Data acquisition resumed in late 1967. The cosmic dust detector registered 17 hits in a 15-minute span on September 15, part of an apparent micrometeoroid shower that temporarily changed the spacecraft attitude and probably slightly damaged its thermal shield. Later it was speculated that Mariner 4 passed through debris of D/1895 Q1 (D/Swift), and even made a flyby of that comet's possibly shattered nucleus at 20 million kilometers. On December 7 the gas supply in the attitude control system was exhausted, and between December 10 and 11, a total of 83 micrometeoroid hits were recorded which caused perturbation of the spacecraft's attitude and degradation of the signal strength.
Micrometeoroid hits and end of communications
Mariner 4
Mariner 4 | Micrometeoroid hits and end of communications
The gas supply in the attitude control system was exhausted, and between December 10 and 11, a total of 83 micrometeoroid hits perturbation of the spacecraft's attitude and degradation of the signal strength On December 21, 1967, communications with Mariner 4 were terminated. On December 7 the gas supply in the attitude control system was exhausted, and between December 10 and 11, a total of 83 micrometeoroid hits were recorded which caused perturbation of the spacecraft's attitude and degradation of the signal strength. On December 21, 1967, communications with Mariner 4 were terminated. The gas supply in the attitude control system was exhausted and a total of 83 micrometeoroid hits were recorded which caused perturbation of the spacecraft's attitude and degradation of the signal strength.
what is the location of mars in the solar system
user
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun
assistant
is it known by any other names?
user
Yes, "Red Planet" in English
assistant
are there any volcanoes there?
user
Yes, Olympus Mons
assistant
who named it?
user
Named after observations made by Mariner 9
assistant
what was that?
user
From Nix Olympica; a volcano. Astronomers adopted the name "Olympus Mons" for the albedo feature known as Nix Olympica
assistant
was that a spaceship that made the observations?
user
It was a robotic space probe
assistant
have any other space probes landed on the planet discussed above?
user
Yes, "Mariner 4", "Viking 1", etc
assistant
did the first one land on the planet or was it just a fly by?
user
A flyby mode
assistant
how did it meet its end?
user
On December 21, 1967, communications with Mariner 4 were terminated. The spacecraft is now derelict in an exterior heliocentric orbit.
Mariner 4 | Micrometeoroid hits and end of communications
Data acquisition resumed in late 1967. The cosmic dust detector registered 17 hits in a 15-minute span on September 15, part of an apparent micrometeoroid shower that temporarily changed the spacecraft attitude and probably slightly damaged its thermal shield. Later it was speculated that Mariner 4 passed through debris of D/1895 Q1 (D/Swift), and even made a flyby of that comet's possibly shattered nucleus at 20 million kilometers. On December 7 the gas supply in the attitude control system was exhausted, and between December 10 and 11, a total of 83 micrometeoroid hits were recorded which caused perturbation of the spacecraft's attitude and degradation of the signal strength.
Mariner 4 | Micrometeoroid hits and end of communications
With its maneuvering gas just about exhausted, "Mariner 10" started another orbit of the Sun. Engineering tests were continued until 24 March 1975, when final depletion of the nitrogen supply was signaled by the onset of an un-programmed pitch turn. Commands were sent immediately to the spacecraft to turn off its transmitter, and radio signals to Earth ceased. "Mariner 10" is presumably still orbiting the Sun, although its electronics have probably been damaged by the Sun's radiation. "Mariner 10" has not been spotted or tracked from Earth since it stopped transmitting. The only ways it would not be orbiting would be if it had been hit by an asteroid or gravitationally perturbed by a close encounter with a large body.
Mariner 10 | End of mission
After encounter, cruise mode resumed. Spacecraft perihelion occurred on December 27 at a distance of 105,464,560 km. The last transmission from Mariner 2 was received on January 3, 1963 at 07:00 UTC, making the total time from launch to termination of the Mariner 2 mission 129 days. Mariner 2 remains in heliocentric orbit.
Mariner 2 | Post encounter
The images covered a discontinuous swath of Mars starting near 40° N, 170° E, down to about 35° S, 200° E, and then across to the terminator at 50° S, 255° E, representing about 1% of the planet's surface. The images taken during the flyby were stored in the on-board tape recorder. At 02:19:11 UT, Mariner 4 passed behind Mars as seen from Earth and the radio signal ceased. The signal was reacquired at 03:13:04 UT when the spacecraft reappeared. Cruise mode was then re-established. Transmission of the taped images to Earth began about 8.5 hours after signal reacquisition and continued until August 3.
Mariner 4 | Mars flyby
On January 5, 1965, 36 days after launch and 10,261,173 km from Earth, Mariner 4 reduced its rate of transmission of scientific data from 33 1/3 to 8 1/2 bits per second. This was the first autonomous action the spacecraft had taken since the midcourse maneuver.
Mariner 4 | Data transmission rate reduced
The mission ended due to degradation of the photovoltaic power system and subsequently the batteries became exhausted. The last official transmission was transmitted on 17 February 2015, however, imaging the Earth and gathering environmental data continued till May 19, 2015. The plan to test a solar sail the satellite carried failed since the sail cable unwinding mechanics did not survive the rocket takeoff vibration.
ESTCube-1 | End of mission
The total data returned by the mission was 5.2 million bits (about 634 kB). All instruments operated successfully with the exception of a part of the ionization chamber, namely the Geiger–Müller tube, which failed in February 1965. In addition, the plasma probe had its performance degraded by a resistor failure on December 8, 1964, but experimenters were able to recalibrate the instrument and still interpret the data. The images returned showed a Moon-like cratered terrain, which scientists did not expect, although amateur astronomer Donald Cyr had predicted craters. Later missions showed that the craters were not typical for Mars, but only for the more ancient region imaged by Mariner 4.
Mariner 4 | Results
Mir EO-3 officially concluded on 21 December 1988, when Manarov and Titov returned to Earth in the Soyuz TM-6 spacecraft. The mission in total lasted for 365.94 days, the third longest of all the expeditions. Polyakov stayed aboard the station, and was transferred to Mir EO-4.
Mir EO-3 | End of mission
A command was sent to manually jettison the payload shroud, but nothing happened. The ground controllers next considered firing Mariner 3's midcourse correction engine to blow off the shroud, but they ran out of time. Eight hours after launch, the batteries in the probe died and the mission was officially terminated. Even if the shroud could be removed, the mission probably would have failed anyway since the low velocity meant that Mariner 3 would miss Mars by several million miles. Three weeks later, on November 28, 1964, Mariner 4 was launched successfully on a 7½-month voyage to Mars.
Mariner 3 | Launch failure
All images were transmitted twice to ensure no data was missing or corrupt. Each individual photograph took approximately six hours to be transmitted back to Earth. The spacecraft performed all programmed activities successfully and returned useful data from launch until 22:05:07 UT on October 1, 1965, when the long distance to Earth (309.2 million km) and the imprecise antenna orientation led to a temporary loss of communication with the spacecraft until 1967.
Mariner 4 | Mars flyby
The mission ended when the spacecraft signal failed to be successfully reacquired on 27 March 1989. The cause of the failure was determined to be a malfunction of the on-board computer.
Phobos 2 | Introduction
It was determined that during the course of second stage of flight, the resonant vibration in third stage of rocket provoked by malfunction of gyroscope and it damaged the attitude control system of carrier rocket. Following this issue, the horizon sensor disconnected from the booster and the rocket descended from normal flight path angle. As a consequence the rocket's third stage commanded to stop ignition after five minutes into flight, during this stage the spacecraft uplifted to an altitude of 120 km before re-entry. Thereafter, the spacecraft re-entered and disintegrated in LEO and its debris fallen over Siberia with 4,800 km down range.
Mars 1M No.1 | End of mission
The Mariner 4 spacecraft flew by Mars on July 14 and 15, 1965. Its closest approach was 9,846 km from the Martian surface at 01:00:57 UT July 15, 1965 (8:00:57 p.m. EST July 14), its distance to Earth was 216 million km, its speed was 7 km/s relative to Mars, 1.7 km/s relative to Earth. Planetary science mode was turned on at 15:41:49 UT on July 14. The camera sequence started at 00:18:36 UT on July 15 (7:18:49 p.m. EST on July 14) and 21 pictures using alternate red and green filters, plus 21 lines of a 22nd picture were taken.
Mariner 4 | Mars flyby
The final mission in the series, Mariner 10, flew past Venus before going on to encounter Mercury, after which it returned to Mercury for a total of three flybys. The next-to-last, Mariner 9, became the first ever to orbit another planet when it reached Mars for about a year of mapping and measurement. The Mariners were all relatively small robotic explorers, each launched on an Atlas rocket with either an Agena or Centaur upper-stage booster, and weighing less than half a ton (without onboard rocket propellant). Each of their missions was completed within a few months to a year or two, though one of them outlived its original mission and continued to send useful scientific data for three years.
Mariner program | Introduction
The last telemetry data was received on February10, 1986.
Helios (spacecraft) | End of operations
The heaters involved provide heat to the robotic arm, TEGA instrument and a pyrotechnic unit on the lander that were unused since landing, so these three instruments were also shut down. On November 10, Phoenix Mission Control reported the loss of contact with the "Phoenix" lander; the last signal was received on November 2. Immediately prior, "Phoenix" sent its final message: "Triumph" in binary code. The demise of the craft occurred as a result of a dust storm that reduced power generation even further. While the spacecraft's work ended, the analysis of data from the instruments was in its earliest stages.
Phoenix (spacecraft) | End of the mission
A carrier wave was detected, but outside expected frequency limits and varying in wavelength. Signal strength changes indicated the spacecraft was in a slow roll. Nevertheless, it was possible to lock the spacecraft to an uplink signal, but no response was observed to any commands sent to it. Without telemetry and without any signal change in response to commands, there was no possibility to repair or continue to use the spacecraft. Operations were terminated at the end of the track from DSS 61 at 07:46 GMT on November 5, 1968.
Mariner 5 | Further communication attempts
After running out of propellant for course adjustments, "MESSENGER" entered its expected terminal phase of orbital decay in late 2014. The spacecraft's operation was extended by several weeks by exploiting its remaining supply of helium gas, which was used to pressurize its propellant tanks, as reaction mass. "MESSENGER" continued studying Mercury during its decay period. The spacecraft crashed onto the surface of Mercury on April 30, 2015, at 3:26 p.m. EDT (19:26 GMT), at a velocity of , probably creating a crater in the planet's surface approximately wide. The spacecraft was estimated to have impacted at 54.4° N, 149.9° W on Suisei Planitia, near the crater Janáček.
MESSENGER | End of mission
The Mariner 4 spacecraft consisted of an octagonal magnesium frame, 127 cm across a diagonal and 45.7 cm high. Four solar panels were attached to the top of the frame with an end-to-end span of 6.88 meters, including solar pressure vanes which extended from the ends. A 104.1 cm x 66.0 cm elliptical high-gain parabolic antenna was mounted at the top of the frame as well. An omnidirectional low-gain antenna was mounted on a seven-foot, four inch (223.5 cm) tall mast next to the high-gain antenna. The overall height of the spacecraft was 2.89 meters. The octagonal frame housed the electronic equipment, cabling, midcourse propulsion system, and attitude control gas supplies and regulators.
Mariner 4 | Spacecraft and subsystems
Mariner 4 (together with Mariner 3 known as Mariner-Mars 1964) was the fourth in a series of spacecraft intended for planetary exploration in a flyby mode. It was designed to conduct closeup scientific observations of Mars and to transmit these observations to Earth. Launched on November 28, 1964, Mariner 4 performed the first successful flyby of the planet Mars, returning the first close-up pictures of the Martian surface. It captured the first images of another planet ever returned from deep space; their depiction of a cratered, seemingly dead world largely changed the scientific community's view of life on Mars. Other mission objectives were to perform field and particle measurements in interplanetary space in the vicinity of Mars and to provide experience in and knowledge of the engineering capabilities for interplanetary flights of long duration.
Mariner 4 | Introduction
The crash occurred at a place not visible from Earth at the time, and thus was not detected by any observers or instruments. NASA confirmed the end of the "MESSENGER" mission at 3:40 p.m. EDT (19:40 GMT) after NASA's Deep Space Network failed to detect the spacecraft's reemergence from behind Mercury.
MESSENGER | End of mission
The first attempt at a midcourse maneuver was aborted by a loss of lock shortly after the gyros began spinup. Canopus lock was lost six times within a period of less than three weeks after launch and each time a sequence of radio commands would be required to reacquire the star. After a study of the problem, the investigators concluded that the behavior was due to small dust particles that were being released from the spacecraft by some means and were drifting through the star sensor field-of-view. Sunlight scattered from the particles then appeared as illumination equivalent to that from a bright star.
Mariner 4 | Lock on Canopus
SMM's orbit slowly decayed due to atmospheric drag taking it down into denser regions. The March 1989 geomagnetic storm was reported to have led to SMM dropping half a kilometre at the start of the storm and 3 miles over the whole period. SMM lost attitude control on November 17, 1989, and re-entry and burn-up occurred on 2 December 1989 over the Indian Ocean.
Solar Maximum Mission | End of mission
The 7½ month flight of Mariner 4 involved one midcourse maneuver on December 5, 1964. The maneuver was initially scheduled for December 4, but due to a loss of lock with Canopus, it was postponed. The maneuver was successfully completed on December 5; it consisted of a negative pitch turn of 39.16 degrees, a positive roll turn of 156.08 degrees, and a thrusting time of 20.07 seconds. The turns aimed the motor of the spacecraft back in the general direction of Earth, as the motor was initially pointed along the direction of flight. Both the pitch and roll changes were completed with better than 1% accuracy, the velocity change with about 2.5% accuracy.
Mariner 4 | Midcourse maneuver
Further communication attempts were tried, in a joint spacecraft solar wind / solar magnetic fields investigation with Mariner 4, back in communication with Earth after being out of telemetry for about a year or more around superior conjunction. During the experiment, both spacecraft were going to be on the same idealized magnetic field spiral carried out from the sun by the solar wind. Between April and November 1968 NASA tried to reacquire Mariner 5 to continue probing interplanetary conditions. Attempts to reacquire Mariner 5 during June, July, and early August 1968 yielded no spacecraft signal. On October 14, the receiver operator at DSS 14 obtained a lock on the Mariner 5 signal.
Mariner 5 | Further communication attempts
On October 11, 1994, moving at a velocity of 7 kilometers/second, the final orbital trim maneuver was performed, placing the spacecraft 139.7 kilometers above the surface, well within the atmosphere. At this altitude the spacecraft encountered sufficient ram pressure to raise temperatures on the solar arrays to 126 degrees Celsius. On October 13, 1994 at 10:05:00 UTC, communication was lost when the spacecraft entered radio occultation behind Venus. The team continued to listen for another signal from the spacecraft until 18:00:00 UTC, when the mission was determined to have concluded. Although much of "Magellan" was expected to vaporize due to atmospheric stresses, some amount of wreckage is thought have hit the surface by 20:00:00 UTC.
Magellan (spacecraft) | End of mission
On July 29, 1969, less than a week before closest approach, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) lost contact with Mariner 7. The center regained the signal via the backup low-gain antenna and regained use of the high gain antenna again shortly after Mariner 6's close encounter. Leaking gases from a battery (which later failed) were thought to have caused the anomaly. Based on the observations that Mariner 6 made, Mariner 7 was reprogrammed in flight to take further observations of areas of interest and actually returned more pictures than Mariner 6, despite the battery's failure. Closest approach for Mariner 6 occurred July 31, 1969, at 05:19:07 UT at a distance of above the martian surface.
Mariner 6 and 7 | Spaceflight
The spacecraft passed Venus on 5 February 1974, the closest approach being at 17:01 UTC. It was the twelfth spacecraft to reach Venus and the eighth to return data from the planet, as well as the first mission to succeed in broadcasting images of Venus back to Earth. "Mariner 10" built upon observations made by "Mariner 5" six years earlier; importantly, "Mariner 10" had a camera whereas the prior mission lacked one. As "Mariner 10" veered around Venus, from the planet's night side to daylight, the cameras snapped the probe's first image of Venus, showing an illuminated arc of clouds over the north pole emerging from darkness.
Mariner 10 | Venus flyby
The primary mission of each probe spanned 18 months, but they operated much longer. On March3, 1980, four years after its launch, the radio transceiver on "Helios-B" failed. On January7, 1981, a stop command was sent to prevent possible radio interference during future missions. "Helios-A" continued to function normally, but with the large-diameter DSN antennae not available, data was collected by small diameter antennae at a lower rate. By its 14th orbit, "Helios-A"'s degraded solar cells could no longer provide enough power for the simultaneous collection and transmission of data unless the probe was close to its perihelion. In 1984, the main and backup radio receivers failed, indicating that the high-gain antenna was no longer pointed towards Earth.
Helios (spacecraft) | End of operations
Communications consisted of a 3-watt transmitter capable of continuous telemetry operation, the large high-gain directional dish antenna, a cylindrical omnidirectional antenna at the top of the instrument mast, and two command antennas, one on the end of either solar panel, which received instructions for midcourse maneuvers and other functions. Propulsion for midcourse maneuvers was supplied by a monopropellant (anhydrous hydrazine) 225 N retro-rocket. The hydrazine was ignited using nitrogen tetroxide and aluminium oxide pellets, and thrust direction was controlled by four jet vanes situated below the thrust chamber. Attitude control with a 1° pointing error was maintained by a system of nitrogen gas jets.
Mariner 1 | Spacecraft and subsystems
After 21 days, Kosmos 690 returned to Earth and landing in Kazakhstan on 12 November 1974. The return module, weighing and in diameter, was covered with an ablative thermal shield 30 to 180 mm thick.
Kosmos 690 | End of mission
After losing roll control in October 1974, a third and final encounter, the closest to Mercury, took place on 16 March 1975, at a range of , passing almost over the north pole.
Mariner 10 | Third Mercury flyby
In November 2000, Rosaviakosmos decided to deorbit "Mir", and the next month Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov signed an order to do so. By this stage "Mir" was well past the end of its design life, and Rosaviakosmos General Director Yuri Koptev believed that "any of its systems could well fail at any time". Therefore, it was decided to deorbit it whilst it was still functioning, rather than risk it falling back to Earth out of control, like Skylab in 1979 and Salyut 7 in 1991, potentially dropping debris over a populated area. At the time, "Mir" was the largest spacecraft ever to reenter the Earth's atmosphere, and there were concerns that sizeable pieces of debris, particularly from the docking assemblies, gyrodynes and external structure, could survive reentry.
Progress M1-5 | Background
In May 2013 a further lowering to took place. The satellite ran out of its xenon propellant in October 2013, at which time it would take to re-enter. On 18 October 2013, ESA reported that the pressure in the fuel system of GOCE's ion engine had dropped below 2.5 bar, which is the nominal operating pressure required to fire the engine. Subsequently, end of mission was formally declared on 21 October when the spacecraft ran out of fuel; deprived of xenon, the ion drive stopped working at 03:16 UTC. On 9 November 2013, a published report indicated that the satellite was expected to re-enter within a day or two.
Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer | End of mission and re-entry
This would cause a roll error transient as the object passed through the field-of-view while the sensor was locked onto Canopus. When the object was bright enough that it exceeded the high gate limits at eight times the Canopus intensity, the spacecraft would automatically disacquire Canopus and initiate a roll search for a new star. Finally, a radio command was sent on December 17, 1964, that removed the high gate limit. There was no further loss of Canopus lock, although roll transients occurred 38 more times before encounter with Mars.
Mariner 4 | Lock on Canopus
At the same moment, the two droplets working with Gravity attempt to destroy "Gravity" and "Blue Space". However, the crew-members of "Blue Space" have discovered a fading section of outer-space enabling 4D movement, which they exploit in order to destroy the two droplets and subdue 'Gravity'. The crew-members of the two ships make peace, and decide to send out the MAD broadcast using "Gravity"'s antenna. Afterward, "Gravity" joins "Blue Space" in defecting to escapism. The Trisolarans begin massacring humans using the droplets, and have forced the entire human population to move to Australia, where they are to be systematically starved to reduce their numbers to manageable levels.
Death's End | Deterrence Era and Broadcast Era
The mission was launched on 22 October 2008 and expected to operate for two years. However, around 20:00 UTC on 28 August 2009 communication with the spacecraft was suddenly lost. The probe had operated for 312 days. The craft had been expected to remain in orbit for approximately another 1000 days and to crash into the lunar surface in late 2012, although in 2016 it was found to still be in orbit. A member of the science advisory board of Chandrayaan-1 said that it is difficult to ascertain reasons for the loss of contact. ISRO Chairman Madhavan Nair said that due to very high radiation, power-supply units controlling both the computer systems on board failed, snapping the communication connectivity.
Chandrayaan-1 | End of the mission
Controllers finished the last communications session with "Lunokhod 1" at 13:05 UT on September 14, 1971. Attempts to re-establish contact were finally discontinued and the operations of "Lunokhod 1" officially ceased on October 4, 1971, the anniversary of Sputnik 1. During its 322 Earth days of operations, "Lunokhod 1" travelled 10,540 metres (6.55 miles) and returned more than 20,000 TV images and 206 high-resolution panoramas. In addition, it performed 25 lunar soil analyses with its RIFMA x-ray fluorescence spectrometer and used its penetrometer at 500 different locations.
Lunokhod 1 | End of mission and results
On December 21, 1967, communications with Mariner 4 were terminated.
Mariner 4 | Introduction
On September 9, 1994, a press release outlined the termination of the "Magellan" mission. Due to the degradation of the power output from the solar arrays and onboard components, and having completed all objectives successfully, the mission was to end in mid-October. The termination sequence began in late August 1994, with a series of orbital trim maneuvers which lowered the spacecraft into the outermost layers of the Venusian atmosphere to allow the Windmill experiment to begin on September 6, 1994. The experiment lasted for two weeks and was followed by subsequent orbital trim maneuvers, further lowering the altitude of the spacecraft for the final termination phase.
Magellan (spacecraft) | End of mission
The solar-powered lander operated two months longer than its three-month prime mission. The lander was designed to last 90 days, and had been running on bonus time since the successful end of its primary mission in August 2008. On October 28, 2008 (sol ), the spacecraft went into safe mode due to power constraints based on the insufficient amount of sunlight reaching the lander, as expected at this time of year. It was decided then to shut down the four heaters that keep the equipment warm, and upon bringing the spacecraft back from safe mode, commands were sent to turn off two of the heaters rather than only one as was originally planned for the first step.
Phoenix (spacecraft) | End of the mission
The last signals from "Mir" were received at 05:30 GMT, as it passed out of range of its ground station. "Mir" re-entered the atmosphere over the southern Pacific with Progress M1-5 still docked at 05:44 GMT. It began to disintegrate at 05:52, beginning with the detachment of solar panels, followed by other peripheral structures. The modules then buckled, before detaching completely. Debris came down in the ocean at around 06:00 GMT. Debris was intended to fall at around . An official statement announced that "Mir" "ceased to exist" at 05:59:24 GMT. The final tracking of "Mir" was conducted by a United States Army site on Kwajalein Atoll.
Progress M1-5 | Deorbit
By chance, both spacecrafts flew over cratered regions and missed both the giant northern volcanoes and the equatorial grand canyon discovered later. Their approach pictures did, however, photograph about 20 percent of the planet's surface, showing the dark features long seen from Earth – in the past, these features had been mistaken for canals by some ground-based astronomers. When Mariner 7 flew over the martian south pole on August 4, 1969, it sent back pictures of ice-filled craters and outlines of the south polar cap. Despite the communication defect suffered by Mariner 7 earlier, these pictures were of better quality than what had been sent by its twin, Mariner 6, a few days earlier when it flew past the martian equator.
Mariner 6 and 7 | Science data and findings
AC-20 was launched at a 108-degree azimuth. The Centaur stage on both flights was set up to perform a retrorocket maneuver after capsule separation. This served two purposes, firstly to prevent venting propellant from the spent Centaur from contacting the probe, secondly to put the vehicle on a trajectory that would send it into solar orbit and not impact the Martian surface, potentially contaminating the planet with Earth microbes.
Mariner 6 and 7 | Launch
It was severely damaged on 20 September 1998 when a reaction wheel in the spacecraft's Attitude Measuring and Control System (AMCS) reached its maximum rotational speed, losing control of a slew, damaging the High Resolution Imager by exposure to the sun. This failure was initially attributed to the difficulties of controlling the satellite under these difficult circumstances outside its initial design parameters.
ROSAT | End of operations
A one-year mission extension was approved, but the review panel ordered that "Dawn" remain at Ceres, stating that the long-term observations of the dwarf planet, particularly as it approached perihelion, would potentially yield better science. The one-year extension expired on June 30, 2017. The spacecraft was placed in an uncontrolled but relatively stable orbit around Ceres, where it ran out of hydrazine propellant by October 31, 2018, and where it will remain as a "monument" for at least 20 years.
Dawn (spacecraft) | Mission conclusion
The total height of the spacecraft was 3.35 m. The spacecraft was attitude stabilized in three axes, referenced to the sun and the star Canopus. It utilized 3 gyros, 2 sets of 6 nitrogen jets, which were mounted on the ends of the solar panels, a Canopus tracker, and two primary and four secondary sun sensors. Propulsion was provided by a 223-newton rocket motor, mounted within the frame, which used the mono-propellant hydrazine. The nozzle, with 4-jet vane vector control, protruded from one wall of the octagonal structure. Power was supplied by 17,472 photovoltaic cells, covering an area of on the four solar panels.
Mariner 6 and 7 | Spacecraft and subsystems
In reality, the end of mission was formally declared on 21 October 2013 after 55 months, with the final 11 months in a lower orbit (with greater air density and therefore greater fuel use).
Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer | Power and propulsion
On 22 October the Canadarm2 was used to unberth the Cygnus spacecraft from the nadir port of the Harmony module at 10:04 UTC. The spacecraft was then maneuvered to a release position below the station, where it was released from the RMS at 11:31 UTC. It then performed a series of separation maneuvers away from the station. The spacecraft fired its main engine to de-orbit itself on 23 October at 17:41 UTC, with reentry and burning up in the atmosphere over the southern Pacific Ocean occurring at 18:16 UTC.
Cygnus Orb-D1 | End of mission
Closest approach for Mariner 7 occurred August 5, 1969 at 05:00:49 UT at a distance of above the martian surface. This was less than half of the distance used by Mariner 4 on the previous US Mars flyby mission. Both spacecrafts are now defunct and in heliocentric orbits.
Mariner 6 and 7 | Spaceflight
In 1973, Mariner 10 was launched by NASA to make multiple flyby encounters of Venus and Mercury. Mariner 10 provided the first detailed data of Mercury, mapping 40–45% of the surface. Mariner 10's final flyby of Mercury occurred on March 16, 1975. No subsequent close-range observations of the planet would take place for more than 30 years.
MESSENGER | Previous missions
At the end of the science phase and a mission extension, the spacecraft were powered down and decommissioned over a five-day period. The spacecraft impacted the lunar surface on December 17, 2012. Both spacecraft impacted an unnamed lunar mountain between Philolaus and Mouchez at . Ebb, the lead spacecraft in formation, impacted first. Flow impacted moments later. Each spacecraft was traveling at . A final experiment was conducted during the final days of the mission. Main engines aboard the spacecraft were fired, depleting remaining fuel. Data from that effort will be used by mission planners to validate fuel consumption computer models to improve predictions of fuel needs for future missions.
GRAIL | Final experiment and mission end
The best ending is achieved when the game is completed under three hours. Additionally, an optional task alters the game's end slightly. If the player chooses to rescue the Dachora and the Etecoons, friendly creatures encountered by Samus in the game, they are shown leaving the planet in the distance.
Super Metroid | Gameplay
It failed to achieve low earth orbit.
Mars 1M No.1 | End of mission
In 1964, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory made two attempts at reaching Mars. Mariner 3 and Mariner 4 were identical spacecraft designed to carry out the first flybys of Mars. Mariner 3 was launched on November 5, 1964, but the shroud encasing the spacecraft atop its rocket failed to open properly, dooming the mission. Three weeks later, on November 28, 1964, Mariner 4 was launched successfully on a 7½-month voyage to Mars.. Mariner 4 flew past Mars on July 14, 1965, providing the first close-up photographs of another planet. The pictures, gradually played back to Earth from a small tape recorder on the probe, showed impact craters.
Exploration of Mars | Mariner program
The real-time transmission was obtained for about 75% of the flight, but the percentage of data recorded for each experiment was variable. Except for the first hour of flight, the signal-to-noise ratio was good. The spacecraft ended transmission when it reentered the Earth's atmosphere after 43 hours of flight on 13 October 1958 at 03:46 GMT over the South Pacific Ocean. A small quantity of useful scientific information was returned, showing the radiation surrounding Earth was in the form of bands and measuring the extent of the bands, mapping the total ionizing flux, making the first observations of hydromagnetic oscillations of the magnetic field, and taking the first measurements of the density of micrometeorites and the interplanetary magnetic field.
Pioneer 1 | Mission
In early June 2018, a large planetary-scale dust storm developed, and within a few days the rover's solar panels were not generating enough power to maintain communications, with the last contact on June 10, 2018. NASA stated that they did not expect to resume communication until after the storm subsided, but the rover kept silent even after the storm ended in early October, suggesting either a catastrophic failure or a layer of dust covering its solar panels. The team remained hopeful that a windy period between November 2018 and January 2019 might clear the dust from its solar panels, as had happened before.
Opportunity (rover) | End of mission
According to original plans, Mars orbit arrival had been expected during September 2012 and the return vehicle was scheduled to reach Earth in August 2014. Following what would have been the planned end of the first burn, the spacecraft could not be located in the target orbit. The spacecraft was subsequently discovered to still be in its initial parking orbit and it was determined that the burn had not taken place. Initially, engineers had about three days from launch to rescue the spacecraft before its batteries ran out. It was then established that the craft's solar panels had deployed, giving engineers more time to restore control.
Fobos-Grunt | Post-launch
The final rendezvous and docking between the two spacecraft occurred on 29 June 2007. This was followed by the final demonstration, the changeout of a flight computer aboard ASTRO. NASA's plans for an extended mission were abandoned. The two craft demated for a final time, with ASTRO backing out to greater than in a test of sensor performance. Following this the craft performed a rendezvous to a standoff, where decommissioning took place. The NEXTSat spacecraft was deactivated on 21 July, when its computers were turned off, and solar panels pointed away from the Sun. Subsequently, ASTRO vented its Hydrazine propellant, and was deactivated on 22 July 2007.
Orbital Express | End of mission
Mariner 3 and Mariner 4 used a redesigned spacecraft bus weighing , and were launched on November 5 and November 28, 1964 to fly by the planet Mars. Mariner 3 failed after a successful launch when its payload shroud failed to open. These Mariners carried cameras, and Mariner 4 successfully returned pictures of Mars as it flew by. The Mariner 5 was successfully launched to Venus on June 14, 1967 and flew by in October, probing Venus' atmosphere with radio waves, scanning its brightness in ultraviolet light, and sampling solar particles and magnetic field fluctuations above the planet.
Atlas-Agena | Mariner
Mariner 2 was the first spacecraft to successfully encounter another planet, passing as close as to Venus after 110 days of flight on December 14, 1962.
Mariner 2 | Encounter with Venus
After completing its mission goals and exhausting its supply of nitrogen fuel, the decommissioning of MICROSCOPE was announced on 18 October 2018. The spacecraft was first passivated, then two IDEAS (Innovative DEorbiting Aerobrake System) inflatable booms were deployed to passively de-orbit the spacecraft by creating a higher drag profile. By this method, MICROSCOPE is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere within 25 years instead of 73 years.
MICROSCOPE | End of mission
As a result of this problem, communication with the spacecraft was explained to be more difficult, as the orientation of the vehicle's antennas is unknown. Additionally, the solar panels on the vehicle may no longer be positioned correctly for generating power. On September 20, 2013, NASA abandoned further attempts to contact the craft. According to chief scientist A'Hearn, the reason for the software malfunction was a Y2K-like problem. August 11, 2013, 00:38:49.6, was 2 tenth-seconds from January 1, 2000, leading to speculation that a system on the craft tracked time in one-tenth second increments since January 1, 2000, and stored it in an unsigned 32-bit integer, which then overflowed at this time, similar to the Year 2038 problem.
Deep Impact (spacecraft) | Contact lost and end of mission
Following the flyby NEAR moved to a 200 km circular orbit and shifted the orbit from prograde near-polar to a retrograde near-equatorial orbit. By December 13, 2000 the orbit was shifted back to a circular 35 km low orbit. Starting on January 24, 2001 the spacecraft began a series of close passes (5 to 6 km) to the surface and on January 28 passed 2 to 3 km from the asteroid. The spacecraft then made a slow controlled descent to the surface of Eros ending with a touchdown just to the south of the saddle-shaped feature Himeros on February 12, 2001 at approximately 20:01 UT (3:01 p.m.
NEAR Shoemaker | Orbits and landing
The lander encountered the atmosphere of Mars at 09:05:53 UTC, slowing from as it passed through the upper atmosphere. A parachute was then deployed to further slow the probe's descent, and retrorockets were intended to fire during the last seconds before the probe reached the ground. The spacecraft returned data for 224 seconds during its descent through the Martian atmosphere. However, at 09:11:05 UTC, with the spacecraft about to fire its retrorockets in preparation for landing, all contact was lost. Due to a design flaw, a chip aboard the spacecraft had degraded during the mission, and a large amount of the data which had been returned was unusable.
Mars 6 | Launch
Having apparently crashed, communication with the lander ended. SpaceIL announced the failure at 1925 UTC. Final telemetry values on the mission control screens showed an altitude of , and horizontal and vertical velocities of and , respectively.
SpaceIL | Failed landing
The spacecraft bus ended up in a heliocentric orbit where it continued to make observations in the X-ray and gamma ray spectrum. To provide data for the later Vega mission the bus activated its engine on the 14th November 1982. The last data published for the probe is from 16 March 1983.
Venera 14 | Post encounter
Mariner 3 was launched at 2:22 PM EST on November 5, 1964 from Cape Kennedy Air Force Station Launch Complex 13. After an uneventful boost phase, the Agena completed its burn to place the probe on a trajectory towards Mars. One hour after launch, the first telemetry transmissions from Mariner 3 were received, indicating that the scientific instruments were functioning correctly but there was no indication of any solar panel operation. Unsure of the exact problem, ground controllers issued a command to turn off the rate gyros to conserve power while they worked to figure out what had happened. Telemetry data suggested a separation failure of either the Agena or the payload fairing, but a below-normal velocity appeared to indicate that the fairing had not separated properly.
Mariner 3 | Launch failure
The mission ended in May 1983, after both landers had died.
Lander (spacecraft) | Mars
Makonnen's last act before being propelled into deep space is to push Chapman inside and close the airlock hatch. Chapman comes to and finds Makonnen gone and himself unable to communicate with the lunar base. He records a log entry about the preceding events, noting that he now must make a forced landing on an asteroid, that it is somehow pulling in his Pegasus spaceship. Exiting his ship while still feeling the effects of the accident, Chapman collapses and sees tiny humanoids about six inches tall approaching. Once his helmet visor is opened, he can breathe but shrinks to their size due to the asteroid's atmosphere.
The Phantom Planet | Plot
The TUS-telescope aboard Lomonosov stopped data collection in late 2017.
Mikhailo Lomonosov (satellite) | End of mission
Mariner 8 was launched on an Atlas-Centaur SLV-3C booster (AC-24). The main Centaur engine was ignited 265 seconds after launch, but the upper stage began to oscillate in pitch and tumbled out of control. The Centaur stage shut down 365 seconds after launch due to starvation caused by the tumbling. The Centaur and spacecraft payload separated and re-entered the Earth's atmosphere approximately 1500 km downrange and fell into the Atlantic Ocean about 560 km north of Puerto Rico. A guidance system failure was quickly suspected as the culprit, but JPL navigation chief Bill O'Neil dismissed the idea that the entire guidance system had failed.
Mariner 8 | Mission
Contact with the spacecraft was never reestablished, and the mission was unsuccessful. The solid-fuel retrorocket may have exploded near the end of its scheduled burn.
Surveyor 4 | Equipment
Pioneer Venus Orbiter was rejoined by Ulysses in 1990. The launch of the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory in 1991 again formed triangular baselines with PVO and Ulysses. Ulysses continued until June 2009, and the PVO mission ended in August 1992. Compton once again brought directional discrimination with the BATSE instrument. Like the Velas, BATSE placed detectors at the spacecraft corners. Thus, Compton alone could determine a coarse burst location, to within 1.6 to 4 degrees. Baselines with other spacecraft were then used to sharpen Compton's position solutions. In addition, almost half the sky from Compton was blocked by the Earth, just as Venus blocked part of the sky for PVO.
InterPlanetary Network | The second IPN
At the completion of its 35th and final circuit around the Jovian system, "Galileo" impacted the gas giant in darkness just south of the equator on September 21, 2003, at 18:57 UTC. Its impact speed was approximately . The total mission cost was about .
Galileo (spacecraft) | End of mission and deorbit
Boeing finished building the spacecraft at the end of June 1973, and "Mariner 10" was delivered from Seattle to JPL's headquarters in California, where JPL comprehensively tested the integrity of the spacecraft and its instruments. After the tests were finished, the probe was transported to the Eastern Test Range in Florida, the launch site. Technicians filled a tank on the spacecraft with of hydrazine fuel so that the probe could make course corrections, and attached squibs, whose detonation would signal "Mariner 10" to exit the launch rocket and deploy its instruments. The planned gravity assist at Venus made it feasible to use an Atlas-Centaur rocket instead of a more powerful but more expensive Titan IIIC.
Mariner 10 | Departing Earth
Solar pressure vanes, each with an area of 0.65 square meter (seven ft²), were attached to the tips of the solar panels. Positional information was provided by four Sun sensors, and a sensor for either the Earth, Mars, or the star Canopus, depending on the time in its spaceflight. Mariner 4 was the first space probe that needed a star for a navigational reference object, since earlier missions, which remained near either the Earth, the Moon, or the planet Venus, had sighted onto either the bright face of the home planet or the brightly lit target. During this flight, both the Earth and Mars would be too dim to lock onto.
Mariner 4 | Spacecraft and subsystems
The first manned mission to Mars ended in failure after the "Zero-X" spacecraft was accidentally sabotaged by the Hood, who had stowed aboard the craft to photograph its wing mechanisms. The crew managed to escape and two years later a second "Zero-X" craft successfully reached Mars in September 2067. However, soon after touching down on the surface, the MEV fired upon a Martian "rock snake" in the belief that it was a lifeless rock formation, provoking retaliation by fire-shooting rock snakes, resulting in the first open combat between humans and extraterrestrials. While the astronauts managed to escape, the lifting body control systems on board the MEV sustained damage during the confrontation, causing the "Zero-X" to crash upon its return to Earth, landing in Craigsville, United States (roughly 20 miles from its launch site, the fictitious Glenn Field Spaceport).
Zero-X | "Thunderbirds Are Go"
The spacecraft bus ended up in a heliocentric orbit where it continued to make observations in the X-ray and gamma ray spectrum. To provide data for the later Vega mission the bus activated its engine on the 10 June 1982. The last data published for the probe is from 12 April 1983.
Venera 13 | Post encounter
Telemetry contact was lost on November 15, 1995, though a beacon signal continued to be received until January 7, 1999.
Sakigake | End of mission
The last 30 seconds of the teleop period is called the endgame. During this time, robots can earn additional points by climbing back onto their alliance's HAB platform. A robot ending the match on HAB level one will earn the alliance 3 points, while ending the match on level two will earn 6 points and ending the match on level three will earn 12 points.
Destination: Deep Space | Endgame
After the maneuver, Mariner 4 was on course for Mars as planned.
Mariner 4 | Midcourse maneuver
Finally after twenty (20) years, the closure to the story was released into a 2-part colored limited edition comic book. Part 1 was released on 2018 and lastly, part 2 which was titled "The Galactic End" (also an Augmented Reality 56-page comic) was released on 2019.
Combatron | The Real Ending
On May 11, signal from the rover was lost.
Lunokhod 2 | End of mission
Stopping at station 4—Shorty crater—the astronauts discovered orange soil, which proved to be very small beads of volcanic glass formed over 3.5 billion years ago. The final stop before returning to the LM was Camelot crater; throughout the sojourn, the astronauts collected of samples, took another seven gravimeter measurements, and deployed three more explosive packages. Concluding the EVA at seven hours and thirty-seven minutes, Cernan and Schmitt had completed the longest-duration EVA in history to-date, traveling further away from a spacecraft and covering more ground on a planetary body during a single EVA than any other spacefarers. Once the LM was repressurized, CAPCOM Bob Parker was particularly impressed, saying: "Absolutely outstanding.
Apollo 17 | Lunar surface
This changed the shape of the spacecraft's elliptical orbit around the Sun, so that the perihelion now coincided with the orbit of Mercury.
Mariner 10 | Venus flyby
The Mariner 10 spacecraft launched on November 3, 1973 and was the first to use a gravity assist trajectory, accelerating as it entered the gravitational influence of Venus, then being flung by the planet's gravity onto a slightly different course to reach Mercury. It was also the first spacecraft to encounter two planets at close range, and for 33 years the only spacecraft to photograph Mercury in closeup. Status: Mariner 10 – Defunct. Now in a heliocentric orbit.
Mariner program | Mariner 10
The fourth launch was K-26 on April 30, 1999, carrying a Milstar communications satellite. During the Centaur coast phase flight, the roll control thrusters fired open-loop until the RCS fuel was depleted, causing the upper stage and payload to rotate rapidly. On restart, the Centaur cartwheeled out of control and left its payload in a useless orbit. This failure was found to be the result of an incorrectly programmed equation in the guidance computer. The error caused the roll rate gyro data to be ignored by the flight computer.
Titan IV | Programming error
Ranger 5 was scheduled for launch in June 1962, but NASA instead decided to fly the Mariner Venus probes (basically modified Block I Rangers) first which gave more time to work out problems with the spacecraft. After Mariner 1 ended its mission in the Atlantic Ocean instead of interplanetary space, the agency started coming under increased scrutiny from Congress due to its apparent inability to have any kind of success with planetary probes. Republican Congressman James Fulton confronted NASA Director of the Office of Programs J.J. Wyatt, noting that Mariner 1 had cost U.S. taxpayers $14 million and that there was no excuse at this point for failures every launch.
Ranger 5 | Mission
According to "Crisis on Infinite Earths", the team ended in Markovia during the spring of 1944. Along with powered beings, such as Geo-Force and Doctor Polaris, they were defending the towers created by the Monitor. The Anti-Monitor's shadow demon minions touched each one, destroying them. The re-ordering of the DC Universe resulted in a different ending for the team. In "The Losers Special" #1, written by Kanigher and illustrated by Glanzman, the Losers (along with Pooch) died in action during 1945 while destroying a German missile site: Sarge was bayoneted, Captain Storm fell on a grenade, and the remainder were strafed by aircraft bullets.
The Losers (comics) | The end
On November 29, 2016, the spacecraft performed a Titan flyby that took it to the gateway of F-ring orbits: This was the start of the Grand Finale phase culminating in its impact with the planet. A final Titan flyby on April 22, 2017, changed the orbit again to fly through the gap between Saturn and its inner ring days later on April 26. "Cassini" passed about above Saturn's cloud layer and from the visible edge of the inner ring; it successfully took images of Saturn's atmosphere and began returning data the next day. After a further 22 orbits through the gap, the mission was ended with a dive into Saturn's atmosphere on September 15; signal was lost at 7:55:46 AM EDT on September 15, 2017, just 30 seconds later than predicted.
Cassini–Huygens | Grand Finale and destruction
The impact of cosmic rays on the sensor was also reduced by about 50%. At 7 p.m. EST on February 28, 2001 the last data signals were received from NEAR Shoemaker before it was shut down. A final attempt to communicate with the spacecraft on December 10, 2002 was unsuccessful. This was likely due to the extreme −279 °F (−173 °C, 100 K) conditions the probe experienced while on Eros.
NEAR Shoemaker | Orbits and landing
Some less noticeable differences include the cover having a hinge (sometimes black, other times blue) while the 90's model had a slider(black), the console is now powered by a USB-to-microUSB cable connected to a USB power adaptor, only 2 AV connectors(yellow and white) instead of the 3 (red yellow and white) connectors, the number of vent holes in the back decreased from 20 to 12, some text in the circle around the top of the console was changed or removed and the controllers changed in shape and plug, the shape is more ergonomic but still simplistic with the ending man logo printed on, keeping the 4 buttons, select and start and the direction pad, and the plug changed to match the new connector in the console.
Ending-Man Terminator | Reintroduction
Lunar landings typically end with the engine shutting down when the lander is several feet above the lunar surface. The idea is that engine exhaust and lunar regolith can cause problems if they were to be kicked back from the surface to the spacecraft, and thus the engines cut off just before touchdown. Engineers must ensure that the vehicle is protected enough to ensure that the fall without thrust does not cause damage. The first soft lunar landing, performed by the Soviet Luna 9 probe, was achieved by first slowing the spacecraft to a suitable speed and altitude, then ejecting a payload containing the scientific experiments.
Lunar lander | Touchdown
As revealed towards the end of season 4, there is a 2000 year gap between the exodus of the first humanoid Cylons (the Final Five) from the destruction of life on Earth due to a robot Centurion war there, and their arrival at Caprica in the middle of the Caprican robot Centurion war. Originally, the Final Five had left Earth both to seek a new home and to warn the other Twelve Colonies about the dangers of mistreating Centurions so that they might avoid the fate of Earth. However, at the time FTL (faster than light) starship jumping technology was unknown, so they made the journey using slower than light technology, resurrecting themselves when their bodies wore out over the span of 2000 years.
Cylon (Battlestar Galactica) | Origin
Ike then showed the Eosapien the Earth communication message. Ike was surrounded by Eosapiens and launched its sixth and last camera disk. The Eosapiens thought the camera disk was a threat and attacked it and possibly Ike, thus terminating surface operations of the mission. If an observer looks carefully, they can see that Ike is last seen being carried away by the Eosapien tribe and is presumed to have been destroyed, although his true fate is still debatable. It was the longest-lasting probe on Darwin IV. Its color is yellow.
Alien Planet | Probe Newton
A flyby of the asteroid 2 Pallas after the completion of the Ceres mission was suggested but never formally considered; orbiting Pallas would not have been possible for "Dawn", due to the high inclination of Pallas' orbit relative to Ceres. In April 2016, the "Dawn" project team submitted a proposal to NASA for an extended mission that would have seen the spacecraft break orbit from Ceres and perform a flyby of the asteroid 145 Adeona in May 2019, arguing that the science gained from visiting a third asteroid might outweigh the returns from staying at Ceres. NASA's Planetary Mission Senior Review Panel, however, declined the proposal in May 2016.
Dawn (spacecraft) | Mission conclusion
The mission ended when the probe's attitude control gas ran out on March 24, 1975. As the spacecraft was no longer controllable without its nitrogen gas thrusters, a command was sent to the probe to shut down its transmitter. The close observations collected two important sets of data. The probe detected Mercury's magnetic field, which is very similar to Earth's. This was a surprise to scientists, because Mercury spins so slowly on its axis. Secondly, visual data was provided, which showed the high number of craters on the surface of the planet. The visual data also allowed scientists to determine that Mercury had “not experienced significant crustal modification”.
Exploration of Mercury | "Mariner 10"
Although the mission was planned to last from a week to a month, the rover operated successfully for almost three months. Communication failed after October 7, with a final data transmission received from Pathfinder at 10:23 UTC on September 27, 1997. Mission managers tried to restore full communications during the following five months, but the mission was terminated on March 10, 1998. During the extended operation a high-resolution stereo panorama of the surrounding terrain was being made, and the Sojourner rover was to visit a distant ridge, but the panorama was only about one-third completed and the ridge visit had not begun when communication failed.
Mars Pathfinder | End of mission