Voyager program (Mars)
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The Voyager Mars Program was a planned series of uncrewed NASA probes to the planet Mars. The missions were planned, as part of the Apollo Applications Program, between 1966 and 1968 and were scheduled for launch in 1974–75.[1] The probes were conceived as precursors for a crewed Mars landing in the 1980s.[2]
Originally, NASA had proposed a direct lander using a variant of the
Funding for the program, like that of the entire AAP, was cut in 1968 and the mission itself was cancelled entirely in 1971, mainly on the grounds that launching both probes on a single rocket was both risky and expensive. Voyager was the first major space science project to be cancelled by the U.S. Congress.
Despite the cancellation, the planning and development of the Voyager Mars program was eventually carried out by NASA's Viking program in the mid-1970s. Cheaper and simpler than the Voyager Mars program (using the same Mariner 8/9 design for the orbiter, but with an automobile-sized lander with a very expensive microbiology lab), the Viking 1 and Viking 2 probes were launched to Mars on separate Titan IIIE/Centaur rockets in 1975 and reached Mars in 1976.
After the cancellation, the "Voyager" name was recycled for the
See also
References
- ^ Ezell, Edward C. (1984). "On Mars: Exploration of the Red Planet. 1958-1978". NASA History. Retrieved 19 April 2017.
- ^ Portree, David S. F. "The First Voyager (1967)". Wired. Retrieved 10 April 2024.
- ^ Portree, David S. F. "The Moon and Beyond: A 1963 Plan to Expand NASA's Robotic Exploration Programs". Wired. Retrieved 10 April 2024.
- ^ Cortright Oral History (p31)
External links
- Voyager 1973 at Astronautix.com
- NASA program documentation
- Fellows, R. (1 August 1965). Goals of the Voyager Program.
- Voyager spacecraft. Volume III - Voyager program plan Study report, phase IA. TRW Systems Group. 30 July 1965.
- Voyager spacecraft. Volume II - 1971 Voyager spacecraft Study report, phase IA. TRW Systems Group. 30 July 1966.
- Voyager spacecraft. Volume I - Summary Study report, phase IA. TRW Systems Group. 30 July 1965.
- Voyager design study. Volume IV - System design. 15 October 1963.
- Voyager Design Study. Vol. I - Design Summary. 15 October 1963.