Venera 3

Venera 3

OKB-1
COSPAR ID	1965-092A
SATCAT no.	1733
Mission duration	105 days
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	3MV-3 No.1
Manufacturer	Lavochkin
Launch mass	960 kg (2,120 lb)
Landing mass	377 kg (831 lb)
Dimensions	4.2 m × 1.1 m (13.8 ft × 3.6 ft)
Start of mission
Launch date	16 November 1965, 04:19 (1965-11-16UTC04:19Z) UTC
Rocket	Molniya M
Launch site	Baikonur 31/6
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Heliocentric
Perihelion altitude	0.68 AU
Aphelion altitude	0.99 AU
Inclination	4.29°
Period	277 days
Venus impact (failed landing)
Impact date	1 March 1966
Impact site	20°N 80°E / 20°N 80°E / 20; 80
Venera ← Venera 2 Kosmos 96  →

Venera 3 (

In 1965, the Central Committee, frustrated at the poor track record of Sergei Korolev's OKB-1 design bureau, reassigned the planetary probe program to the Lavochkin Bureau. In over two dozen attempts dating back to 1958, Luna 2 and Luna 3 were the only probes to complete all of their mission objectives. In the meantime, the United States had succeeded with the Mariner 2 Venus probe and Mariner 4 Mars probe, and after a long string of lunar probe failures, Ranger 6 successfully impacted on the Moon (with a failed TV system), and Ranger 7 successfully sent back a series of TV pictures.

The Lavochkin Bureau began a comprehensive testing program of the Venera and Luna probes, while Korolev had always opposed the idea of bench tests except on crewed spacecraft. Among other design flaws they discovered was that the Venera landers, after being subjected to a centrifuge test, failed at half the G forces that they were supposed to handle.

Mission

The mission of this spacecraft was to land on the Venusian surface. The entry body contained a radio communication system, scientific instruments, electrical power sources, and medallions bearing the

The probe's initial trajectory missed Venus by 60,550km and a course correction manoeuvre was carried out on 26 December 1965 which brought the probe onto a collision course with the planet.[4] Contact with the probe was lost on 15 February 1966 likely due to overheating.^[4]

The entry probe crashed on Venus on 1 March 1966, making Venera 3 the first space probe to hit the surface of another planet.^[5][6]

Instruments

Power system

The power system for the carrier spacecraft was notable in that it was the first operational use of

• Transmitters and receivers at
  UHF
  frequency;
• Telemetry switches;
• System of alignment and correction station movement: micromotors, gas jets, electrooptical probe position sensors, and gyroscopes;
• Computer controller of all probe systems.

Scientific equipment

• Three flux-gate magnetometer to measure interplanetary magnetic fields;
• Discharge counters and semiconductor detector for the study of cosmic rays;
• Special sensors (traps) to measure the flow of charged particles and determination of low energy consumption of the amounts of solar plasma flows and their energy spectra;
• Piezoelectric sensors for research micrometeorites
  ;
• Measurement of emissions of cosmic radio in the wavelength intervals of 150 and 1500 meters and to 15 km.^[8]

The probe differed from Venera 2 in not having a micrometeorite detector.^[4]

Lander

• Photometer^[4]
• Gas Analyzer^[4]
• Temperature, pressure and density sensors^[4]
• Movement detector^[4]
• Gamma Ray Counter^[4]

See also

• 1965 in spaceflight
• List of missions to Venus
• Timeline of planetary exploration

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Venera 3.