Mars 96

          Mars 8 otherwise called Mars 96 which was launched by the Russian Space Forces to Mars in 1996. This spacecraft was programmed based on the Phobos Probes of Mars 1988. It was very ambitious mission at that time. This mission included an orbiter, Surface Stations and Surface penetrators. Mars 96 had many scientific instruments provided by the European countries.

AIM:  The prime aim of this mission was to understand the evolutionary history of formation of Martian surface, atmosphere and interior structure of planet mars.

ORBITER DESIGN: Mars 96 was similar to the model and design of Phobos orbiters. Its body had high gain antenna and low gain antenna for communications. Two solar panel at the side is set for the power source. It also had two surface stations and two penetrators for fuel propulsion system. The total mass of Mars 96 spacecraft was 6,180 kg.

SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS: 

1) ARGUS TV Camera

2) PAIS Camera

3) HRSC - High Resolution Stereoscopic Camera

4) WAOSS - Wide-Angle Stereoscopic TV-Camera

5) OMEGA - Visible and Infrared mapping Spectrometer

6) PFS - Planetary Fourier Spectrometer

7) TERMOSCAN - Mapping Radiometer

8) SVET - High Resolution Mapping Spectrometer

9) SPICAM - Multi-channel Optical Spectrometer

10) UVS-M - Ultraviolet Spectrometer

11) LWR - Long Wave Radar

12) PHOTON - Gamma-ray Spectrometer

13) NEUTRON-S - Neutron Spectrometer

14) MAK - Quadruple Mass Spectrometer

15) ASPERA - Energy mass ion spectrograph and Neutral particle imager

16) FONEMA - Fast Omnidirectional Non-scanning ion energy-mass analyzer

17) DYMIO - Omnidirectional ionospheric Mass spectrometer

18) MARIPROB - Ionospheric Plasma Spectrometers

19) MAREMF - Electrostatic Analyzer and Magnetometer

20) ELISMA - Solar wind monitor

21) SLED - Low Energy Charged Particle Spectrometer

22) PGS - Precision Gamma Spectrometer

23) LILAS-2 - Research of Cosmic and Solar Gamma-ray Bursts

24) EVRIS - Investigation of oscillations in stars

25) SOYA - Solar Oscillation Photometer

26) RADIUS-M - Radiation Control Complex

INSTRUMENTS IN SURFACE STATION:

27) MIS - Meteorology Instrument System

28) DPI - Descent Phase Instrument

29) ALPHA - Alpha-particle, photon, X-ray Spectrometer

30) OPTIMISM - Magnetometer and Seismometer

31) DesCam - Descent Phase Camera

32) PanCam - Panormic Camera

33) MOx - Mars oxidant Experiment

34) MAPEx - Microelectronic and Photonic experiment

INSTRUMENTS IN PENETRATOR: 

35) TVS- Television Camera

36) MECOM METEO SET - Meteorological Measurement

37) PEGAS GAMMA - Spectrometer

38) ANGSTREM - X-ray Spectrometer

39) ALPHA ALPHA-P - Spectrometer

40) NEUTRON NEUTRON-P - Spectrometer

41) GRUNT - Accelerometer

42) TERMOZOND - Physical study of Martian Rocks

43) KAMERTON -  Seismometer

44) IMAP-6 - Magnetometer

 TRAVEL AND LANDING:

     It was planned that, after 10 months of space travel towards mars, it will successfully reach Mars on 12th September 1997( Approx). Before five days they will release the two surface penetrators and staions to land. But the mission resulted in Failure.

CONCLUSION: 

     Mars 96 was unsuccessful because of the malfunction of Proton K/D upper stage ignition. It re-entered into the earth's atmosphere and the spacecraft debris fell into the Pacific Ocean. Sometimes it was believed that its plutonium fuel was responsible for the spacecraft failure itself. Mars 96 was a huge spacecrafts which carried nearly 44-45 scientific instruments. Later on, all the missions to mars was constructed based on the scientific plan of Mars 96. For Example: Mars Express

DETAILED INFORMATION:

    Click this link: Mars 96 Orbiter and Penetrators