Mariner 1
Launch of Mariner 1
|
|
| Mission type | Venus flyby |
|---|---|
| Operator | NASA / JPL |
| Mission duration | 4 minutes, 53 seconds Failed to orbit |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft type |
Mariner based on Ranger Block I |
| Manufacturer | Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
| Launch mass | 202.8 kilograms (447 lb) |
| Power | 220 watts (at Venus encounter) |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | July 22, 1962, 09:21:23 UTC |
| Rocket | Atlas LV-3 Agena-B |
| Launch site | Cape Canaveral LC-12 |
Mariner 1 was the first spacecraft of the American Mariner program, designed for a planetary flyby of Venus. It cost $18.5 million in 1962. It was launched aboard an Atlas-Agena rocket on July 22, 1962. Shortly after takeoff the rocket responded improperly to commands from the guidance systems on the ground, setting the stage for an apparent software-related guidance system failure. With the craft effectively uncontrolled, a range safety officer ordered its destructive abort 294.5 seconds after launch.
According to NASA's current account for the public:
The role of software error in the launch failure remains somewhat mysterious in nature, shrouded in the ambiguities and conflicts among (and in some accounts, even within) the various accounts, official and otherwise. The probe's mission was accomplished by Mariner 2 which launched 5 weeks later.
The Mariner 1 spacecraft was identical to Mariner 2, launched 27 August 1962. Mariner 1 consisted of a hexagonal base, 1.04 meters [m] (3.41 ft) across and 0.36 m thick (1.2 ft), which contained six magnesium chassis housing the electronics for the science experiments, communications, data encoding, computing, timing, and attitude control and the power control, battery, and battery charger, as well as the attitude control gas bottles and the rocket engine. On top of the base, was a tall pyramid-shaped mast on which the science experiments were mounted which brought the total height of the spacecraft to 3.66 m (12.0 ft). Attached to either side of the base were rectangular solar panel wings with a total span of 5.05 meters and width of 0.76 meters (16.6 ft × 2.5 ft). Attached by an arm to one side of the base and extending below the spacecraft was a large directional dish antenna.
The Mariner 1 power system consisted of the two solar cell wings, one 183 × 76 cm (72 × 30 in) and the other, 152 × 76 cm (60 × 30 in), with a 31 cm (12 in) dacron extension (a solar sail) to balance the solar pressure on the panels. Those panels powered the craft directly or recharged a 1,000-watt-hour sealed silver-zinc cell battery, which was to be used before the panels were deployed, when the panels were not illuminated by the Sun, and when loads were heavy. A power-switching and booster regulator device controlled the power flow. Communications consisted of a 3-watt transmitter capable of continuous telemetry operation, the large high gain directional dish antenna, a cylindrical omnidirectional antenna at the top of the instrument mast, and two command antennas, one on the end of either solar panel, which received instructions for midcourse maneuvers and other functions.
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Wikipedia