\
Mars 3 Lander Mission Profile
The descent module was separated from the orbiter on 2 December 1971 at 09:14 UT. Fifteen minutes later the descent engine was fired to point the aeroshield forward. At 13:44 UT the module entered the martian atmosphere at 6 km/sec at an angle less than 10 degrees. The braking parachute was then deployed, followed by the main chute which was reefed until the craft dropped below supersonic velocity, at which time it was fully deployed, the heat shield was ejected, and the radar altimeter was turned on. At an altitude of 20 to 30 meters the main parachute was disconnected and a small rocket propelled it off to the side. Simultaneously the lander retrorockets were fired. The entire atmospheric entry sequence took about 3 minutes.
Mars 3 impacted the surface at a reported 20.7 m/s at approximately 45 degrees S, 158 degrees W. Shock absorbers inside the capsule were designed to prevent damage to the instruments. The four petal shaped covers opened and the capsule began transmitting to the Mars 3 orbiter 90 seconds after landing. The Mars 3 orbiter began relaying the transmissions to Earth at 13:50:35 UT. After 20 seconds of transmission to the orbiter, lander communications stopped for unknown reasons and no further signals were received from the martian surface. A partial panoramic image returned showed no detail and a very low illumination of 50 lux. The cause of the failure may have been related to the extremely powerful martian dust storm taking place at the time, which would also explain the poor image lighting, or there may have been a problem with the orbiter, which prevented it from relaying the lander transmissions back to Earth.