Mars 3 Lander

MARS 3 LANDER

     At first, to design the lander was complex system and how to land lander safely to the mars atmosphere. Finally the lander design and project was undertaken by Viking project specialists of America in 1975. Due to the lack of data about Martian atmosphere Ballistic descent was chosen for the Project-M71.The Mars 3 landing design was completed. The lander was launched on 28 May 1971 with Proton-K rocket (Block-D upper stage)

LANDING:

After few months of travel to Mars, it was successfully inserted to Martian orbit on 2 December 1971 and the descent lander was released form orbiter on 2 Dec 1971 at 09:14 UT 4 hours 35 minutes before reaching mars.Through aerodynamic breaking, parachutes and retrorockets it successfully landed on Mars and began its operations. After 14.5 seconds its transmission from both channels was stopped between earth and the lander and resulted in lander mission failure. This failure may be caused due to powerful dust storms in Martian Surface.

M71-LANDER TECHNICAL DETAILS:

1. Instrument of automatic control system
2. Nitrogen Container
3. Breaking Cone
4. Radar-altimeter antenna
5. Parachute instrument module
6. Antenna ( for communication with Martian Satellite)
7. Parachute Auxiliary engine
8. Joint frame
9. Engine that initiates landing
10. Engine that controls Pitch and Yaw of lander
11. Main Parachute
12. Container of Scientific Instruments
13. Automatic Martian Station
14. Instruments of the automatic control system
15. Engine for the parachute with drawal
16. Propulsion system for landing
17. Nitrogen container for control system

PROP-M ROVER:

        Soviet Russia sent Prop-M Rover along with Mars 3 lander weighting 4.5 Kilograms. The rover was planned to move across the surface of Mars. Small metal rods in the side was used for autonomous obstacle avoidance, because it is difficult to control the rover from earth using radio signals. It take too long to travel from earth to mars as well as mars to earth.

 

DESIGN:

          The Prop-M Rover designed like a square box and the movement was provided by two skis. In front Obstacle detection bars were mounted. The square box had a protrusion at the center.

INSTRUMENTS CARRIED:

       1) Penetrometer

       2) Densitometer

OBJECTIVES:

          The rover was planned to move on the surface of mars with the help of Television Camera. And to detect some organic materials with help of penetrators.

ENTRY:

          Prop-M rover was released on 2nd December 1971. It entered the martian atmosphere at a speed of 5.7 Km/s and successfully landed.

CONTACT:

          After 14.5 seconds of landing on the Martian surface, no signals were received from the rover. Communications lost from rover. It may be caused by the powerful dust storms causing damage to the communication system. The mission resulted in Partial Failure.