First picture side of the Moon: a bit of history

No, today is not just another memorable date related to any developments in the study of space. Habré recently published history apparatus "Moon-1", in connection with what is worth remembering is probably one of the most famous space devices - "Luna-3".



The fact that this was a Soviet spacecraft images back side of the moon. It happened on October 7, 1959, at 6 o'clock in the morning 30 minutes (Moscow time).

two lenses (focal lengths of 200 and 500 mm) turned to film about half the surface of the moon (the 2/3 shots - the flip side of the Moon) from a distance of about 67,000 km. It is worth noting that the survey was carried out with an exposure of 1/200, 1/400, 1/600 and 1/800. Pictures were shown directly on board the unit fighting robots, then the image transmitted by means of a specific phototelevision system on Earth. The system is called "Yenisei", and the survey was conducted camera running beam, with direct transmission of data to Earth. Takes images at a time point in the Crimea (Mountain Cat). And reserve the item was placed on the Kamchatka Peninsula.



That's a difficult way done apparatus to reach the point optimal for taking pictures. i>

At the Earth managed to pass all 17 "scanned" images, and then communicate with the spacecraft was lost. Well, a little later, six months later, the unit burned (planned) in the Earth's atmosphere, with all the pictures and equipment.



There is an interesting point - the survey was carried out not on the Soviet and to the American film, which was found in the US the same hardware (as far as we can understand the equipment was removed from the US reconnaissance balloons that conducted aerial surveys in the USSR. The devices themselves or landing, resulting in failure / breakage or shoot them down). So, the domestic film, as it turned out, did not meet the technical requirements of shooting the moon, so was used (without the knowledge of his superiors) foreign "spy" film 35 mm wide.



Unfortunately, the noise level during data transfer was very high, so the quality of these pictures can not be named. But they added a lot of data to information about the moon, and also allowed the USSR to get the right to name the newly discovered objects on the side of the Moon.

Incidentally, the pictures taken by "Luna-3" can be seen on the website NASA (yes, NASA), here .



And here is the card side of the Moon, based on the results obtained by "Luna-3" photos (thanks shubinpavel ). i>

Via nasa + popmech

Source: habrahabr.ru/post/228865/