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Mariner 3,4
Part of the Mariner program
Mariner 4 provided the first up close pictures of Mars. After a 228 day cruise, Mariner 4 passed Mars at a distance of 9,846 kilometers on July 14, 1965. During its encounter, the spacecraft took 22 television pictures that covered about 1 percent of the Martian surface. The images revealed a vast, barren wasteland of craters strewn about a rust-colored carpet of sand. Once past Mars, Mariner 4 orbited the Sun prior to returning to the vicinity of Earth again in 1967. Engineers then decided to use the aging craft for a series of operational and telemetry tests to improve their knowledge of the technologies that would be needed for future interplanetary spacecraft. All operations ceased on
December 20, 1967. A sister ship, Mariner 3, was launched three weeks earlier than Mariner 4, but was lost when the launch vehicle's nose fairing failed to jettison.
Spacecraft
3-axis stabilized using cold gas thrusters. Four deployed solar panels were kept oriented toward the Sun. S-Band communications using LGA or HGA.
Payload
Magnetometer, charged particle sensors, cosmic-ray telescope, television camera. Tape recorder stored 21 pictures.
Country of Origin | United States |
Customer/User | NASA |
Manufacturer(s) | JPL |
Orbit | Solar orbit - 8 month direct trajectory |
Related Sites | JPL Mariner 4 Summary |
Launch Facts
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Name | Int'l Desig. | Date | Site | Vehicle | Orbit | Mass(kg) |
Notes |
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Mariner 3 | 1964-073A | 11/5/64 | ESMC | Atlas Agena D | Solar | 260 |
Mars probe; launch fairing failure prevented Mars flyby |
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Mariner 4 | 1964-077A | 11/28/64 | ESMC | Atlas Agena D | Solar | 260 |
Mars probe |
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