Lunar Orbiter 1
| Lunar Orbiter 1 | ||||||||||
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 Structure of Lunar Orbiter 1 |
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| NSSDC ID | 1966-073A | |||||||||
| Mission goal | Preparation of manned moon landings | |||||||||
| Client |
 NASA
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| Launcher | Atlas - Agena D | |||||||||
| construction | ||||||||||
| Takeoff mass | 388 kg | |||||||||
| Course of the mission | ||||||||||
| Start date | August 10, 1966, 19:26 UTC | |||||||||
| launch pad | CC LC-13 | |||||||||
| End date | October 29, 1966 | |||||||||
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Lunar Orbiter 1 was the first of five lunar probes in the lunar orbiter program of the US space agency NASA . With the lunar orbiter program, the moon was to be photographed and mapped in high resolution in order to find landing sites for the space probes of the Surveyor program and for the manned moon landing .
mission
Lunar Orbiter 1 was launched on 10 August 1966 aboard a Atlas - Agena D . After reaching the park orbit , the probe was brought onto a path to the moon by igniting the engines. It reached this 92 hours after take-off and swiveled into a strongly elliptical orbit of about 189 km by 1,866 km. It was inclined 12 ° to the ecliptic and had an orbital duration of 3 hours and 37 minutes. Since most of the landing sites for the following probes were planned to be close to the equator, a steeper slope was not necessary.
The first images were sent on August 18th. On August 21st and 25th, the orbit was lowered as planned. After the last dip, the orbiter was in a 39 by 1,685 km orbit. By the end of the mission on October 29, 1966, Lunar Orbiter had transmitted a total of 187 wide-angle photos and 42 telephotos. With this, 5 million km 2 of the lunar surface were photographed, although some of the first high-resolution images showed motion-related blurring. In addition, the first two images of the earth were also taken from the moon.
In order to clear the communication channels for the subsequent probe, Lunar Orbiter 2 , the probe was brought to a controlled crash on the moon on October 29 during its 577th orbit. It crashed at about 6.70 degrees north and 162 degrees east.
Results
In addition to the total of 229 images that were transmitted, a slightly pear-shaped shape of the moon was determined. The micrometeorite experiment showed no impacts. Although only 75 percent of the previously planned lunar surface was photographed, the mission was a success.
One of the first images of the earth from the moon on August 23, 1966.
The edited version of the image as part of the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project from 2008.
Remarks
- ↑ Recordings were made on 70 mm film , which after development were electronically scanned and transmitted to Earth (for more details see Lunar Orbiter ).
Web links
- Lunar Orbiter 1 in the NSSDCA Master Catalog (English)
- Bernd Leitenberger: Description of the Lunar Orbiter program