The mission was less than fruitful though.
Attempts to land on mars.
This map shows all of those sites plus proposed landing regions for 3 future missions on a shaded relief map produced using mars global surveyor laser altimeter data.
Don lincoln writes that as nasa s insight spacecraft attempts to land on mars this monday scientists will be nervous.
Orbiter successful entered orbit on 2 december 1971 operated for 20 orbits.
Mars 3 lander sa 4m no 172 28 may 1971 soviet union.
Europe has been trying to land on mars since 2003 but none of the attempts have gone exactly according to plan.
Earlier this year the mars reconnaissance orbiter made a big discovery.
Russia has tried 3 times.
Another soviet lander and the first spacecraft to land successfully on mars.
Deployed from mars 2 failed to land during attempt on 27 november 1971 proton k d.
Of those one mars 3 may have landed successfully but ceased communication soon after.
Mars 3 4m no 172 28 may 1971 soviet union.
The spacecraft beamed back 20 seconds of video data from the surface.
The first lander on mars soft landed on 2 december 1971.
Esa has made 2 unsuccessful attempts.