Luna 3
Luna 3
|
|
| Mission type | Lunar flyby |
|---|---|
| Operator | OKB-1 |
| Harvard designation | 1959 Theta 1 |
| SATCAT no. | 21 |
| Orbits completed | 14 |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft | Ye-2A No.1 |
| Manufacturer | OKB-1 |
| Launch mass | 278.5 kilograms (614 lb) |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 4 October 1959, 00:43:39 UTC |
| Rocket | Luna |
| Launch site | Baikonur 1/5 |
| End of mission | |
| Last contact | 22 October 1959 |
| Decay date | 29 April 1960 |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime |
Highly elliptical (circumlunar) |
| Semi-major axis | 256,620.50 kilometres (159,456.59 mi) |
| Eccentricity | 0.97322501 |
| Perigee | 500 kilometres (310 mi) |
| Apogee | 499,999 kilometres (310,685 mi) |
| Inclination | 55 degrees |
| Period | 359.38 hours |
| Epoch | 5 October 1959 |
| Flyby of the Moon | |
| Closest approach | 6 October 1959, 14:16 UTC |
| Distance | 6,200 kilometres (3,900 mi) |
Luna 3, or E-2A No.1 was a Soviet spacecraft launched in 1959 as part of the Luna programme. It was the first-ever mission to photograph the far side of the Moon. It was also the third space probe to be sent to the neighborhood of the Moon,. Though it returned rather poor pictures by later standards, the historic, never-before-seen views of the far side of the Moon caused excitement and interest when they were published around the world, and a tentative Atlas of the Far Side of the Moon was created after image processing improved the pictures.
These views showed mountainous terrain, very different from the near side, and only two dark, low-lying regions which were named Mare Moscoviense (Sea of Moscow) and Mare Desiderii (Sea of Desire). Mare Desiderii was later found to be composed of a smaller mare, Mare Ingenii (Sea of Ingenuity), and several other dark craters. The reason for this difference between the two sides of the Moon is still not fully understood, but it seems that most of the dark lavas that flowed out to produce the maria formed under the Earth-facing half.
Luna 3 was followed by the United States with Ranger 7, Ranger 8, and Ranger 9.
The space probe was a cylindric canister with hemispheric ends and a wide flange near the top. The probe was 130 cm long and 120 cm at its maximum diameter at the flange. Most of the cylindric section was roughly 95 cm in diameter. The canister was hermetically sealed and pressurized to about 0.22 atmosphere (23 kilopascals). Several solar cells were mounted on the outside of the cylinder, and these provided electric power to the storage batteries inside the space probe.
Shutters for thermal control were positioned along the cylinder and opened to expose a radiating surface when the internal temperature exceeded 25 °C. The upper hemisphere of the probe held the covered opening for the cameras. Four antennas protruded from the top of the probe and two from its bottom. Other scientific equipment was mounted on the outside, including micrometeoroid and cosmic ray detectors, and the Yenisey-2 imaging system. The gas jets for its attitude control system were mounted on the lower end of the spacecraft. Several photoelectric cells helped maintain orientation with respect to the Sun and the Moon.
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