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ABOUT FACTS NET
Air/Space Craft
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Mars Probes And Failures
Picture Source: Unless otherwise noted all pictures are from NASA
It a funny thing but we seem to have lost quite a disproportionate amount of probes to the planet Mars. True some of them made it, but most don't. Lets look at the missions: 1960
Marsnik 1-2 1962 Sputnik 22 - 24 October 1962 - Attempted Mars Flyby Mars 1 - 1 November 1962 - Mars Flyby (Contact Lost)
Mars 1 Sputnik 24 - 4 November 1962 - Attempted Mars Lander 1964 Mariner 3 - 5 November 1964 - Attempted Mars Flyby Mariner 4 - 28 November 1964 - Mars Flyby
Mariner 3 and 4 Zond 2 - 30 November 1964 - Mars Flyby (Contact Lost) 1965 Zond 3 - 18 July 1965 - Lunar Flyby, Mars Test Vehicle
Zond 2-3 1969 Mariner 6 - 25 February 1969 - Mars Flyby Mariner 7 - 27 March 1969 - Mars Flyby
Mariner 6-7 Mars 1969A - 27 March 1969 - Attempted Mars Orbiter (Launch Failure) Mars 1969B - 2 April 1969 - Attempted Mars Orbiter (Launch Failure)
Mars 1969A and B 1971 Mariner 8 - 8 May 1971 - Attempted Mars Flyby (Launch Failure)
Mariner 8-9
Left Mars 2-3 Orbiter Right Mars 2-3 Lander
Mars 4-5 Mars 6 - 5 August 1973 - Mars Lander (Contact Lost)
Mars 6-7
Left: Viking Spacecraft Right: Viking Lander
Phobos 1-2
Mars Observer
Mars Global Surveyor
Left: Mars 96 Orbiter Middle: Mars 96 Penetrateor Right:
Mars 96 Surface Station
Nozomi
Mars Climate Orbiter 1999
Mars Polar Lander
Deep Space 2
Spirit and Opportunity Probes look the same If you read the list you will have to notice that 21 attempts to land on Mars or send orbiters around Mars have failed. And only 14 succeeded. Of these l4 some were only flybys and some were probes to the moons of Mars. Conspiracy theorists are saying that there is something on Mars that we are not being allowed to see. But how do they account for the successful landings and orbiters? They state that these are not in critical areas of the planet. But if I were to agree with this logic I then would have to say that Cydonia is not a critical area. For those of you who don't know about the Cydonia region of Mars, that is where the famous 'Face' and 'Pyramid' are located along with other things that are being called ruins. So why are there so many failures with probes? Because it is far away and our technology is still crude. If you notice, most of the successes are missions launched from the U.S.. The reason for this is that we have the most experience right now at planetary launches. As other countries gain the experience, the rate of failure will surely decrease. There is nothing mysterious involved with this. Lets look at the Mars Express launched by Europe. It was supposed to reach Mars around Christmas which it did, but its lander has remained silent. How many landers have the Europeans landed anywhere? Shouldn't the Europeans have perfected landing on the Moon before trying to land on Mars? Well I guess that is a matter of opinion but I was always taught that you had to take baby steps before learning how to walk. |
