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Few facts of Mars and its mission:
Past missions to Mars include flyby missions like Mariner 7, (NASA), orbiters like Mangalyaan(ISRO), landers like Viking 1 (NASA) and rovers like Curiosity (NASA).Though more than half of all Mars missions have been failures, the mistakes made helped scientists evolve their design and plan future successful missions.
Some missions failed:
Bad Timing: Though the Russian Kosmos 419 (1971) reached Earth’s orbit,it never reached Mars’ orbit because of a wrong ignition time setting. Instead of being set for 1.5 years after launch. The space-craft soon re-entered Earth’s orbit and disintegrated.
Faulty software:
Bad mathematics may not kill you, but they can kill spacecraft! NASA’s Mars Climate Orbiter (1998) disintegrated because at one instance, its software used the wrong units (pounds, instead of Newtons). This caused the space craft to be placed too close to Mars where atmospheric stresses destroyed it.
Solar flares and fuel shortage:
The communication systems of Japan’s Nozomi or biter (1998) were disrupted by powerful solar flares. It also damaged the heat control system causing the fuel to freeze. It was unable to attain Mars orbit and operation was terminated.
Nobody really knows:
Just three days away from Mars, all communication was suddenly lost with NASA’s Mars Observer (1992). For months, scientists could not explain what became of the spacecraft,but investigations finally concluded that a fuel and gas leak had probably sent the spacecraft into an uncontrollable spin damaging critical electrical circuits
Dedicated by: Kavignar Thanigai.
Young world. courtesy: the Hindu:19.11.13.
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