Soviet Lunar Images |
Soviet Lunar Images |
Jun 28 2005, 04:49 PM
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Solar System Cartographer Group: Members Posts: 10226 Joined: 5-April 05 From: Canada Member No.: 227 |
Here's another very interesting and little known topic, so this is a chance to ask or to post about it.
I am looking for information on the Soviet Union's lunar missions. Actually I have lots already, but you can always use a bit more. Specifically, consider this question: what areas were photographed by the Soviet lunar orbiters, Lunas 12, 19 and 22? First I must say that these were NOT systematic mapping missions, they were tests of experimental imaging systems, and the SU never undertook any systematic mapping of the Moon. So coverage is limited. I have searched high and low for images from these missions, helped especially by the extremely talented and knowledgeable Don Mitchell. For this post I'm going to stick to Luna 19, coming back to the others later. Between us, Don and I have located five Luna 19 images, often of very poor quality (photocopies of prints from magazines, microfilm of russian newspapers, etc.) I reprojected them into approximate mapping geometry and then searched for their locations on the Moon. Result, the first ever (AFAIK) index map of Luna 19 coverage. When I was in Moscow I asked for this but got nowhere, and I'm not sure they ever did it, or certainly didn't publish it. The area often reported as the focus of Luna 19 images refers in fact only to one orbit. So, here's the index map; and if anybody can track down any OTHER Luna 19 images I would be VERY grateful for the information. Phil -------------------- ... because the Solar System ain't gonna map itself.
Also to be found posting similar content on https://mastodon.social/@PhilStooke Maps for download (free PDF: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...Cartography.pdf NOTE: everything created by me which I post on UMSF is considered to be in the public domain (NOT CC, public domain) |
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Jan 26 2006, 05:35 PM
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Solar System Cartographer Group: Members Posts: 10226 Joined: 5-April 05 From: Canada Member No.: 227 |
This story mentions Jodrell Bank radio telescope in the UK picking up some Luna 3 transmissions. If you Google 'Luna 3' you find some websites which mangle this story, saying that JB released the Luna 3 images in a distorted format. That is mixing up the Luna 3 story with Luna 9, where they did indeed jump the gun with a controversial release. It makes no sense to imagine Luna 3 images released in distorted form, as the non-circular disk would immediately give the game away.
Phil -------------------- ... because the Solar System ain't gonna map itself.
Also to be found posting similar content on https://mastodon.social/@PhilStooke Maps for download (free PDF: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...Cartography.pdf NOTE: everything created by me which I post on UMSF is considered to be in the public domain (NOT CC, public domain) |
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Jan 31 2006, 09:50 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 |
Forty years ago today - launch of the first successful soft-landing probe on the Moon, the Soviet Luna 9.
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/Master...og?sc=1966-006A Launch Date/Time: 1966-01-31 at 11:45:00 UTC On-orbit Dry Mass: 1580 kg Description 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 rotatable 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. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_9 http://selena.sai.msu.ru/Home/Spacecrafts/Luna-9/luna-9e.htm http://www.zarya.info/Diaries/Luna/Luna9.htm http://www.mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogMoon.htm -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
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Jan 31 2006, 10:04 PM
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Interplanetary Dumpster Diver Group: Admin Posts: 4404 Joined: 17-February 04 From: Powell, TN Member No.: 33 |
I was working on an improved Luna 9 pan. I was dealt a setback due to my hard drive failure, but fortunately, I was able to find a backup, althoug some work had been done since and was lost. The Luna 9 scanning mechanism is an odd one...It seems inconsistent in terms of how it scanned.
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