Key facts
- Mission type
- Mars orbiter
- Operator
- Soviet space program
- Cospar id
- 1973-047A
- Mission duration
- 203 days, 20 hours and 7 minutes
- Spacecraft
- 3MS No.52S
- Manufacturer
- NPO Lavochkin
- Launch mass
- 3,440 kg (7,580 lb)
- Launch date
- 21 July 1973, 19:30:59 ( 1973-07-21UTC19:30:59Z ) UTC
- Rocket
- Proton-K / D
- Launch site
- Baikonur 81/23
- Contractor
- Khrunichev
- Last contact
- 10 February 1974, 15:38 UTC
- Reference system
- Heliocentric
- Perihelion altitude
- 1.02 AU
- Aphelion altitude
- 1.63 AU
- Inclination
- 2.2°
- Period
- 556 days
- Closest approach
- 10 February 1974, 15:34 UTC
via Wikipedia infobox
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Mars 4 (Russian: Марс-4), also known as 3MS No.52S was a Soviet spacecraft intended to explore Mars. A 3MS spacecraft launched as part of the Mars programme, it was intended to enter orbit around Mars in 1974. However, computer problems prevented orbital insertion from occurring.
Spacecraft
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Mars 4” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.