Luna 1
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Luna 1'', also known as ''Mechta'' (russian: Мечта , '' lit.'': ''Dream''), ''E-1 No.4'' and ''First Lunar Rover'', was the first
spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, p ...
to reach the vicinity of Earth's
Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
, and the first spacecraft to be placed in
heliocentric orbit A heliocentric orbit (also called circumsolar orbit) is an orbit around the barycenter of the Solar System, which is usually located within or very near the surface of the Sun. All planets, comets, and asteroids in the Solar System, and the Sun i ...
. Intended as an impactor, ''Luna 1'' was launched as part of the
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
Luna programme The Luna programme (from the Russian word "Luna" meaning "Moon"), occasionally called ''Lunik'' by western media, was a series of robotic spacecraft missions sent to the Moon by the Soviet Union between 1959 and 1976. Fifteen were successful, ...
in 1959. A malfunction in the ground-based control system caused an error in the upper stage rocket's burn time, and the spacecraft missed the Moon by 5900 km (more than three times the Moon's radius). ''Luna 1'' became the first human-made object to reach
heliocentric orbit A heliocentric orbit (also called circumsolar orbit) is an orbit around the barycenter of the Solar System, which is usually located within or very near the surface of the Sun. All planets, comets, and asteroids in the Solar System, and the Sun i ...
and was dubbed "Artificial Planet 1"https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1959-012A - 27 February 2020 and renamed ''Mechta'' (''Dream''). ''Luna 1'' was also referred to as the "First Cosmic Ship", in reference to its achievement of Earth
escape velocity In celestial mechanics, escape velocity or escape speed is the minimum speed needed for a free, non- propelled object to escape from the gravitational influence of a primary body, thus reaching an infinite distance from it. It is typically ...
.


Background

''Luna 1'' was the fourth and final spacecraft of the Ye-1 spacecraft series. The previous three iterations did not achieve orbit due to issues with each rocket launch.


Spacecraft

The satellite and rocket carrying ''Luna 1'' was originally referred to as the Soviet Space Rocket by the Soviet Press. Pravda writer Alexander Kazantsev called it ''Mechta'' (russian: Мечта, meaning 'dream'). Citizens of Moscow unofficially deemed it ''Lunik'', a combination of Luna (Moon) and Sputnik. It was renamed to ''Luna 1'' in 1963. The spherical satellite was powered by mercury-oxide batteries and silver-zinc accumulators. There were five antenna on one hemisphere, four whip-style and one rigid, for communication purposes. The spacecraft also contained
radio equipment Radio-frequency (RF) engineering is a subset of electronic engineering involving the application of transmission line, waveguide, antenna and electromagnetic field principles to the design and application of devices that produce or use signals ...
including a
tracking transmitter A tracking transmitter broadcasts a radio signal which can be detected by a directional antenna (typically a Radio Direction Finder.) By rotating the antenna one can determine the direction the signal lies in and of course whatever it may be attac ...
and
telemetry Telemetry is the in situ data collection, collection of measurements or other data at remote points and their automatic data transmission, transmission to receiving equipment (telecommunication) for monitoring. The word is derived from the Gr ...
system. There was no propulsion system. ''Luna 1'' was designed to impact the Moon, delivering two metallic pennants with the Soviet coat of arms that were included into its payload package. It also had six instruments to study the Moon upon its suicidal approach. The flux-gate
magnetometer A magnetometer is a device that measures magnetic field or magnetic dipole moment. Different types of magnetometers measure the direction, strength, or relative change of a magnetic field at a particular location. A compass is one such device, o ...
was triaxial and could measure ± 3000 gammas. It was designed to detect lunar magnetic fields. Two micrometeorite detectors, developed by Tatiana Nazarova of the Vernadsky Institute, were installed on the spacecraft. They each consisted of a metal plate with springs and could detect small impacts. Four ion traps, used to measure solar wind and plasma, were included. They were developed by Konstantin Gringauz. The scientific payload also included two gas-discharge
Geiger counter A Geiger counter (also known as a Geiger–Müller counter) is an electronic instrument used for detecting and measuring ionizing radiation. It is widely used in applications such as radiation dosimetry, radiological protection, experimental ph ...
s, a sodium-iodide scintillation counter, and a Cherenkov detector. The upper stage of the rocket contained a scintillation counter and of sodium for a gas-dispersion experiment. The spacecraft weighed at launch.


Launch

''Luna 1'' was launched at 16:41 GMT (22:41
local time Local time is the time observed in a specific locality. There is no canonical definition. Originally it was mean solar time, but since the introduction of time zones it is generally the time as determined by the time zone in effect, with daylight s ...
) on 2 January 1959 from Site 1/5 at the
Baikonur Cosmodrome The Baikonur Cosmodrome ( kk, Байқоңыр ғарыш айлағы, translit=Baiqoñyr ğaryş ailağy, ; russian: Космодром Байконур, translit=Kosmodrom Baykonur, ) is a spaceport in an area of southern Kazakhstan leased to R ...
by a
Luna 8K72 The Luna 8K72 vehicles were carrier rockets used by the Soviet Union for nine space probe launch attempts in the Luna programme between 23 September 1958 and 16 April 1960. Like many other Soviet launchers of that era the Luna 8K72 vehicles were de ...
rocket. The first three stages operated nominally. The Soviet engineers did not trust automated systems for controlling the engine burns, so they communicated to the rocket via radio. The signal to stop firing the engine Block E stage was sent too late, and it imparted an extra 175 m/s to ''Luna 1''. Consequently ''Luna 1'' missed its target by . The spacecraft passed within of the Moon's surface on 4 January after 34 hours of flight, and became the first man made object to leave earth's orbit on January 6th. ''Luna 1'' ran out of battery power on 5 January 1959 when it was from Earth, making it impossible to track further. The batteries were designed for a minimum of 40 hours but lasted for 62. ''Luna 1'' became the first artificial object to reach the
escape velocity In celestial mechanics, escape velocity or escape speed is the minimum speed needed for a free, non- propelled object to escape from the gravitational influence of a primary body, thus reaching an infinite distance from it. It is typically ...
of the Earth, along with its carrier rocket's upper stage, which it separated from after being the first spacecraft to reach
heliocentric orbit A heliocentric orbit (also called circumsolar orbit) is an orbit around the barycenter of the Solar System, which is usually located within or very near the surface of the Sun. All planets, comets, and asteroids in the Solar System, and the Sun i ...
. It remains in orbit around the Sun, between the orbits of Earth and Mars.


Experiment results

At 00:57 GMT on 3 January 1959, at a distance of from Earth, of
sodium Sodium is a chemical element with the symbol Na (from Latin ''natrium'') and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 of the periodic table. Its only stable iso ...
gas was released by the spacecraft, forming a cloud behind it to serve as an artificial
comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ar ...
. The cloud was released for two purposes: to allow visual tracking of the spacecraft's trajectory and to observe the behavior of gas in space. This glowing orange trail of gas, visible over the
Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...
with the brightness of a sixth-magnitude star for a few minutes, was photographed by Mstislav Gnevyshev at the Mountain Station of the Main Astronomical Observatory of the
Academy of Sciences of the USSR The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991, uniting the country's leading scientists, subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (until 1946 ...
near
Kislovodsk Kislovodsk (russian: Кислово́дск, lit. ''sour waters''; ; krc, Ачысуу) is a spa city in Stavropol Krai, Russia, in the North Caucasus region of Russia which is located between the Black and Caspian Seas. Population: History I ...
. While traveling through the outer Van Allen radiation belt, the spacecraft's scintillator made observations indicating that a small number of high-energy
particle In the Outline of physical science, physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscule in older texts) is a small wikt:local, localized physical body, object which can be described by several physical property, physical or chemical property, chemical ...
s exist in the outer belt. The measurements obtained during this mission provided new data on the Earth's radiation belt and
outer space Outer space, commonly shortened to space, is the expanse that exists beyond Earth and its atmosphere and between celestial bodies. Outer space is not completely empty—it is a near-perfect vacuum containing a low density of particles, pred ...
. The craft was unable to detect a lunar
magnetic field A magnetic field is a vector field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular to its own velocity and to ...
which placed an upper limit on its strength of 1/10,000th of Earth's. The first-ever direct observations and measurements of
solar wind The solar wind is a stream of charged particles released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun, called the corona. This plasma mostly consists of electrons, protons and alpha particles with kinetic energy between . The composition of the sola ...
, a strong flow of ionized plasma emanating from the Sun and streaming through interplanetary space, were performed. The ionized plasma concentration was measured to be some 700 particles per cm3 at altitudes of 20,000–25,000 km and 300 to 400 particles per cm3 at altitudes of 100,000–150,000 km. The spacecraft also marked the first instance of radio communication at the half-million-kilometer distance.


Reaction

Some doubted the veracity of the Soviets' claim of mission success. Lloyd Mallan wrote about it in a book called ''The Big Red Lie''. Many in the West did not receive transmissions from the spacecraft even though the Soviets publicized them before the flight. By the time the Earth rotated so that scientists in America could pick up signals from the spacecraft, it was already away. In May 1959 several hearings ''Soviet Space Technology'' before the ''Committee on Science and Astronautics and Special Subcommittee on Lunik Probe'' of the
United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...
attested the achievements of the Soviet mission and its sophicated guidance technology. The Soviet Union issued stamps to commemorate their success.


Subsequent missions

'' Luna 2'', the second spacecraft of the Ye-1A series, successfully completed the mission on 13 September 1959.


See also

* ''
Pioneer 4 Pioneer 4 was an American spin-stabilized uncrewed spacecraft launched as part of the Pioneer program on a lunar flyby trajectory and into a heliocentric orbit making it the first probe of the United States to escape from the Earth's gravity. ...
'' – a similar
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
mission launched 3 March 1959, two months after ''Luna 1''.


References


External links

* * * * * * *
Boris Chertok Boris Yevseyevich Chertok (russian: link=no, Бори́с Евсе́евич Черто́к; – 14 December 2011) was a Russian electrical engineer and the control systems designer in the Soviet Union's space program, and later found employm ...
, "Rakety i liudi: goriachie dni, kholodnoy voyny", Moscow, "Mashinostroenie", 2nd edition (1999)
Sect. 2–7

Zarya – ''Luna 1'' chronology
{{authority control 1959 in the Soviet Union Derelict satellites in heliocentric orbit Luna programme Spacecraft launched in 1959