Mars 96 - Definition and Overview

Mars 96 was an orbiter launched in 1996 by Russia and not directly related to the Soviet Mars probe program of the same name. The Mars 96 spacecraft was based on the Phobos vehicles launched to Mars in 1988. They were of a new design at the time and both ultimately failed. But for the Mars 96 probe the designers believed they had corrected the flaws of the Phobos vehicle. Alas, they did not get to find out if they had produced a successful design this time. It was, however, a very ambitious mission and the heaviest interplanetary probe ever launched. It included a large complement of instruments, many provided by France, Germany, and other European countries (some of which have since been re-flown on Mars Express, launched in 2003).

• Launch Date/Time: November 16 1996 at 20:48:53 UTC
• On-orbit mass:
  • Dry: 3159 kg
  • Fuelled: 6180 kg

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 November 17 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. Mars 96 was scheduled to arrive at Mars on September 12 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.