Luna 9 (Луна-9), internal designation Ye-6 No.13, was an uncrewed space mission of the Soviet Union’s Luna programme. On 3 February 1966, the Luna 9 spacecraft became the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on the Moon and return imagery from its surface.
Spacecraft
The spacecraft carrying on top the lander capsule, weighed together 1538 kg and was 2.7 meters tall. It commenced the main descent, shortly before its controlled impact it ejected the lander capsule. The lander had a mass of 99 kilograms (218 lb) and consisted of a spheroid Automatic Lunar Station (ALS) capsule measuring 58 centimetres (23 in). It used a landing bag to survive the impact speed of over 54 kilometres per hour (34 mph). 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 spacecraft was developed in the design bureau then known as OKB-1, under Chief Designer Sergei Korolev (who had died before the launch). The first 11 Luna missions were unsuccessful for a variety of reasons. At that time the project was transferred to Lavochkin design bureau since OKB-1 was busy with a human expedition to the Moon. Luna 9 was the twelfth attempt at a soft-landing by the Soviet Union; it was also the first successful deep space probe built by the Lavochkin design bureau, which ultimately would design and build almost all Soviet (later Russian) lunar and interplanetary spacecraft.
Launch and translunar coast
Luna 9 was launched by a Molniya-M rocket, serial number 103-32, flying from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. Liftoff took place at 11:41:37 GMT on 31 January 1966. The first three stages of the four-stage carrier rocket injected the payload and fourth stage into low Earth orbit, at an altitude of 168 by 219 kilometres (104 by 136 mi) and an inclination of 51.8°.[2] The fourth stage, a Blok-L, then fired to raise the perigee of the orbit to a new apogee approximately 500,000 kilometres (310,000 mi), before deploying Luna 9 into a highly elliptical geocentric orbit.
Descent and landing
At an altitude of 8,300 kilometres (5,200 mi) from the Moon, the spacecraft was oriented for the firing of its retrorockets and its spin was stopped in preparation for landing. From this moment the orientation of the spacecraft was supported by measurements of directions to the Sun and the Earth using an optomechanical system. At 75 kilometres (47 mi) above the lunar surface, the radar altimeter triggered the jettison of the side modules, the inflation of the airbags and the firing of the retro rockets. At 250 metres (820 ft) from the surface, the main retrorocket was turned off by the integrator of an acceleration having reached the planned velocity of the braking manoeuver. The four outrigger engines were used to slow the craft. About 5 metres (16 ft) above the lunar surface, a contact sensor touched the ground triggering the engines to be shut down and the landing capsule to be ejected and its landing airbag being inflated. The capsule landed at 22 kilometres per hour (14 mph; 6.1 m/s)
Surface operations
Approximately 250 seconds after landing in the Oceanus Procellarum, four petals that covered the top half of the spacecraft opened outward for increased stability. Seven hours after (to allow for the Sun to climb to 7° elevation) the probe began sending the first of nine images (including five panoramas) of the surface of the Moon. Seven radio sessions with a total of 8 hours and 5 minutes were transmitted, as well as a series of three TV pictures. After assembly the photographs gave a panoramic view of the immediate lunar surface, comprising views of nearby rocks and of the horizon, 1.4 kilometres (0.87 mi) away.
The first photo ever taken from the surface of another celestial body.
The pictures from Luna 9 were not released immediately by the Soviet authorities, but scientists at Jodrell Bank Observatory in England, which was monitoring the craft, noticed that the signal format used was identical to the internationally agreed Radiofax system used by newspapers for transmitting pictures.
The radiation detector, the only dedicated scientific instrument on board, measured dosage of 30 millirads (0.3 milligrays) per day. The mission also determined that a spacecraft would not sink into the lunar dust; that the ground could support a lander. The last contact with the spacecraft was at 22:55 GMT on 6 February 1966
The successful Luna 9 landing was commemorated on stamps.
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Comrades, I have been in the movement in America for a long time. The energy and momentum and organizing capacity of
at this moment is like nothing I’ve ever seen. We are growing so fast, we’re holding massive public organizing meetings all over the country with hundreds or even thousands of people attending and looking to the party for leadership, we’re organizing enormous protests (those LA marches were PSL events), and we’re earning legitimacy fast.I’m staying grounded as best I can, but something is in the horizon.
we stan
Being a bus driver is a thankless job. Cars treat you like an inconvenience, passengers berate you, the agency pushes you around. Sure it pays well (I’m barely starting to climb out of the financial doom loop) and there’s good and bad days but damn. I’ve been getting cussed at by passengers all day this week so far. Please thank your bus driver, it means a lot to them.
“how can you explain this three year gap in your resume”
“that was when i was happy”
How are we STILL producing documentaries about the brave heroic American soldiers in Vietnam? WHO believes this shit anymore? Even the fucking trailer had the juxtaposition of the soldiers talking about bravery and honor while showing footage of napalm.
most of the time when people say “things used to be better” they’re mythologising the past. but when people say “computers used to be better” they are the most correct anyone has every been
Fact: 99% of revolutionaries stop voting right before the most important election of their lifetimes.
So I was listening to TrueAnon, Brace and Liz had some guy on to talk about California’s wild fires and the failure of Newsom to address the issues that are causing them, ie unrestrained development in fire-prone areas, and doubling down on things that literally don’t work and possibly make the conditions worse like mass brush clearances…
Then I saw that I was NOT listening to last week’s episode, but episode 104 from October 2020
Usaid disappears and all of a sudden voosh starts begging for money and saying he may lose his job lol
Guy who thinks the Israeli Occupation Force is officially called the Israeli Occupation Force because they stumbled onto a Second Thought vid and JT said Israeli Occupation Force 100 times in a video on the topic of the Israeli Occupation Force.
Sent a text to a pretty guy asking him if he wants to go to the movies
the 2nd annual reddit rexodus is upon us. hundreds of gentlesirs are migrating, and lemmy has become even more unbearable than usual. I, for one, am happy for our little haven, and I’m glad that the campfire ghost stories they tell themselves about us will keep them from here.
Shaun’s donation livestream has raised nearly 300,000 dollars for Palestine so far. Amazing
Republicans posting about how USAID is a money laundering operation has me so baffled. Do they not understand when USAID uses vague line items, it’s because they’re doing something sketchy with foreign opposition groups?
