Word: spacecrafts
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...Mars is shrouded by a raging dust storm that began last September, only a few features could be picked out. But the scientists were not top concerned. The storm is expected to die down within a few weeks, and if Mariner's systems continue working well, the spacecraft will take some 5,000 pictures over the next three months, mapping at least 70% of the Martian surface and providing an invaluable day-by-day record of its still unexplained changes of color...
Strange Wave. After it is captured, Mariner will be sent into a huge lopsided orbit tilted at an angle of about 65° to the Martian equator. Making a full circuit every twelve hours, the spacecraft will come as close as 750 miles to the Martian surface, then soar out to a distance of some 10,500 miles. During its expected three-month working life -longer if the power supply holds out-Mariner will radio back more than 5,000 television pictures, mapping at least 70% of the planetary surface. In addition, its two cameras will take the first relatively...
...Martian sweepstakes-a 1,300-lb. windmill-shaped instrument package called Mariner 9-will begin a series of crucial maneuvers. Acting on preprogrammed commands sent from the huge, 210-ft. Goldstone tracking antenna in California's Mojave Desert, Mariner's onboard computer will ignite the spacecraft's small liquid-fuel engine for a precise 15-minute "burn," reducing the ship's velocity from about 11,000 m.p.h. to just over 8,000 m.p.h. As it slows down, Mariner will be captured by Martian gravity, thereby becoming the first man-made object to go into orbit around...
Soviet Reticence. In contrast to NASA, Soviet space officials have been far less talkative about their two unmanned probes, Mars 2 and 3. But some U.S. observers have concluded from the size of the spacecraft-which weighed about 8,000 Ibs. more at lift-off than their American counterpart-that the Russians may be attempting an actual touchdown on the Martian surface, perhaps landing an automated Mars rover similar to their highly successful Lunokhod I, which roamed the moon for ten months. (The first U.S. Mars landing mission will not be launched until...
...about their goals, the Soviets have cooperated with the U.S. in establishing a "hot line" between Mariner's mission controllers at Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena and Moscow, where the Russian Mars program is directed by the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Thus if the American spacecraft or either of the Russian probes radios back some particularly intriguing observation, the information could be quickly exchanged by Teletype, giving both nations an opportunity to study the same phenomenon...