[X] My Assistant

[tolis]

Hi All,

I am not sure whether this is of interest to the community, but next year will see three
rather significant 50th anniversaries in unmanned lunar and interplanetary spaceflight,
those of Luna-1, the first probe to escape the gravitational field of the Earth (lunar impact intended),
Luna-2, the first probe to actually hit the Moon and Luna 3, the first probe to image the Moon's far side.

Luna-1 was launched on 2nd January 1959 and flew by the Moon on the 4th of the same month at a
distance of 6000 km on its way to heliocentric orbit.

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/masterCatalog.do?sc=1959-012A

Luna-2 was launched on the 12th of September of the same year, hitting the Moon on the 14th in
the Palus Putredinus region (0 degrees longitude, 29 degrees N latitude) near the crater Archimedes.

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/masterCatalog.do?sc=1959-014A

Luna-3 was launched less than a month later on 4th October (the second anniversary of Sputnik-1),
swung around the Moon to image the far side on the 7th and transmittted its data to
the Earth by the 18th.

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/masterCatalog.do?sc=1959-008A

I don't know about you but I'm thinking of raising a glass of champagne a day later
than New Year's Day in honour of Korolev and his merry band of pioneers.

Happy Holidays to All,

Tolis.

[dvandorn]

Yep -- but only Snoopy's ascent stage survives. The descent stage crashed into the Moon in May or June, 1969. (No one is sure of the exact date, but it was dropped when the LM was in a 70 by 10 mile orbit, it had to have decayed pretty quickly.)

-the other Doug

[ilbasso]

Yep -- but only Snoopy's ascent stage survives. The descent stage crashed into the Moon in May or June, 1969. (No one is sure of the exact date, but it was dropped when the LM was in a 70 by 10 mile orbit, it had to have decayed pretty quickly.)

Two other pieces of Apollo hardware are still flying around out there, too - the S-IVB stages for Apollo 9 (which was deliberately placed in solar orbit) and Apollo 12 (which was accidental). The Apollo 12 S-IVB was initially recovered in 2002 when it was thought to be a NEO and given designation J002E3.

[ZenDraken]

Two other pieces of Apollo hardware are still flying around out there, too - the S-IVB stages for Apollo 9 (which was deliberately placed in solar orbit) and Apollo 12 (which was accidental). The Apollo 12 S-IVB was initially recovered in 2002 when it was thought to be a NEO and given designation J002E3.

So the location of the Apollo 12 S-IVB is known, any chance of finding the four panels connecting the S-IVB to the CM? They would be a challenge to find. Would it even be possible?

Would a future deep-space rendezvous with Pioneer 10/11 or Voyager 1/2 be possible?. I'm sure we have pretty accurate trajectory data for them, but how close would that get you? Once you got there, would you still have to search around with telescopes or radar to find them?

Just asking...

[dvandorn]

So the location of the Apollo 12 S-IVB is known, any chance of finding the four panels connecting the S-IVB to the CM? They would be a challenge to find. Would it even be possible?

The SLA panels were jettisoned on every lunar flight, and what's more, the entire stack was on a trajectory to miss the Moon when they were dropped. They were spring-loaded and separated at a good meter per second, so they weren't anywhere near the spacecraft when it reached the Moon... but they likely didn't impact the Moon, either. Or at least, certainly most of them missed the Moon.

Nine sets of four SLA panels, 36 in total, were let loose early on in a translunar trajectory. Some few hit the Moon, I'm sure, and some others likely ended up being swept back in by the Earth. But I'd bet several of them are still out there. And harder to find than a needle in a haystack...

-the other Doug