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Mars 2MV-3 No.1

Soviet Mars spacecraft

Summary

Soviet Mars spacecraft

Field	Value
name	2MV-3 No.1
mission_type	Mars lander
Harvard_designation	1962 Beta Xi 1
spacecraft_type	2MV-3
manufacturer	OKB-1
launch_mass	890 kg
launch_date	UTC
launch_rocket	Molniya 8K78 s/n T103-17
launch_site	Baikonur 1/5
decay_date
orbit_reference	Geocentric
orbit_regime	Low Earth (achieved)
Heliocentric (intended)
apsis	gee
programme	Mars program
previous_mission	Mars 1
next_mission	Mars 1969A

Heliocentric (intended)

Mars 2MV-3 No.1 also known as Sputnik 24 in the West, was a Soviet spacecraft, which was launched in 1962 as part of the Mars program, and was intended to land on the surface of Mars. Due to a problem with the rocket which launched it, it did not depart low Earth orbit, and it decayed several days later. It was the only Mars 2MV-3 spacecraft to be launched.

Launch

The spacecraft was launched at 15:35:15 UTC on 4 November 1962, atop a Molniya 8K78 carrier rocket flying from Site 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. About 260 seconds into the flight, the oxidiser pressurisation system malfunctioned, resulting in cavitation within the feed lines and turbopump. The same problem developed in the propellant feed lines thirty-two seconds later. Although the lower stages of the rocket were still able to place the upper stage and payload into a low Earth orbit, vibrations caused by either the cavitation problem, or a separate problem with the next stage, caused a fuse to become dislodged in the electrical system controlling the upper stage engine. This prevented the Blok L upper stage igniting, leaving the spacecraft in its parking orbit. It decayed from orbit the next day. However, some debris remained in orbit until 27 December, and the upper stage ullage motor platform remained in orbit until 19 January 1963.

Designation

The designations Sputnik 31, and later Sputnik 24, were used by the United States Naval Space Command to identify the spacecraft in its Satellite Situation Summary documents, since the Soviet Union did not release the internal designations of its spacecraft at that time, and had not assigned it an official name due to its failure to depart geocentric orbit.

References

Zak, Anatoly. "Russia's unmanned missions to Mars". RussianSpaceWeb.
Wade, Mark. "Mars 2MV-3". Encyclopedia Astronautica.
Wade, Mark. "Mars". Encyclopedia Astronautica.
Krebs, Gunter. "Mars (2a) (2MV-3 #1)". Gunter's Space Page.
McDowell, Jonathan. "Launch Log". Jonathan's Space Page.
Wade, Mark. "Soyuz". Encyclopedia Astronautica.
McDowell, Jonathan. "Satellite Catalog". Jonathan's Space Page.
Mihos, Chris. (11 January 2006). "Soviet Craft - Mars". Case Western Reserve University.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

spacecraft-launched-in-1962 1962-in-the-soviet-union mars-program spacecraft-which-reentered-in-1962 2mv

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