Equipment

Mariner 10

Some info

During its two-year mission, it transmitted over 12,000 images of Mercury and Venus. This mission ended in March 1975. It’s still orbiting the sun, even though is parts have probably been destroyed by the suns radiation.

Liftoff

The launch vehicle propelled Mariner 10 on its historic mission to Mercury and Venus. Its mission lasted until 1975 when this historic craft was shut down and placed in orbit around the sun.

Two Firsts

The Mariner 10 needed more course corrections than any previous mission. It was the first craft to use Earth’s gravitational pull to reach a foreign planet. It was also the first to use the solar winds to propel itself when its thruster fuel ran low. The scientists used solar panels as sails to make course corrections.

Venus/Mercury Mission

Mariner 10 was the last in a series of Mariner missions designed to survey planets in our solar system. This mission provided new information about Venus and Mercury in its first dual-planet mission. On Feb. 5, 1974, it made the first flyby of the mission and found evidence of rotating clouds. Mariner 10’s first three flybys past Mercury mapped around half of Mercury’s surface. During this time, a thin atmosphere and magnetic field were discovered.

Viking 1&2

Mission To Mars

The Viking mission to Mars sent to identical crafts to The Red Planet. Each of the crafts were made of two parts: a “lander” and an “orbiter”. The orbiters initial function was to survey the planet for a suitable landing site. Later, the orbiter’s instruments studied the planet and its atmosphere, while the orbiter acted as a radio relay station for transmitting lander data. Once on the surface of Mars, the lander surveyed soil, wind, and of course atmosphere. It conducted numerous experiments to determine if life existed on Mars either now or in the past.

Orbiter Construction

Once the Viking orbiters were attached to their lander pods, they were positioned inside the nose cones of the Titan Centaur launch vehicles. The landers were folded inside their pods. These pods were designed to keep any biological contamination from getting inside while on earth.

Parachute Deployment

When the craft’s parachute was deployed, the pod was at 6km. (4mi.) and traveling at a speed of 900kph (600mph.). Soon after the lower part of the heat shield fell off and the lander’s legs unfolded. At an altitude of about 1.5km (5000ft.) the lander pod broke away from the parachute and started using retro boosters to control its descent. It landed on Mars safely.

Touchdown!

At this stage of the landing, the landers terminal descent system (three retro boosters) had slowed the craft down where the speed at landing was about 10.5kph. (7mph). Seconds after this historical event, the lander began transmitting images to the orbiter and back to earth.

On The Surface of Mars

The first of the two landers landed on Mars on July 20, 1976.The second on September 3, 1976. Each lander housed instruments that examined the physical and magnetic properties of the soil. They also analyzed atmosphere and weather on Mars.

E