emission from the local ISM, and particle detectors which measured solar proton flares including a big flare on 1973 Sep 7 when Mars-7 was 8.5Mkm outside the Earth's orbit, around 8.5Mkm west of the Sun-Earth line, and 4.5 Mkm above the ecliptic plane. Mars-7 was slightly closer to the plane than Mars-4 and Mars-5, which were 3 Mkm from Mars-7 and 1 Mkm from each other. According to a sketch in SR16,769, (Kontor et al), the radial order was Mars-7,5,4, i.e. 4 was the furthest out.


Mars-7 
 

DateTimeEventOrbit  

1973 Aug 9  1700:17  Launch by Proton-K  KB 
 1702  Stage 1 sep 
 1705  Stage 2 sep 
 1709  Stage 3 MECO 
 1709  Stage 3 sep 
 1713? Blok-D MES-1 
 1715? Blok-D MECO-1 
 1815  Blok-D burn 2, solar orbit 
 1821? Blok-D MECO-2 
 1821? Blok-D sep  
1973 Aug 16   TCM 5.7m/s 
1973 Sep 7   10Mkm from Earth, b(ec)=+8 deg, z=+4.5Mkm  
1974 Mar 1  
TCM 2.2m/s 
1974 Mar 9   Mars flyby, 1300 km 

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