1M. First launches to Mars.

 

 
Mars 1M spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Wikimedia Commons
 
The first attempt to launch a spacecraft to the vicinity of another planet took place on October 10, 1960. The 1M No. 1 probe was the first of two Soviet spacecraft intended to fly past Mars. The objectives of the mission were to investigate interplanetary space between Earth and Mars, to study Mars and return surface images from a flyby trajectory, and to study the effects of extended spaceflight on onboard instruments and provide radio communications from long distances. The spacecraft had a cylindrical body about 2 meters high and 1.05 meter in diameter with two solar panel wings, a 2.33 meter high-gain net antenna, and a long antenna arm. It had a dry mass of about 480 kg and launch mass of about 650 kg. The probe carried five scientific instruments:

1. triaxial fluxgate magnetometer
2. ion trap charged particle detectors
3. micrometeorite detectors
4. cosmic ray detectors
5. infrared radiometer

   Although the spacecraft initially included a TV imaging system (similar to the one carried on Luna 3), a UV spectrometer, and a spectroreflectometer (to detect organic life on Mars), mass constraints forced engineers to delete these instruments a week before launch.
 
Preparations of the Molniya 8K78 launch vehicle carrying the 1M Mars flyby spacecraft. Credit: Jonathan McDowell: Jonathan's Space Report, edited. 
 

   The probe was launched from Tyuratam (now the Baikonur Cosmodrome) Site 1/5 at 14:27:49 UT on October 10, 1960, aboard a four-stage Molniya 8K78 (no. L1-4M) rocket. During the launch, resonant vibrations in the launch vehicle during the second stage burn caused a gyroscope in the avionics to malfunction. As a result, the booster began to veer from its planned attitude. The guidance system failed at T+309.9 seconds and the third stage (Blok I) engine was shut down at T+324.2 seconds, after the trajectory deviated to greater than 7° pitch. The spacecraft reached an altitude of 120 km and eventually burned up in Earth’s atmosphere over eastern Siberia without reaching Earth orbit. 

   After the launch of the first spacecraft failed and the mass constraint tightened, the entire science payload and midcourse engine of the second probe were removed. As it was too late in the launch window to attempt the desired close flyby of Mars, the goal of the mission was reduced to simply gaining flight experience with the spacecraft. 

   The launch of of the 1M No. 2 probe took place on October 14, 1960, at 13:51:03 UT. During the launch, there was a failure in the third stage (Blok I) engine at T+290 seconds due to frozen kerosene in the pipeline feeding its turbopump (which prevented a valve from opening). The third and fourth stages, along with the payload, burned up in Earth’s upper atmosphere over eastern Siberia without reaching Earth orbit. The Soviets made no announcement of either launch, since they had not reached orbit.  


 References:

Asif A. Siddiqi. Beyond Earth: A Chronicle of Deep Space Exploration, 1958-2016. Washington, DC: NASA History Program Office, 2018. ISBN 978-1-62683-042-4

Wesley T. Huntress Jr., Mikhail Ya. Marov. Soviet Robots in the Solar System: Mission Technologies and Discoveries. Springer Praxis Books, 2011. ISBN 978-1-4419-7897-4.

 
 © 2025, Andrew Mirecki
 
 

 

 

 

 

 
 

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