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Hello and welcome, this is Michael Anus, and you're listening to episode number 382 of the Space Rocket History podcast.

And now, Mars 2 and 3 and Luna 18 and 19.

After the U.S. first put a man on the moon and the Soviet Union landed a rover

that could freely move across the moon's surface, the USSR's next goal would be more ambitious

to finally touch down on Mars. The Soviets had been developing a program to send a spacecraft to Mars since 1960.

The Soviet's first attempt was Mars 1, also known as 1962 Beta NU1, also known as Mars 2MV-4 and Sputnik 23.

It was an automatic interplanetary station launched in the direction of Mars on November 1st, 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Mars One's mission was to fly by the planet at a distance of about 11,000 kilometers.

Mars 1 was designed to photograph the surface and send back data on cosmic radiation,

micrometeoroid impacts, Mars's magnetic field, radiation environment,

atmospheric structure, and possible organic compounds. After leaving Earth orbit, the spacecraft

and the Molinia booster force stage separated, and the solar panels were deployed.

Early telemetry indicated that there was a leak in one of the gas valves in the orientation system,

so the spacecraft was transferred to gyroscopic stabilization.

It made 61 radio transmissions initially at two-day intervals

and later at five-day intervals, containing a large amount of interplanetary data.

On March 21st, 1963, when the spacecraft was at a distance of 107 million kilometers

from Earth on its way to Mars, communications ceased, probably due to the failure of the spacecraft's

antenna orientation system. Mars 1's closest approach to Mars probably occurred on June 19, 1963,

at a distance of approximately 193,000 kilometers,

...