Luna 1, 2 & 3 - 50 years hence Options

[Bernard]

I totally agree whith your opinion, Phil.
Soviet electronic was crude,but they find solutions.

[ugordan]

I totally agree whith your opinion, Phil.
Soviet electronic was crude,but they find solutions.

Besides, they didn't need to have highly miniaturized and advanced electronics to get the job done. They had larger boosters at disposal to compensate for heavier spacecraft.

[Geert]

Besides, they didn't need to have highly miniaturized and advanced electronics to get the job done. They had larger boosters at disposal to compensate for heavier spacecraft.

More or less true, but if you read the various accounts, weight savings were still a big issue, especially on lunar and interplanetary craft.

Luna 3 was in many aspects way ahead of its time and a tremendous achievement.


Geert

[Big_Gazza]

Its gratifying to see so many UMSF'ies defending the Soviet probes! I am more used to listening to the same old derogatory critique and snide comments about "shoddy engineering" Some of the Soviet solutions were quite brilliant. The Venera landers were a great piece of design, and apart from the (recurring) problems with jettisoning camera covers in high temp/pressure conditions, they were remarkably successful.

It is fair to say though that had Soviet electronic components and system integration been more robust, they would have enjoyed much greater success, particularly at Mars. Mars 2 & 3 were badly affected by radio system failures, which may well have cost the Soviets the coup of the first image from the martian surface (there is a school of thought that says the loss of signal was not a problem with the lander, but was due to the orbiter dropping the relay link. Similarly, the failures of the Mars 4-7 armada was due mostly to faulty chips that crippled the control systems. Similarly, the loss of Phobos 2 is chalked up to a computer failure.

I'm REALLY keen to see Phobos-Grunt fly! It would be great to see Russia get a fully successful Mars mission on the scoreboard. The flip side is that a failure would be a gut-punch. I was depressed for 3 weeks after Mars 96 successfully probed the Pacific Ocean, Bolivia and Chile...

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

Well indeed, but then again, these "Soviet-Russian" probes initiated lunar exploration
Moreover, in 1965, Zond 3 completed photo coverage of the lunar far side and for the first time mankind had a complete photographic view of the Moon. To complete the Russian achievements, in 1966 they made the first non-destructive landing on the Moon (Luna 9) and Luna 10 became the first orbiter and all of that 300 years after Flemish astronomer Langrenus started to give names to craters & features on the Moon O

[Guest_Zvezdichko_*]

Happy anniversary, Lunar enthusiasts!

50 years ago Luna 2 impacted the Moon!

50 years have passed since the first lunar hard landing.

[Paolo]

Thanks, I was about to forget about that!

[Paolo]

Today is the 50th anniversary of the launch of Luna 3,, another first for UMSF and for deep space imaging

[Paolo]

Translated by Babel Fish from a post on the Novosti Kosmonavtiki forum, this is the TASS announcement of the launch of Luna 3. Although the imaging mission is not mentioned, there were enough details released to figure out what the probe was about.


TASS COMMUNICATION
ON THE LAUNCHING IN THE SOVIET UNION THIRD SPACE ROCKET
In accordance with the study program of outer space and preparation for the interplanetary flights on October 4, 1959 in the Soviet Union is successfully realized the third launch of space rocket. The automatic interplanetary station is established on board the rocket. Starting is realized with the aid of the multistage rocket. The terminal stage, after obtaining given speed, put automatic interplanetary station into the required orbit. The orbit of automatic interplanetary station is selected in such a way as to ensure the passage of station near the Moon and flight around the moon. Automatic interplanetary station will pass from the Moon at a distance about 10 thousand kilometers and, after going around the Moon, during its further motion it will pass in the region of the Earth. The selected orbit provides the possibility of observing the station from the northern hemisphere of the Earth. The last step of the third Soviet space rocket has a weight, equal to 1553 kgf (without the fuel). Automatic interplanetary station was established at the terminal stage. After injection into orbit the station was isolated from the rocket. The terminal stage orbits, close to the orbit of station. Automatic interplanetary station is intended for wide scientific research in the outer space. On board the station are established scientific and electronic equipment, and also automatic control system of thermal condition. The electric power supply of onboard scientific and electronic equipment is achieved from the solar batteries and the chemical-battery power supplies. The total weight of station is 278,5 kg. furthermore, at the terminal stage is placed the measuring equipment with the power sources with a weight of 156,5 kg. thus, the total payload weight is 435 kg. The transfer of scientific information and results of measuring the parameters of the motion of automatic interplanetary station will be achieved with the aid of two radio transmitters, working at frequencies 39,986 megahertz and 183,6 megahertz. Simultaneously the control of the elements of orbit of interplanetary space station will be produced on the radio link with a frequency of 183,6 megahertz. The signals of transmitter at the frequency of 39,986 megahertz are the pulses of variable duration from 0.2 to 0,8 s. the pulse repetition frequency 1 plus, minus 0,15 hertz. The transmission of information from onboard of automatic interplanetary station will occur by sessions, daily on 2-4 hours, in accordance with the program of observations. Control of the work of onboard equipment of automatic interplanetary station is produced from the Earth, from the coordinating computation center. The measurement of the parameters of rocket is accomplished by the automated measuring complex, whose ground stations are located in different points of the Soviet Union. Transfers about the motion of the third space rocket will be conducted by all radio stations of the Soviet Union. The current session of work of radio equipment will begin on October 4 13 hours of Moscow time. At this time rocket will be located above the point in the Indian Ocean with the coordinates of 80 degrees of eastern length, 5 degrees of the south latitude of at a distance 108 thousand km above the Earth. The session of work of radio equipment will continue about 2 hours. Radio observations after the rocket can be conducted from the territory of Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. The starting of the third Soviet space rocket and the creation of automatic interplanetary station will make it possible to obtain the new data about the outer space and will be further contribution of Soviet people to the international collaboration on the mastery of space.

[Paolo]

Speaking of the first pictures of the farside of the Moon, released by the Soviet Union 50 years ago these days, I have unearthed a paper from my collection of vintage space magazines predicting what the farside would look like. The paper is "The Other Side of the Moon" by the experienced selenographer H Percy Wilkins (the discoverer of Mare Orientale) published in the January 1953 issue of the JBIS.
I have attached Wilkins' map of the farside. Although he was completely wrong in predicting the presence of large maria, he did a remarkable work of back-tracing young rays on the lunar limb to the farside, where he found that they converged to nine craters. I believe that one of them was Giordano Bruno.

[Phil Stooke]

Yes, it is a very interesting cartographic curiosity. Versions of it without the fictitious maria were published in the Moore and Wilkins book 'The Moon' (1950) and in New Scientist at the time of Luna 3.

I think it's misleading to say "he did a remarkable work of back-tracing young rays on the lunar limb to the farside, where he found that they converged to nine craters."

Well, OK, it was a remarkable job to attempt it at all. But in truth he did not 'find that they converged on nine craters', he predicted that they might converge on nine craters. In fact, most of those rays are quite dubious to begin with and many of them might not exist. The only obvious candidate for a real ray crater is Giordano Bruno, and Wilkins fully deserves credit for that discovery. As for the others, can any of them be said to exist? Maybe one at 4 north, 100 west, and maybe one at 60 north, 100 East, but the others don't seem to resemble any real craters.

Phil