Russia’s pride, which fought fierce space competition with the United States in the former Soviet Union, was once again hurt when the United States settled on Mars, the fifth Mars exploration rover’Personality’ on the 18th (hereafter local time).
On the 19th (local time), spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin Palace spokesman, said, “All successes in space development are human assets and should be welcomed.” .
“The countries that operate the space program are in a competitive state in a good sense, and this competition is a very efficient engine for development in many cases,” he said. “Do not forget that Russia is also promoting its own ambitious program for space development. It is done,” he added.
The United States showed a calm appearance and congratulated the success of its successive Mars exploration, but looking back on the history of Russia’s exploration to Mars, which was plagued by failures and bad luck, it seems that the past space powers are not comfortable.
The United States once again showed off its space technology to the world with the establishment of Perseverance.
NASA has completed 20 exploration missions since it first sent the Mariner probe to Mars in 1965, and succeeded in landing the 9th Mars from the Viking 1 in 1976.
On the other hand, the only Russian spacecraft that partially succeeded in landing on Mars was the Mars-3 probe launched in 1971.
In the 1960s, the former Soviet Union, which fought fierce space competition with the United States, also focused on exploration on Mars.
Former Soviet genius rocket developer Sergei Korolev had already pursued a Mars exploration program before Yuri Gagarin made humanity’s first space flight in 1961.
However, all six initial attempts to send a probe to Mars ended in failure.
In the meantime, Mariner, an American probe that was launched in 1964 and succeeded in flying close to Mars the following year, shocked Russia when the first image of Mars was transmitted to Earth.
Nevertheless, Soviet scientists did not give up.
As a result, the Russian probes’Mars-2′ and’Mars-3′ launched in 1971 were difficult to reach to Mars.
But again, luck did not follow.
Mars-2 crashed in a sandstorm during landing, and Mars-3 began transmitting data after landing on the surface of Mars, but communication was cut off after only 14.5 seconds.
Even after Mars-3’s partial success, unhappiness continued in Russia’s attempts to explore Mars.
The probe’Mars-96′, launched in 1996, failed to enter the flight orbit at the beginning of its launch, and crashed, and the’Povos-Grund’ launched in 2011 also faced a similar fate.
On the other hand, the United States continued its success march.
Vikings 1 and 2 launched in 1975 succeeded in landing on Mars the following year, sending them the images of Mars by transmitting with Earth until November 1982 and April 1980, respectively.
The U.S. also succeeded in sending the first Mars rover (exploration robot)’Sojourner’ to Mars in 1996.
In 2003, the twin rovers’Spirit’ and’Operity’ were sent to Mars, and in 2012 another rover,’Curiocity’, landed on Mars.
Russia, which endured long humiliation and was looking for an opportunity to restore its pride, sent a probe called’Exomas’ with the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2016 to explore life on Mars, but it also failed.
The probe failed to adjust the landing speed and explode when it hit the surface of Mars.
Russia plans to send another lander and rover to Mars as an extension of the Exomas program with ESA in 2022 for a resurgence.
International Team [email protected]
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