dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (12/02/84)
This is the anniversary of the first soft landing on Mars. More on the Soviet spacecraft that did it -- right after this. December 2 The First Landing on Mars The first soft landing on Mars was made on this date in the year 1971 -- by a Soviet spacecraft, Mars 3. The Soviets had been trying to get to Mars for eleven years. They'd had a stunning series of failures -- but they'd persevered -- to reach the surface of Mars four-and-a-half years before we did. The Soviet Mars 3 lander came down in a shallow basin on Mars -- a crater nine hundred miles in diameter ringed by ancient, eroded hills. The Russians announced that Mars 3 opened the way for the search for life on Mars. It's unclear, though, whether that particular lander carried equipment for life detection. It did carry scientific instruments designed to study the Martian atmosphere and soil. And it carried a television camera, which the Russians hoped would give the world its first pictures of the Martian surface. Unluckily, the Mars 3 lander went silent only 20 seconds after the equipment and camera were turned on. Communications ceased, and the lander wasn't heard from again. The world had to wait for NASA's Viking spacecraft for the first pictures from the surface of Mars. They finally came in the summer of 1976. Meanwhile, the fate of the Soviet Mars Lander 3 is unknown. One possibility is that the lander kept transmitting, but that its sister craft -- a spacecraft in orbit around Mars -- did not relay the signal. Another possibility is that the lander succumbed to the forces of nature -- that it toppled in a Martian dust storm. Script by Deborah Byrd. (c) Copyright 1983, 1984 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin
gino@voder.UUCP (Gino Bloch) (12/04/84)
[Martian BEM bait] > Unluckily, the Mars 3 lander went silent only 20 seconds after the > equipment and camera were turned on. Communications ceased ... > Meanwhile, the fate of the Soviet Mars Lander 3 is unknown ... As an SF fan, amateur astronomer, and believer in extraterrestrial life, I'd like to believe that a BEM (or a line-eater bug) ate it. However, I don't - yet. BUT - it can't be discounted either. I sure like to see StarDate postings. Thanks, UT, for doing it. -- Gene E. Bloch (...!nsc!voder!gino) Mr Humility