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Mission record

Mars 2

Also known as Mars 2 Orbiter, M-71 No.171, Mars2

U.S.S.R · Launched

Explore trajectory

Partial success · Partial success

The Mars 2 and Mars 3 missions consisted of identical spacecraft, each with a bus/orbiter module and an attached descent/lander module. The primary scientific objectives of the Mars 2 orbiter were to image the martian surface and clouds, determine the temperature on Mars, study the topography, composition and physical properties of the surface, measure properties of the atmosphere, monitor the solar wind and the interplanetary and martian magnetic fields, and act as a communications relay to send signals from the lander to Earth. The descent module entered the martian atmosphere at a steeper angle than planned, the descent system malfunctioned and the lander crashed, delivering the Soviet Union coat of arms to the surface; the orbiter entered a 1380 x 24,940 km orbit and completed 362 orbits before the mission was announced complete on 22 August 1972.

Destinations
Launch vehicle
Proton Booster Plus Upper Stage and Escape Stages
Launch site
Tyuratam (Baikonur Cosmodrome), U.S.S.R
Countries
Soviet Union
Mission types
Orbiter, Lander

Chronology

Mission timeline

  1. Launch

    Launched towards Mars from a Tyazheliy Sputnik platform

    NSSDCA's launch/orbital information page gives the launch date and time as 1971-05-19T16:22:44Z and an Earth orbit with a periapsis of 137.00 km, an apoapsis of 173.00 km, a period of 87.44 minutes and an inclination of 51.800°, ending at 1971-05-19 17:59:00. Mars 2 was launched towards Mars from a Tyazheliy Sputnik (71-045C) Earth orbiting platform.

    Earth

  2. Milestone

    Mid-course corrections

    Mid-course corrections were made on 17 June and 20 November.

  3. Deployment

    Descent module released 4.5 hours before Mars

    Mars 2 released the descent module (71-045D) 4.5 hours before reaching Mars on 27 November 1971. Recorded at day precision because the page publishes only the date and the interval, not a clock time.

    Mars

  4. Impact

    The descent module crashed on Mars

    The descent module entered the martian atmosphere at roughly 6.0 km/s at a steeper angle than planned. The descent system malfunctioned and the lander crashed at 45 deg S, 313 deg W, delivering the Soviet Union coat of arms to the surface.

    Mars

  5. Orbit insertion

    Orbiter entered an 18 hour orbit about Mars

    The orbiter engine performed a burn to put the spacecraft into a 1380 x 24,940 km, 18 hour orbit about Mars with an inclination of 48.9 degrees. Scientific instruments were generally turned on for about 30 minutes near periapsis. NSSDCA's launch/orbital information page records the same orbit with a periapsis of 1380.00 km, an apoapsis of 24940.00 km, a period of 17.96 hours and an inclination of 48.900°, beginning at 1971-11-27 00:00:00.

    Mars

  6. Mission end

    Mission announced complete after 362 orbits

    The Mars 2 and 3 orbiters sent back a large volume of data covering the period from December 1971 to March 1972, although transmissions continued through August. It was announced that Mars 2 and 3 had completed their missions by 22 August 1972, after 362 orbits completed by Mars 2 and 20 orbits by Mars 3. The probes sent back a total of 60 pictures.

    Mars

Mission architecture

Vehicles

  • Mars 2 Orbiter · Orbiter

    Destinations: Mars

    • Mars 2 descent module · Lander

      Destinations: Mars

      • PROP-M · Rover

Trajectory record

Trajectory dataset not yet available

No verified trajectory dataset is committed for this mission, so Mission Atlas renders no path.

Provenance

Sources

Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.

Data verified through September 2, 2026