Mariner 1

Last updated

Mariner 1
Mariner 2 Engineering Model.jpg
Mariner 2 engineering model, identical to Mariner 1
Mission typeVenus flyby
Operator NASA / JPL
Mission duration294.5 seconds
Failed to orbit
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft type Mariner
based on Ranger Block I
Manufacturer Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Launch mass202.8 kilograms (447 lb)
Start of mission
Launch dateJuly 22, 1962, 09:21:23 (1962-07-22UTC09:21:23Z) GMT
Rocket Atlas LV-3 Agena-B
Launch site Cape Canaveral, LC-12
Mariner 2  →
 

Mariner 1, built to conduct the first American planetary flyby of Venus, was the first spacecraft of NASA's interplanetary Mariner program. Developed by Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and originally planned to be a purpose-built probe launched summer 1962, Mariner 1's design was changed when the Centaur proved unavailable at that early date. Mariner 1 (and its sibling spacecraft, Mariner 2), were then adapted from the lighter Ranger lunar spacecraft. Mariner 1 carried a suite of experiments to determine the temperature of Venus as well to measure magnetic fields and charged particles near the planet and in interplanetary space.

Contents

Mariner 1 was launched by an Atlas-Agena rocket from Cape Canaveral's Pad 12 on July 22, 1962. Shortly after liftoff, errors in communication between the rocket and its ground-based guidance systems caused the rocket to veer off course, and it had to be destroyed by range safety. The errors were traced to a mistake in a specification of the hand-written guidance equations which were then subsequently codified in the computer program.

Background

Mariner II trajectory projected on the ecliptic plane. Mariner 2 trajectory.jpg
Mariner II trajectory projected on the ecliptic plane.

With the advent of the Cold War, the two then-superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, both initiated ambitious space programs with the intent of demonstrating military, technological, and political dominance. [1] The Soviets launched the Sputnik 1, the first Earth orbiting satellite, on October 4, 1957. The Americans followed suit with Explorer 1 on February 1, 1958, by which point the Soviets had already launched the first orbiting animal, Laika in Sputnik 2. Earth's orbit having been reached, focus turned to being the first to the Moon. The Pioneer program of satellites consisted of three unsuccessful lunar attempts in 1958. In early 1959, the Soviet Luna 1 was the first probe to fly by the Moon, followed by Luna 2, the first artificial object to impact the Moon. [2]

With the Moon achieved, the superpowers turned their eyes to the planets. As the closest planet to Earth, Venus presented an appealing interplanetary spaceflight target. [3] : 172  Every 19 months, Venus and the Earth reach relative positions in their orbits around the Sun such that a minimum of fuel is required to travel from one planet to the other via a Hohmann Transfer Orbit. These opportunities mark the best time to launch exploratory spacecraft, requiring the least fuel to make the trip. [4]

The first such opportunity of the Space Race occurred in late 1957, before either superpower had the technology to take advantage of it. The second opportunity, around June 1959, lay just within the edge of technological feasibility, and U.S. Air Force contractor Space Technology Laboratory (STL) intended to take advantage of it. A plan drafted January 1959 involved two spacecraft evolved from the first Pioneer probes, one to be launched via Thor-Able rocket, the other via the yet-untested Atlas-Able. [5] STL was unable to complete the probes before June, [6] and the launch window was missed. The Thor-Able probe was repurposed as the deep space explorer Pioneer 5, which was launched March 11, 1960, and designed to maintain communications with Earth up to a distance of 20,000,000 mi (32,000,000 km) as it traveled toward the orbit of Venus. [7] (The Atlas Able probe concept was repurposed as the unsuccessful Pioneer Atlas Moon probes.) [8] No American missions were sent during the early 1961 opportunity. The Soviet Union launched Venera 1 on February 12, 1961, and on May 19–20 became the first probe to fly by Venus; however, it had stopped transmitting on February 26. [9]

For the summer 1962 launch opportunity, NASA contracted Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in July 1960 [3] : 172  to develop "Mariner A", a 1,250 lb (570 kg) spacecraft to be launched using the yet undeveloped Atlas-Centaur. By August 1961, it had become clear that the Centaur would not be ready in time. JPL proposed to NASA that the mission might be accomplished with a lighter spacecraft using the less powerful but operational Atlas-Agena. A hybrid of Mariner A and JPL's Block 1 Ranger lunar explorer, already under development, was suggested. NASA accepted the proposal, and JPL began an 11-month crash program to develop "Mariner R" (so named because it was a Ranger derivative). Mariner 1 was the first Mariner R to be launched. [10]

Spacecraft

Three Mariner R spacecraft were built: two for launching and one to run tests, which was also to be used as a spare. [3] : 174  Aside from its scientific capabilities, Mariner also had to transmit data back to Earth from a distance of more than 26,000,000 mi (42,000,000 km), and to survive solar radiation twice as intense as that encountered in Earth orbit. [3] : 176 

Structure

Diagram of Mariner 1 Diagram of Mariner 1.jpg
Diagram of Mariner 1

All three of the Mariner R spacecraft, including Mariner 1, weighed within 3 lb (1.4 kg) of the design weight of 447 lb (203 kg), 406 lb (184 kg) of which was devoted to non-experimental systems: maneuvering systems, fuel, and communications equipment for receiving commands and transmitting data. Once fully deployed in space, with its two solar panel "wings" extended, Mariner R was 12 ft (3.7 m) in height and 16.5 ft (5.0 m) across. The main body of the craft was hexagonal with six separate cases of electronic and electromechanical equipment:

At the rear of the spacecraft, a monopropellant (anhydrous hydrazine) 225 N [11] rocket motor was mounted for course corrections. A nitrogen gas fueled stabilizing system of ten jet nozzles controlled by the onboard gyroscopes, Sun sensors, and Earth sensors, kept Mariner properly oriented to receive and transmit data to Earth. [3] : 175 

The primary high gain parabolic antenna was also mounted on the underside of Mariner and kept pointed toward the Earth. An omnidirectional antenna atop the spacecraft would broadcast at times that the spacecraft was rolling or tumbling out of its proper orientation, to maintain contact with Earth; as an unfocused antenna, its signal would be much weaker than the primary. Mariner also mounted small antennas on each of the wings to receive commands from ground stations. [3] : 175–176 

Temperature control was both passive, involving insulated, and highly reflective components; and active, incorporating louvers to protect the case carrying the onboard computer. At the time the first Mariners were built, no test chamber existed to simulate the near-Venus solar environment, so the efficacy of these cooling techniques could not be tested until the live mission. [3] : 176 

Scientific package

Mariner 1 in JPL's Spacecraft Assembly Facility Mariner 1 in JPL's Spacecraft Assembly Facility.jpg
Mariner 1 in JPL's Spacecraft Assembly Facility

Background

At the time of the Mariner project's inception, few of Venus' characteristics were definitely known. Its opaque atmosphere precluded telescopic study of the ground. It was unknown whether there was water beneath the clouds, though a small amount of water vapor above them had been detected. The planet's rotation rate was uncertain, though JPL scientists had concluded through radar observation that Venus rotated very slowly compared to the Earth, advancing the long-standing [12] (but eventually disproven) [13] hypothesis that the planet was tidally locked with respect to the Sun (as the Moon is with respect to the Earth). [14] No oxygen had been detected in Venus' atmosphere, suggesting that life as existed on Earth was not present. It had been determined that Venus' atmosphere contained at least 500 times as much carbon dioxide as the Earth's. These comparatively high levels suggested that the planet might be subject to a runaway greenhouse effect with surface temperatures as high as 600 K (327 °C; 620 °F), but this had not yet been conclusively determined. [10] : 7–8 

The Mariner spacecraft would be able to verify this hypothesis by measuring the temperature of Venus close-up; [15] at the same time, the spacecraft could determine if there was a significant disparity between night and daytime temperatures. [10] : 331  An on-board magnetometer and suite of charged particle detectors could determine if Venus possessed an appreciable magnetic field and an analog to Earth's Van Allen Belts. [15]

As the Mariner spacecraft would spend most of its journey to Venus in interplanetary space, the mission also offered an opportunity for long-term measurement of the solar wind of charged particles and to map the variations in the Sun's magnetosphere. The concentration of cosmic dust beyond the vicinity of Earth could be explored as well. [3] : 176 

Experiments

Experiments for the measurement of Venus and interplanetary space included:

  • A crystal microphone for measurement of the density of cosmic dust, mounted on the central frame.
  • A proton detector for counting low-energy protons in the solar wind, also mounted on the central frame.
  • Two Geiger-Müller (GM) tubes and an ion chamber, for measuring high-energy charged particles in interplanetary space and in the Venusian equivalent of Earth's Van Allen Belts (which were later shown not to exist). These were mounted on Mariner's long axis to avoid the magnetic fields of the control equipment as well as secondary radiation caused by cosmic rays hitting the metal structure of the spacecraft.
  • An Anton special-purpose GM tube, for measuring lower energy radiation, particularly near Venus, also mounted away from the central frame.
  • A three-axis fluxgate magnetometer [11] for measuring the Sun's and Venus' magnetic fields, also mounted away from the central frame.
  • A microwave radiometer, a 20 in (510 mm) diameter, 3 in (76 mm) deep, parabolic antenna designed to scan Venus up and down at two microwave wavelengths (19 mm and 13.5mm), slowing down and reversing when it found a hot spot. The 19 mm wavelength was for measuring the temperature of the planet's surface while the 13.5mm wavelength measured the temperature of Venus' cloudtops. The instrument was mounted just above the central frame.
  • Two infrared optical sensors for parallel measurement of the temperature of Venus, one at 8 to 9 microns, the other at 10-10.8 microns, also mounted above the central frame. [3] [10] : 9  [15]

Not included on any of the Mariner R spacecraft was a camera for visual photos. With payload space at a premium, project scientists considered a camera an unneeded luxury, unable to return useful scientific results. Carl Sagan, one of the Mariner R scientists, unsuccessfully fought for their inclusion, noting that not only might there be breaks in Venus' cloud layer, but "that cameras could also answer questions that we were way too dumb to even pose". [16]

Flight plan and ground operations

The communications station at Woomera Woomera 1964 0(1).jpg
The communications station at Woomera

The launch window for Mariner, constrained both by the orbital relationship of Earth and Venus and the limitations of the Atlas Agena, was determined to fall in the 51 day period between from July 22 through September 10. [3] : 174  The Mariner flight plan was such that the two operational spacecraft would be launched toward Venus in a 30-day period within this window, taking slightly differing paths such that they both arrived at the target planet within nine days of each other, between the December 8 and 16. [17] Only Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 12 was available for the launching of Atlas-Agena rockets, and it took 24 days to ready an Atlas-Agena for launch. This meant that there was only a 27-day margin for error for a two-launch schedule. [3] : 174 

Each Mariner would be launched into a parking orbit, whereupon the restartable Agena would fire a second time, sending Mariner on its way to Venus (errors in trajectory would be corrected by a mid-course burn of Mariner's onboard engines). [10] : 66–67  Real-time radar tracking of the Mariner spacecraft while it was in parking orbit and upon its departure the Atlantic Missile Range would provide real-time radar tracking with stations at Ascension and Pretoria, while Palomar Observatory provided optical tracking. Deep space support was provided by three tracking and communications stations at Goldstone, California, Woomera, Australia, and Johannesburg, South Africa, each separated on the globe by around 120° for continuous coverage. [10] : 231–233 

Launch failure

Atlas Agena with Mariner 1 Atlas Agena with Mariner 1.jpg
Atlas Agena with Mariner 1

The launch of Mariner 1 was scheduled for the early morning of July 21, 1962. Several delays caused by trouble in the range safety command system delayed the beginning of the countdown until 11:33 p.m. EST the night before. At 2:20 a.m., just 79 minutes before launch, a blown fuse in the range safety circuits caused the launch to be canceled. Countdown was reset that night and proceeded, with several holds, planned and unplanned, from 11:08 p.m., through the early morning of the next day.

At 9:21:23 a.m. on July 22, 1962, Mariner 1's Atlas-Agena lifted off from Pad 12. Soon after launch, the booster began drifting northeast of its planned trajectory. Corrective steering commands were sent to the rocket, but the Atlas-Agena instead proceeded further off course, imperiling North Atlantic Ocean shipping and/or inhabited areas in the event of a rocket crash. At 9:26:16 a.m., just six seconds before the Agena second stage was scheduled to separate from the Atlas, at which point destruction of the rocket would be impossible, a range safety officer ordered the rocket to self-destruct, which it did. [10] : 87 

Cause of the malfunction

Because of the gradual rather than sharp deviation from its course, JPL engineers suspected the fault lay in the flight equations loaded into the computer that guided Atlas-Agena from the ground during its ascent. [17] After five days of post-flight analysis, JPL engineers determined what had caused the malfunction on Mariner 1: an error in the guidance computer logic combined with a hardware failure. [18]

The hand-written guidance equations contained the symbol "R" (for "radius"). This "R" should have had a line over it ("R-bar" or R̄), denoting smoothing or averaging of the track data coming from an earlier calculation. But the bar was missing, and so the computer program based on those equations was incorrect. [18] [19] The error was in the original specification, and not in the process of writing the program. [18] [19]

During its ascent, Mariner 1's booster briefly lost guidance-lock with the ground. Because this was a fairly common occurrence, the Atlas-Agena was designed to continue on a preprogrammed course until guidance-lock with the ground resumed. [20] When lock was reestablished, however, the faulty guidance logic caused the program to erroneously report that the "velocity was fluctuating in an erratic and unpredictable manner", which the program tried to correct for, causing actual erratic behavior, which prompted the range safety officer to destroy the rocket. [18]

The incorrect logic had previously been used successfully for Ranger launches; it was the combination of the erroneous formula and a hardware fault which led to Mariner's destruction. [18]

The catastrophic effects of a small error "summed up the whole problem of software reliability" and contributed to the development of the discipline of software engineering. [18]

Subsequent popular accounts of the accident often referred to the erroneous character as a "hyphen" (describing the missing component of the symbol) rather than an "R-bar"; this incorrect mischaracterization was fueled by Arthur C. Clarke's description of the malfunction as "the most expensive hyphen in history". [19]

Legacy

The loss of America's first interplanetary spacecraft constituted an $18.5 million ($179 million in today's dollars) setback for NASA. [21] The incident underscored the importance of a thorough pre-launch debugging of software as well as a need to engineer programs such that minor errors could not cause catastrophic failures. The procedures implemented as a result served NASA well, ultimately salvaging the Project Apollo Moon landings; though there were program errors in the Lunar Excursion Module software during descent, they did not cause mission failure. [22]

With the logic error quickly discovered, [23] no undue delay was necessary. The identical Mariner 2 was already on hand, and a second launch from the same pad was manageable before the end of August. [24] On August 27, 1962, Mariner 1's sister spacecraft was successfully launched, becoming on December 14, 1962, the first spacecraft to return data from the vicinity of Venus. [3] : 171, 177 

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interplanetary spaceflight</span> Crewed or uncrewed travel between stars or planets

Interplanetary spaceflight or interplanetary travel is the crewed or uncrewed travel between stars and planets, usually within a single planetary system. In practice, spaceflights of this type are confined to travel between the planets of the Solar System. Uncrewed space probes have flown to all the observed planets in the Solar System as well as to dwarf planets Pluto and Ceres, and several asteroids. Orbiters and landers return more information than fly-by missions. Crewed flights have landed on the Moon and have been planned, from time to time, for Mars, Venus and Mercury. While many scientists appreciate the knowledge value that uncrewed flights provide, the value of crewed missions is more controversial. Science fiction writers propose a number of benefits, including the mining of asteroids, access to solar power, and room for colonization in the event of an Earth catastrophe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mariner program</span> NASA space program from 1962 to 1973

The Mariner program was conducted by the American space agency NASA to explore other planets. Between 1962 and late 1973, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) designed and built 10 robotic interplanetary probes named Mariner to explore the inner Solar System - visiting the planets Venus, Mars and Mercury for the first time, and returning to Venus and Mars for additional close observations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mariner 4</span> Robotic spacecraft sent by NASA to Mars (1964–67)

Mariner 4 was the fourth in a series of spacecraft intended for planetary exploration in a flyby mode. It was designed to conduct closeup scientific observations of Mars and to transmit these observations to Earth. Launched on November 28, 1964, Mariner 4 performed the first successful flyby of the planet Mars, returning the first close-up pictures of the Martian surface. It captured the first images of another planet ever returned from deep space; their depiction of a cratered, dead planet largely changed the scientific community's view of life on Mars. Other mission objectives were to perform field and particle measurements in interplanetary space in the vicinity of Mars and to provide experience in and knowledge of the engineering capabilities for interplanetary flights of long duration. Initially expected to remain in space for eight months, Mariner 4's mission lasted about three years in solar orbit. On December 21, 1967, communications with Mariner 4 were terminated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pioneer program</span> Series of United States uncrewed lunar and planetary space probes (1958-60; 1965-92)

The Pioneer programs were two series of United States lunar and planetary space probes exploration. The first program, which ran from 1958 to 1960, unsuccessfully attempted to send spacecraft to orbit the Moon, successfully sent one spacecraft to fly by the Moon, and successfully sent one spacecraft to investigate interplanetary space between the orbits of Earth and Venus. The second program, which ran from 1965 to 1992, sent four spacecraft to measure interplanetary space weather, two to explore Jupiter and Saturn, and two to explore Venus. The two outer planet probes, Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, became the first two of five artificial objects to achieve the escape velocity that will allow them to leave the Solar System, and carried a golden plaque each depicting a man and a woman and information about the origin and the creators of the probes, in case any extraterrestrials find them someday.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Space exploration</span> Exploration of space, planets, and moons

Space exploration is the use of astronomy and space technology to explore outer space. While the exploration of space is currently carried out mainly by astronomers with telescopes, its physical exploration is conducted both by uncrewed robotic space probes and human spaceflight. Space exploration, like its classical form astronomy, is one of the main sources for space science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mariner 2</span> 1962 space probe to Venus

Mariner 2, an American space probe to Venus, was the first robotic space probe to report successfully from a planetary encounter. The first successful spacecraft in the NASA Mariner program, it was a simplified version of the Block I spacecraft of the Ranger program and an exact copy of Mariner 1. The missions of the Mariner 1 and 2 spacecraft are sometimes known as the Mariner R missions. Original plans called for the probes to be launched on the Atlas-Centaur, but serious developmental problems with that vehicle forced a switch to the much smaller Agena B second stage. As such, the design of the Mariner R vehicles was greatly simplified. Far less instrumentation was carried than on the Soviet Venera probes of this period—for example, forgoing a TV camera—as the Atlas-Agena B had only half as much lift capacity as the Soviet 8K78 booster. The Mariner 2 spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral on August 27, 1962, and passed as close as 34,773 kilometers (21,607 mi) to Venus on December 14, 1962.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mariner 10</span> 1973 American robotic space probe; flew by Venus and Mercury

Mariner 10 was an American robotic space probe launched by NASA on 3 November 1973, to fly by the planets Mercury and Venus. It was the first spacecraft to perform flybys of multiple planets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mariner 3</span> Failed robotic deep-spacecraft to Mars

Mariner 3 was one of two identical deep-space probes designed and built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for NASA's Mariner-Mars 1964 project that were intended to conduct close-up (flyby) scientific observations of the planet Mars and transmit information on interplanetary space and the space surrounding Mars, televised images of the Martian surface and radio occultation data of spacecraft signals as affected by the Martian atmosphere back to Earth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mariner 5</span> NASA space probe launched in 1967 to study Venus

Mariner 5 was a spacecraft of the Mariner program that carried a complement of experiments to probe Venus' atmosphere by radio occultation, measure the hydrogen Lyman-alpha spectrum, and sample the solar particles and magnetic field fluctuations above the planet. Its goals were to measure interplanetary and Venusian magnetic fields, charged particles, plasma, radio refractivity and UV emissions of the Venusian atmosphere.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ranger 3</span> 1962 robotic lunar exploration mission by NASA; malfunctioned

Ranger 3 was a space exploration mission conducted by NASA to study the Moon. The Ranger 3 robotic spacecraft was launched January 26, 1962 as part of the Ranger program. Due to a series of malfunctions, the spacecraft missed the Moon by 22,000 mi (35,000 km) and entered a heliocentric orbit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ranger 5</span> US unmanned lunar space probe

Ranger 5 was a spacecraft of the Ranger program designed to transmit pictures of the lunar surface to Earth stations during a period of 10 minutes of flight prior to impacting on the Moon, to rough-land a seismometer capsule on the Moon, to collect gamma-ray data in flight, to study radar reflectivity of the lunar surface, and to continue testing of the Ranger program for development of lunar and interplanetary spacecraft. Due to an unknown malfunction, the spacecraft ran out of power and ceased operation. It passed within 725 km of the Moon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ranger program</span> American uncrewed lunar space missions in the 1960s

The Ranger program was a series of uncrewed space missions by the United States in the 1960s whose objective was to obtain the first close-up images of the surface of the Moon. The Ranger spacecraft were designed to take images of the lunar surface, transmitting those images to Earth until the spacecraft were destroyed upon impact. A series of mishaps, however, led to the failure of the first six flights. At one point, the program was called "shoot and hope". Congress launched an investigation into "problems of management" at NASA Headquarters and Jet Propulsion Laboratory. After two reorganizations of the agencies, Ranger 7 successfully returned images in July 1964, followed by two more successful missions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gravity assist</span> Space navigation technique

A gravity assist, gravity assist maneuver, swing-by, or generally a gravitational slingshot in orbital mechanics, is a type of spaceflight flyby which makes use of the relative movement and gravity of a planet or other astronomical object to alter the path and speed of a spacecraft, typically to save propellant and reduce expense.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RM-81 Agena</span> American rocket upper stage and satellite bus

The RM-81 Agena was an American rocket upper stage and satellite bus which was developed by Lockheed Corporation initially for the canceled WS-117L reconnaissance satellite program. Following the division of WS-117L into SAMOS and Corona for image intelligence, and MIDAS for early warning, the Agena was later used as an upper stage, and an integrated component, for several programs, including Corona reconnaissance satellites and the Agena Target Vehicle used to demonstrate rendezvous and docking during Project Gemini. It was used as an upper stage on the Atlas, Thor, Thorad and Titan IIIB rockets, and considered for others including the Space Shuttle and Atlas V. A total of 365 Agena rockets were launched between February 28, 1959 and February 1987. Only 33 Agenas carried NASA payloads and the vast majority were for DoD programs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Exploration of Mars</span> Overview of the exploration of Mars

The planet Mars has been explored remotely by spacecraft. Probes sent from Earth, beginning in the late 20th century, have yielded a large increase in knowledge about the Martian system, focused primarily on understanding its geology and habitability potential. Engineering interplanetary journeys is complicated and the exploration of Mars has experienced a high failure rate, especially the early attempts. Roughly sixty percent of all spacecraft destined for Mars failed before completing their missions, with some failing before their observations could even begin. Some missions have been met with unexpected success, such as the twin Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, which operated for years beyond their specification.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ranger 6</span> United States lunar space probe

Ranger 6 was a lunar probe in the NASA Ranger program, a series of robotic spacecraft of the early and mid-1960s to obtain close-up images of the Moon's surface. It was launched on January 30, 1964 and was designed to transmit high-resolution photographs of the lunar terrain during the final minutes of flight until impacting the surface. The spacecraft carried six television vidicon cameras—two wide-angle and four narrow-angle —to accomplish these objectives. The cameras were arranged in two separate chains, or channels, each self-contained with separate power supplies, timers, and transmitters so as to afford the greatest reliability and probability of obtaining high-quality television pictures. No other experiments were carried on the spacecraft. Due to a failure of the camera system, no images were returned.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atlas-Agena</span> American expendable launch system

The Atlas-Agena was an American expendable launch system derived from the SM-65 Atlas missile. It was a member of the Atlas family of rockets, and was launched 109 times between 1960 and 1978. It was used to launch the first five Mariner uncrewed probes to the planets Venus and Mars, and the Ranger and Lunar Orbiter uncrewed probes to the Moon. The upper stage was also used as an uncrewed orbital target vehicle for the Gemini crewed spacecraft to practice rendezvous and docking. However, the launch vehicle family was originally developed for the Air Force and most of its launches were classified DoD payloads.

Kosmos 359 was an unmanned Soviet probe launched on 22 August 1970. The probe's intended purpose was to explore Venus, but an error caused the final-stage rocket to malfunction. This left the craft trapped in an elliptical orbit around Earth for 410 days before orbital decay and atmospheric entry. Kosmos 359 was launched five days after Venera 7 and had an identical design; had the craft not suffered a mission-ending failure, it would have landed on Venus shortly after Venera 7. To publicly acknowledge the failure of the attempted Venus lander would be a public relations disaster for the Soviet space program; after the mission failed, the Venera spacecraft was renamed Kosmos 359 in order to conceal the mishap from the public.

References

  1. ↑ "The Space Race". history.com. February 22, 2020.
  2. ↑ Mitchell Sharpe (1989). "2". In Kenneth Gatland (ed.). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Space Technology. New York: Orion Books. pp. 28–31. OCLC   19520816.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 J.N.James (1965). "The Voyage of Mariner II". In Harlow Shapley; Samuel Rapport; Helen Wright (eds.). The New Treasury of Science. New York: Harper & Row. pp. 171–187.
  4. ↑ "How do spacecraft use an orbit to move from planet to planet?". Northwestern University. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
  5. ↑ "A Development Plan for 2 Interplanetary Probes" (PDF). Space Technology Laboratories. January 14, 1959. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022.
  6. ↑ "Development Plan for Able 3-4" (PDF). Space Technology Laboratories. June 1, 1959. p. 2. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022.
  7. ↑ "Project Thor Able-4 Final Mission Report" (PDF). Space Technology Laboratories. May 25, 1960. pp. 9, 17. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022.
  8. ↑ Adolph K. Thiel (May 20, 1960). "The Able Series of Space Probes" (PDF). Space Technology Laboratories. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022.
  9. ↑ "Venera 1". NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive. Retrieved August 15, 2019.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Jet Propulsion Laboratory (various) (1965). Mariner-Venus 1962: Final Project Report (PDF). Washington, D.C.: NASA. OCLC   2552152. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022.
  11. 1 2 3 "Mariner 1". NASA. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
  12. ↑ Nathaniel Scharping (July 7, 2020). "Beyond the twilight zone". Knowable Magazine. doi: 10.1146/knowable-070620-1 . S2CID   225793830 . Retrieved August 26, 2021.
  13. ↑ "Overview: Venus". NASA. August 9, 2021. Retrieved August 26, 2021.
  14. ↑ "Mariner to Scan Venus' Surface on Flyby" . Aviation Week and Space Technology. McGraw Hill Publishing Company. June 12, 1961. pp. 52–57. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
  15. 1 2 3 "Instruments Evolve for Mariner Probe" . Aviation Week and Space Technology. McGraw Hill Publishing Company. February 5, 1962. pp. 57–61. Retrieved January 28, 2017.
  16. ↑ Elizabeth Howell (December 3, 2012). "Mariner 2: First Spacecraft to Another Planet". space.com. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
  17. 1 2 "Venus Mission Fails: New Mariner Readied" . Aviation Week and Space Technology. McGraw Hill Publishing Company. July 30, 1962. p. 21. Retrieved June 12, 2021.
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Paul E. Ceruzzi (1989). Beyond The Limits: Flight Enters the Computer Age. MIT Press. p. 202. ISBN   9780262031431.
  19. 1 2 3 Pasternack, Alex (July 26, 2014). "Sometimes a Typo Means You Need to Blow Up Your Own Spacecraft". Vice. Retrieved July 1, 2021.
  20. ↑ "Equation Error Cited in Mariner 1 Failure" . Aviation Week and Space Technology. McGraw Hill Publishing Company. August 6, 1962. p. 29. Retrieved June 12, 2021.
  21. ↑ Henry Walker (2005). The Tao of Computing. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Inc. ISBN   9780763725525. OCLC   864860042.
  22. ↑ "Mariner 1 Destroyed". Smithsonian. Retrieved September 5, 2021.
  23. ↑ Chris Higgins (July 22, 2017). "On This Day in 1962, NASA Launched and Destroyed Mariner 1". Mental Floss.
  24. ↑ "Venus Rocket Flight Ends in Fiery Failure". Chicago Tribune. UPI. July 23, 1962. p. 22 – via Newspapers.com.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.