Luna 9
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Organization: | Soviet Union |
| Major Contractors: | GSMZ Lavochkin |
| Mission Type: | Planetary Science Lunar landing |
| Satellite of: | Moon |
| Launch: | January 31, 1966. 11:45:00 UTC |
| Launch Vehicle: | Molniya 8K78M (4-Stage R-7 / SS-6) |
| Mission Highlight: | Lunar soft landing on February 3, 1966, 18:44:52 UTC 7.13° N - 64.37° W. |
| Mission Duration: | 6-days. Last transmission February 6, 1966, 22:55 UTC. |
| Mass: | 1580 kg |
| NSSDC ID: | 1966-006A |
| Webpage: | NASA NSSDC Master Catalog |
| Orbital elements | |
|---|---|
| Semimajor Axis: | n/a |
| Eccentricity: | n/a |
| Inclination: | n/a |
| Orbital Period: | n/a |
| Aposelene: | n/a |
| Periselene: | n/a |
| Orbits: | Lunar soft landing |
| Instruments | |
| Close-Up Lunar Surface Photography : | Lunar photography |
Luna 9 (E-6 series), also known as Lunik 9 (internal name E-6 N. 13), was an unmanned space mission of the Soviet Union's Luna program. On February 3, 1966 the Luna 9 spacecraft was the first spacecraft to achieve a lunar soft landing and to transmit photographic data to Earth.
The automatic lunar station that achieved the soft landing weighed 99 kg. It was a hermetically sealed container with radio equipment, a program timing device, heat control systems, scientific apparatus, power sources, and a television system. The Luna 9 payload was carried to Earth orbit by an A-2-E vehicle and then conveyed toward the Moon by a fourth stage rocket that separated itself from the payload. Flight apparatus separated from the payload shortly before Luna 9 landed.
After landing in the Ocean of Storms on February 3, 1966, the four petals, which formed the spacecraft, opened outward and stabilized the spacecraft on the lunar surface. Spring-controlled antennas assumed operating positions, and the television camera rotating mirror system, which operated by revolving and tilting, began a photographic survey of the lunar environment. Seven radio sessions, totaling 8 hours and 5 minutes, were transmitted as were three series of TV pictures.
When assembled, the photographs provided a panoramic view of the nearby lunar surface. The pictures included views of nearby rocks and of the horizon 1.4 km away from the spacecraft.
For unknown reasons, the pictures from Luna 9 were not released immediately by the Soviet authorities. Instead, the Jodrell Bank Observatory, which was monitoring the craft, noticed that the signal format used was identical to the internationally-agreed system used by newspapers for transmitting pictures. The Daily Express rushed a suitable receiver to the Observatory and the pictures from Luna 9 were decoded and published world-wide. Some people suspect that the craft's designers had fitted this equipment either to ensure that Jodrell Bank, which was superior to anything the Soviet authorities had access to at the time, would release the pictures without incurring the political embarrassment of having to ask for them, or else, to prevent the Soviet authorities from securing a similar propaganda victory to that following Gagarin's flight.[1]
With this mission, the Soviets accomplished another spectacular first in the space race, the first survivable landing of a humanmade object on another celestial body. Luna 9 was the twelfth attempt at a soft-landing by the Soviets; it was also the first deep space probe built by the Lavochkin design bureau, which ultimately would design and build almost all Soviet (and Russian) lunar and interplanetary spacecraft. All operations prior to landing occurred without fault, and the 58-centimeter spheroid ALS capsule landed on the Moon at 18:45:30 UT on 3 February 1966 west of the Reiner and Marius craters in the Ocean of Storms (at 7°8' north latitude and 64°22' west longitude). Approximately 5 minutes after touchdown, Luna 9 began transmitting data to Earth, but it was 7 hours (after the Sun climbed to 7° elevation) before the probe began sending the first of nine images (including five panoramas) of the surface of the Moon.
These were the first images sent from the surface of another planetary body. The radiation detector, the only scientific instrument on board, measured a dosage of 30 millirads (0.3 milligrays) per day [2]. Perhaps the most important discovery of the mission was determining that a foreign object would not simply sink into the lunar dust, that is, that the ground could support a heavy lander. Last contact with the spacecraft was at 22:55 UT on 6 February 1966.
[edit] External links
Moscow University Lunar and Planetary Department page on Luna 9
[edit] Sources
| Preceded by Luna 8 |
Luna programme | Succeeded by Cosmos 111 |
| Luna programme |
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| Luna 1958A | Luna 1958B | Luna 1958C | Luna 1 | Luna 1959A | Luna 2 | Luna 3 | Luna 1960A | Luna 1960B | Sputnik 25 | Luna 1963B | Luna 4 | Luna 1964A | Luna 1964B | Cosmos 60 | Luna 1965A | Luna 5 | Luna 6 | Luna 7 | Luna 8 | Luna 9 | Cosmos 111 | Luna 10 | Luna 1966A | Luna 11 | Luna 12 | Luna 13 | Luna 1968A | Luna 14 | Luna 1969A | Luna 1969B | Luna 1969C | Luna 15 | Cosmos 300 | Cosmos 305 | Luna 1970A | Luna 1970B | Luna 16 | Luna 17 | Luna 18 | Luna 19 | Luna 20 | Luna 21 | Luna 22 | Luna 23 | Luna 1975A | Luna 24 | ||||
