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Manufacturer's Designation: 1M. Class: Planetary. Type: Mars. Nation: USSR. Manufacturer: Korolev. Mars probe intended to photograph Mars on a flyby trajectory. The Mars probe had a mass of about 640 kg and carried a magnetometer, cosmic ray counter, plasma-ion trap, and micrometeorite detector.
SpecificationTotal Mass: 640 kg.
Mars 1M Chronology
10 December 1959
Further development of Soviet Lunar and Planetary probes approved. Central Committee of the Communist Party and Council of Soviet Ministers Decree 1386-618 'On the Creation of AMS for Landing on the Moon. and Flights to Venus and Mars-- approving automated lunar and interplanetary spacecraft' was issued.
10 October 1960
Mars probe 1M s/n 1 failure. Program: Mars. Launch Site: Baikonur . Launch Vehicle: Molniya 8K78. FAILURE: At T+300.9 sec, the launcher went out of control and the destruct command was given at T+324.2 sec - the engine of Stage 3 cut off after 13.32 s of burning. Mass: 640 kg. This was the Soviet Union's first attempt at a planetary probe. Mars probe intended to photograph Mars on a flyby trajectory. The possible cause lay in resonance vibrations of upper stages during Stage 2 burning, which led to break of contact in the command potentiometer of the gyrohorizon. As a result a pitch control malfunctioned and the launcher began to veer off the desired ascent profile. On exceeding 7 degrees of veering in pitch, the control system failed. The upper stage with the payload reached an altitude of 120 km before burning up on re-entry into the atmosphere above East Siberia.
14 October 1960
Mars probe 1M s/n 2 failure. Program: Mars. Launch Site: Baikonur . Launch Vehicle: Molniya 8K78. FAILURE: At T+290 sec Stage 3's engine 8D715K failed to ignite because a LOX leak froze kerosene in the fuel inlet to the pump on the launch pad due to a faulty LOX valve seal. Mars probe intended to photograph Mars on a flyby trajectory. This was the Soviet Union's second attempt at a planetary probe. The upper stages and payload broke up on re-entry into the atmosphere.
Bibliography:- 64 - Varfolomyev, Timothy, Spaceflight, "Soviet Rocketry that Conquered Space - Part 5", 1998, Volume 40, page 85.
- 65 - Novosti Kosmonavtiki, "Otmenenniy Start "Molniya-M"", 1997, Issue 1, page 29.
- 118 - Novosti Kosmonavtiki, "Na Mars!", 1996, Issue 20, page 53.
- 296 - National Space Science Center Planetary Page, As of 19 February 1999.. HTML when accessed: http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/planetary_home.html
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Last update 12 March 2001.
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