Data collected from Mariner 4's flyby on a modern map
A Mars flyby is when a spacecraft passes near the planet Mars, but does not enter orbit or land on it.[1] Unmanned (no humans on board) space probes have used this method to collect data on Mars[2] and other worlds. A spacecraft that is built for a flyby is also known as a "flyby bus" or "flyby spacecraft".[3]
Two Mars flyby attempts were made in 1960 under Mars 1M (Mars 1960A and Mars 1960B).
The third attempt at a Mars flyby was the Soviet Mars 2MV-4 No.1,[8] also called Mars 1962A or Sputnik 22, which launched in 1962 as part of the Mars program.[9] but it was destroyed in low Earth orbit due to rocket failure.[10]
Mars 1 also launched in 1962 but communications failed before it reached Mars.[11]
Mars 4 achieved a flyby in 1974 and detected a night-side ionosphere, although by that time Mars was already orbited by other spacecraft.[11]
Mars 6 and 7 were Mars landers carried by flyby buses.[12]
References
↑
Page 15-16 in Chapter 3 of David S. F. Portree's Humans to Mars: Fifty Years of Mission Planning, 1950 - 2000, NASA Monographs in Aerospace History Series, Number 21, February 2001. Available as NASA SP-2001-4521.
