The Samovar That Landed on Mars

NEARLY a month after the event, the Soviet Union released photographs of its Mars 3 capsule, the first earthly vehicle to make a "soft landing" on the planet Mars. Although they were accompanied by few technical details, the pictures of what looked like a flying samovar gave some clues to its operation: after its conical heat shield (not shown) was jettisoned, a small parachute was released, retarding the capsule's descent slightly in the thin Martian atmosphere. Then the larger main chute was unfurled from a ring-shaped container under the lander's spherical body. Finally, a burst from the ship's retrorocket provided additional crucial braking for the landing. After only 20 seconds on the surface, however, the lander's TV camera stopped sending signals. Soviet scientists speculated that either the ship sank so deep into Martian dust that it was almost buried or the high winds of the current Martian dust storm sent it crashing into an outcropping of rock.

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