Luna 9 - Hard path to soft landing Bashny.Net

Continuing the theme Department №601 MAI blogger Russos
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One autumn day in 1957, after the launch of the first satellite, Korolyov called a meeting devoted to the problem of the moon, which has discussed with colleagues and associates lunar program in the coming years. Only just launched the first satellite, is preparing to launch a second more, and has already begun to discuss the moon landing. The first task was simple: just get to the satellite. This was not enough to get into it - a fact hit had somehow lock to the world community imbued another feat of the Soviet space program.

The proposals put forward very different. First, they wanted to paint a large part of the visible side of the moon blue. However, according to preliminary estimates for this it was necessary to throw it about two hundred kilos of paint, which at the time was impossible. Then someone suggested to produce a nuclear explosion on the surface - everyone will notice. But the mass of NF was, again, 200-500 kilograms.

Then Academician Kotelnikov proposed to put on the device two or three of the transmitter, which will emit a frequency during the flight to the moon before the impact of its surface. Thus, the fact that the simultaneous interruption of transmission will testify to hitting the target. He also proposed the creation of a satellite photograph of the Moon for its visible and invisible sides. In addition to current affairs Kotelnikov announced a project unit, which in the future will move across the lunar surface.

Storm Moon began September 23, 1958. But the moon-1A has been lost because of the accident launch vehicle. Over the mound for the same reasons, and Luna went 1B (11 October 1958), and 1C (4 December 1958).

1. From left to right: Mars lander program lander Luna 9 (small ball) and a part of the Moon-9.

More or less successful launch January 2, 1959, when went from Baikonur Luna 1, which missed the Moon by 6000 kilometers. It was the first artificial satellite of the sun and most fulfilled (at the time) research program.

June 18, 1959 went to the path of the Moon-2A, which is again due to the failure of the launch vehicle had gone over the hill. It is worth noting that the failed launches officially did not exist. As idiotic reasons, general and total classification of all emergency starts either ignored or (if the spacecraft went into orbit) called another spacecraft "Kosmos" series. To hide it from their own populations, as in the Soviet space failures could not be. On the other side of the border, of course, we knew everything, because the hide the fact that it was impossible to start. Officially, at that time, in spite of five starts, there was only Luna 1.

Finally, September 12, 1959 was launched Luna-2, which is September 14 for the first time in the world has reached the lunar surface in the area near the Sea of Serenity craters Aristides, Archimedes, and Autolycus. On it she was delivered pennant with the coat of arms of the Soviet Union.

Total for the program to enter the moon was expended nearly a year and held 6 starts, 4 of which were emergency.

The addition of buchwurm: I should add that the first Soviet lunar apparatus with the proper name was the "Luna-4" in 1963. The three previous successful station names were not - the two appeared in the newspapers as "Soviet space rocket" and "second Soviet space rocket" and the third and all furious - "the third Soviet space rocket with an automatic interplanetary station". Later there was also a nice tradition to declare an emergency orbital launch as another - successful, clear the stump! - The launch of the satellite "Cosmos" series. The first of these was the "Kosmos-21" in November 1963,
That is why I am totally against the use of silly names like "Moon-4A / B / C», which assigns an unannounced emergency start in foreign sources - and are written off from there to this day activists of Wikipedia. Already, because at the same time under the same "name" unite completely different in purpose and design of the product. Actual designation and serial numbers of products are known and better use of them by giving in parentheses the name of the official announcement.

The next step was to photograph the back side of the moon. For this mission was made three starts, from which the flight program was performed only in the first - Luna 3 (starting October 4, 1959), and October 7 made the first pictures in the world side of the Moon. In Chertok it says that the picture quality was such that we have proved that the moon is round. The other two starters for photographing (Moon-4A, April 15, 1960, and 4B on April 19, 1960) were again unsuccessful due to the launch vehicle.

Now it was time to start a soft landing on the surface. This is a program called E-6. The start was given January 4, 1963, when the launcher "Lightning" brought into orbit spacecraft Luna-4C. At the direction of the target machine and did not start due to an accident on board. It took 11 more starts to Luna 9, launched January 31, 1966, finally prilunilas, ie I made a soft landing on the moon on February 3.

More about this you can read in Wikipedia (there is, however, part of the start-ups omitted) or Chapter 4 (Hard way to a soft landing), the third book "Rockets and People" BE Chertok.

Let's look at labs No.25 and 25a, which are made on some balances spacecraft Luna 9.

Background:
"Luna-9" - Soviet space probe to explore the moon and outer space. January 31, 1966 Implemented launch rocket "Lightning", which led to the flight path of the Moon AMC "Luna-9". The station was originally bred in the reference near-earth orbit with the following parameters: inclination - 52 °; circulation period - 88 min .; the minimum distance from the earth (at perigee) - 170 km; the maximum distance from the earth (at apogee) - 220 km, and then launched towards the Moon. February 3, 1966 the station "Luna-9" for the first time in the world made a soft landing on the lunar surface in the Ocean of Storms, west of Reiner crater and Mari, at coordinates 64 degrees 22 minutes west longitude and 7 degrees 8 minutes north latitude. Station were conducted 7 sessions for a total of more than 8 hours. During these sessions, AMC aired a panoramic image of the lunar surface near the landing site. Weight after landing ALS - about 100 kg.

2. The automatic lunar station. What has been delivered to the Moon-9 and gently priluneno. The rest is provided a soft landing, and was dropped. Station slowed his engine, and then around the ball inflated shock absorbers, and the ball shot back to the moon. Shock quenched blow and then blown away, and the ALS starts working.