 After the first Sputnik, Soviet politicians were amazed with their Space achievements, which despite world criticism of Communism provided a good propaganda tool in favor of the system. That's why Soviet Government and CPCC always supported any new, good ideas of their biggest space visionary – Chief Designer Sergey Korolyov.One of his many dreams – was a spacecraft to Mars. For politicians it was good idea – if Russians are the first everywhere in Space – why not Mars also?! Unfortunately, the dream was complicated and not only required a lot of financing, but – technology and science that was ahead of its time. Korolyov's Design Bureau started design of an interplanetary probe to Mars in November 1959. Besides the probe itself, the mission to Mars required a new, more powerful booster as well as design and construction of many new systems. Instead of a new booster they created modifications to the existing R-7 with and added 4th stage. All together, starting in October 1960 and up to November 1964 – there were 6 attempts to send a probe to Mars – and all failed. Only two of those attempts are known – Mars-1 launched November 11, 1962 and Zond-2 – launched November 30, 1964. In April 1965 "the theme" – Mission to Mars – was transferred from OKB-1 to another Design Bureau – NPO of Lavochkin, lead by Designer General George Babakin. Where ever since all interplanetary probes have been designed and constructed. Instead of the 1-ton probe designed in OKB-1, Babakin created and designed a 5-ton probe with a lot of instrumentation. The hope was for good science, as well as the space "achievement". Babakin NPO did not design it's own booster – and that's why they selected for the mission the most suitable booster – Proton with up to a 20 ton to Earth orbit. Design and construction of the new Mars probe took several years. During this time NPO was deeply engaged in the race for "New Achievements" – including a probe to Venus (1967) – the Moon Race – designing and construction of Moon probes to bring Moon soil samples to Earth (which they did – becoming first in the World), as well as the Lunohod Moon rover which was also a first. The Moon Race at that time – 1967-1969 was the main priority for both the USSR and USA. The Russians did their best, but failed. Nevertheless, with Moon probes, Venus probes and ready to fly Mars probes – there was a possibility, as President Gorbachev said much later, – for an "Adequate non-symmetrical reply". The military and defensive benefits were obvious and demonstrable. The "launch window" for the Mars probes was the end of March – beginning of April 1969. At the end of 1968 – a few days after Apollo-8 orbited the Moon – the not fully tested probes were transported to Baikonur with a plan to complete assembly and all tests there. But as was the case very often before it was too rushed. Winter on Baikonur that year was very severe – often the outside temperature was as low as – 30 C. The heating system in many Assembly Buildings cracked because of frost and engineers were working in cold rooms. Many different technical problems were solved, but there was never a "complete through test" in which the two probes passed normally. Engineers and designers predicted possibility of success at only 50/50. Nevertheless – The Military Industrial Committee – composed of representatives of The Ministry of Defense – and responsible for all Space ranges and launches – all the Design Bureaus which constructed the boosters, spacecraft and other systems along with the head of the committee – the top Russian general, responsible for all Space – made the decision to launch both probes on schedule. The decision was based on political appearances and not hard science. The first launch was March 27, 1969. At 438,66 seconds of booster flight – the engines of the 3rd stage spontaneously shut down and the other boosters exploded. The second launch was April 2, 1969. At 0.02 second of flight, the booster started to deviate from course and at 41 seconds crashed 2 kilometers from the pad. One of the designers of the Mars-69 probes Vladimir Dolgopolov said later – "We were concerned with our probes, but boosters helped! Everybody forgot about our concern when booster exploded " All together in the period from 1960-1988 there were 16 Soviet launches to Mars. Only 4 probes partially fulfilled their tasks. Significance of Mars-69 It was the first attempt to launch probes to Mars by Proton boosters. It was not until 1996 that the public knew this information. |
