The Mars 96 spacecraft was launched into Earth orbit, but
failed to achieve insertion into Mars cruise trajectory and re-entered the Earth's
atmosphere at about 00:45 to 01:30 UT on 17 November 1996 and crashed within a presumed
320 km by 80 km area which includes parts of the Pacific Ocean, Chile, and Bolivia. The
cause of the crash is not known.
The Russian Mars 96 mission was designed to
send an orbiter, two small autonomous stations, and two surface penetrators to Mars to
investigate the evolution and contemporary physics of the planet by studying the physical
and chemical processes which took place in the past and which currently take place. The
Mars 96 Orbiter was a 3-axis sun/star stabilized craft based on the Phobos design with two
platforms for pointing and stabilizing instruments. The propulsion units were mounted on
the bottom and two large solar panels extended out from opposite sides of the craft. The
two penetrators were mounted on the bottom by the propulsion system, the two small
stations were connected on top of the spacecraft, and a dish antenna extended off one of
the sides perpendicular to the solar panels. The Mars 96 spacecraft had a launch mass
(including propellant) of 6180 kg.
Mars 96 was scheduled to arrive at Mars on 12 September 1997, about 10 months after launch, on a direct trajectory. About 4 to 5 days before arrival the small surface stations would have been released. The orbiter was to go into an elliptical 3-day transfer orbit about Mars, and the two penetrators to descend to the surface during the first month of orbit. The final orbit would have been a 14.77 hour elliptical orbit with a periapsis of 300 km.
Concering scientific objectives, Mars Orbiter 96
carried 12 instruments to study the surface and atmosphere of Mars, 7 instruments to study
plasma, fields, and particles, and 3 instruments for astrophysical studies. There were
also radio science, a navigation TV camera, and a radiation and dosimetry control complex.
The instruments were located directly on the sides of the craft, on one of the two
platforms attached to the sides of the craft, or on the edges of the solar panels.