Abstract
The three first orbiters of Mars: Mars-2 and Mars-3 in 1971–1972 and Mars-5 in 1974 provided the first simultaneous measurements of plasma and magnetic field in Martian environment. Their orbits were not very favorable for investigation of solar wind-Mars interaction, at best only marginally penetrating the obstacle to the shocked solar wind flow. Yet in spite of limited capabilities of then developed instruments, sampling rate and amount of data collected, results of the data analysis quite convinsingly showed existence of a detached bow shock, very thick tail with the downstream flow of planetary plasma, high altitude of dayside obstacle to the solar wind flow with underlying “cushion” of planetary plasma imbedded in moderately strong magnetic field, and boundary layer with traces of pick-up ions in the ionosheath. These results strongly suggested the importance of the interaction with the Martian atmosphere and allowed a first estimate of atmospheric losses due to the interaction with the solar wind. Arguments for the existence of a weak intrinsic magnetic field were presented, not very convincing ones however. Previously reported results are strongly supported by recent and much more informative Phobos-2 measurements.
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