"Earth's Envoy" - Russian Space Apparatus Mars-2 - Landed On Mars For The First Time In History Thirty Years Ago

For the first time in the history of mankind a space apparatus, made on Earth, reached Mars on November 27, 1971. It was the Mars-2 interplanetary station whose mass was 4.6 tons and which was made in the USSR, in Moscow. It made a six-month-long flight to that planet, and right before reaching Mars divided into two parts, leaving one of its halves to revolve around the planet and thereby forming the world's first artificial satellite of Mars, while its other half pierced the atmosphere of that "red planet" within three minutes and crashed to its rock, bringing the coat-of-arms of the USSR to Mars. A "soft" landing did not occur but the first present from the neighbouring planet Earth was received. And this date went down in history. As the Rosaviakosmos specialists said, the Mars-2 station had been specially treated so that Earth's microorganisms would not get onto the surface of Mars. There was also a stand-by station, Mars-3, and a double launch to Mars occurred on May 19 and 28, 1971. The Mars-3 station reached its destination a few days after Mars-2. It also left its half on Mars while its descent part softly landed on the surface of the planet and transmitted a TV "picture" of the panorama for the first time ever. It happened on December 2, 1971. US specialists managed to do the same only on the 20th of July, 1974. The successful flight of the Mars-2 and Mars-3 stations inspired scientists of the world to intensively explore that enigmatic planet. Today the space agencies of many countries are discussing the problem of making an international manned station for a flight of an international crew to that planet. They even name the time - the years of 2018-2020 when such a flight could take place. But at that time, on November 27, 1971, from the first man-made satellite of Mars, formed by the Mars-3 station, people for the first time began to receive trustworthy information about that planet.