 Rendering of the PrOP-M | |
| Mission type | Mars rover |
|---|---|
| Operator | Soviet Space Program |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Manufacturer | Mobile Vehicle Engineering Institute |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 1971 |
PrOP-M (Russian:Прибороценкипроходимости —Марс (ПрОП-М), Passability Estimating Vehicle for Mars or Device Evaluation Terrain—Mars[1]) were two SovietMars rovers that were launched on the unsuccessfulMars 2 andMars 3 missions in 1971. PrOP-M were the first rovers to be launched to Mars, 26 years before the first successful rover mission of NASA'sSojourner in 1997. Because the Mars 2 and Mars 3 missions failed, the existence of the rovers was kept secret for nearly 20 years.
The rovers, built by a team led byAlexander Kemurdzhian, were small, rectangular devices that were tethered to the lander and used skis for movement.
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The PrOP-M rover was designed and manufactured at theMobile Vehicle Engineering Institute (VNIITransmash) by a team of approximately 150 engineers led byAlexander Kemurdzhian, who also developed theLunokhod rover.[2]
TheMars 2 andMars 3 landers each carried a PrOP-M rover, designed to move across the Martian surface on skis while connected to the lander with a 15-meter (49 ft)-long power cable. Two small metal rods were used for autonomous obstacle avoidance because radio signals from Earth would have taken too long to drive the rovers using remote control. Each rover carried a dynamicpenetrometer (made by Transmash) and agamma-ray[3]densitometer (made by the Institute of Geochemistry of the Soviet Academy of Sciences).[4][5] After landing, the rovers were planned to be placed on the Martian surface by a 6-jointmanipulator arm and to move in the field of view of the lander's cameras. They would have stopped to make measurements every 1.5 m (4.9 ft), with maximum range of 15 m (49 ft)—the length of the tether. The rovers' tracks in theMartian soil would have been used to determine the soil's material properties.[3][1][2]
The rovers' main chassis was a 4.5-kilogram (9.9 lb) square box with a small protrusion at the center. Sources differ on the dimensions of the rover.[a] The frame was supported on two wide, flat skis, one extending from each side, elevating the frame slightly above the surface. At the front of the box were obstacle detection bars.[2] Rover's maximum speed was up to 1 meter per hour.[9] PrOP-M was the only rover that used skis for locomotion, all other rovers used wheels.[10]
The rover had a algorithm to overcome obstacles: when it approached one, it was programmed to reverse and "use the skids on alternate sides to walk around the obstacle".[6]
The first rover was destroyed in the November 27, 1971 crash landing of Mars 2, launched May 19, 1971.[11] The second one was launched on May 28, 1971 on Mars 3 and was lost when the lander stopped communicating 110 seconds after landing on December 2, 1971.[12] The loss of communication may have been due to the extremely powerfulMartian dust storm taking place at the time or a problem with the Mars 3 orbiter's ability to relay communications.[1] The second rover was never deployed. The rover missions were secret[6][13] and were not mentioned in official news reports about the landings; their existence was revealed almost 20 years later in 1990.[13] The PrOP-M rovers precededNASA's 1997Sojourner by 26 years.[14] Authors of thePlanetary Landers and Entry Probes wrote thatMars 6 andMars 7 also carried PrOP-M rovers.[15]
A model of the rover can now be seen in theMemorial Museum of Cosmonautics in Moscow, another is in theMuseum of Space and Missile Technology in Saint Petersburg.[1][16]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)| Past missions |  | |
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| Current missions | ||
| Planned missions | ||
| Related | ||
Missions are ordered by launch date. Sign† indicates failure en route or before intended mission data returned. | ||
| Rovers |  | |
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| Landers | ||
| Memorial sites | ||
| Sample depots | ||
| Other | ||
† indicates a mission failure (no significant data returned from the surface). | ||
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