Mariner 8,9

Part of the Mariner program

Mariner 9 was the first spacecraft to orbit another planet. On November 13, 1971 the spacecraft entered Martian orbit and began photographing the surface and analyzing the atmosphere with its infrared and ultraviolet instruments. At the time of Mariner 9's arrival, Mars was almost totally obscured by dust storms. However, the storms subsided after a month, allowing imaging of the Martian surface. The mission exceeded all primary photographic requirements by photo-mapping 100 percent of the planet's surface and taking the first close-up photographs of Mars' moons Deimos and Phobos. The spacecraft returned a total of 7329 images before it was turned off 349 days after entering orbit. The mission originally consisted of two spacecraft designed to simultaneously map the Martian surface, but the identical Mariner 8 vehicle was lost in a launch vehicle failure. The total cost of the mission was $137 million.

Spacecraft
Octagonal structure of magnesium, aluminum and fiberglass. Four solar panel produced 800 W at Earth and 500 W at Mars. NiCd batteries (20 AHr). Monomethyl hydrazine propellant. S-Band communications. 3-axis stabilized to 0.25 deg using 12 cold gas jets.

Payload
Scan platform supported an infrared radiometer, wide-angle TV, ultraviolet spectrometer, narrow-angle TV (1-2 km resolution), and IR interferometric spectrometer. The scan platform articulated 215 deg in azimuth and 69 deg in elevation.

Country of Origin	United States
Customer/User	NASA
Manufacturer(s)	JPL
Size	Bus: 1.5 ft x 4.2 ft diameter
Orbit	Direct to Mars - 1390 x 17140 km, 12 hour period, inclination 65 deg
Design Life	9 months
Related Sites	JPL Mariner 9 Summary Page

Launch Facts

Name	Int'l Desig.	Date	Site	Vehicle	Orbit	Mass(kg)
Notes
Mariner 8 (Mariner H)	none	5/8/71	ESMC	Atlas Centaur	FTO	996
2nd stage failure; intended Mars flyby
Mariner 9	1971-051A	5/30/71	ESMC	Atlas Centaur	Mars	974
Entered Mars orbit 11/13/71