October 6, 2013

First To the Moon

image by Ricardo Jose Vaz Tolentino, Brazil

The Soviets were pioneers in their achievements in the "space race", during the "cold war". Examples abound:
- The Soviets were the first to launch an artificial satellite into Earth orbit (Sputnik 1, 1957);
- The first to put a spacecraft near the Moon (probe Luna 1, 1959 - arrived within 6,000 km);
- The first to hit the lunar surface with a manmade object (programmed impact probe Luna 2 in 1959).
- The first to the far side of the Moon (Luna 3 probe in 1959);
- The first to perform a soft landing of a spacecraft on the Moon (Luna 9 spacecraft in 1966).
- The first to put an artificial satellite into lunar orbit (Luna 10 in 1966);
- The first to put two exploring vehicles ("rovers") on the lunar surface, that ran remotely controlled (Lunokhod 1 in 1970 and Lunokhod 2 in 1973), having reached the lunar surface aboard the probes Luna 17 and Luna 21).
Indeed, in those times, behind the "iron curtain" the Soviet Union was a great power in the area of space technology.
On July 21, 1969, when the astronauts of Apollo 11 ended the first walk on the Moon's surface, the Soviet probe Luna 15 - which was supposed to beat Apollo back to Earth with lunar samples - crashed onto the Moon..
The lunar probes Luna 16, Luna 20 and Luna 24, collected and brought to Earth, 101g, 55 g and 170 g of samples, respectively.
The probe Luna 24 was the last spacecraft launched by the Soviet Union. It was also the last spaceship from Earth that landed softly on the Moon.
Telescópio & Câmera:

Ricardo Jose Vaz Tolentino

Technical Details
03/10/2012, 01:06:02 (04:06:02 UT). Telescópio SkyWatcher DOB 12" Collapsible; Câmera ORION StarShoot Solar System Color Imaging Camera III; Celestron Ultima 2X Barlow.

Related Links
21st Century Atlas chart 2.
Ricardo's website

Yesterday's LPOD: Peakly Pleasures

Tomorrow's LPOD: Not Quite Crypto

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