Rambler's Top100Astronet    
  po tekstam   po klyuchevym slovam   v glossarii   po saitam   perevod   po katalogu
 

Prelude to Apollo - Ranger 8
<< Yesterday 17.02.2004 Tomorrow >>
Prelude to Apollo - Ranger 8
Credit: Ranger 8, P020
Explanation:

Today is the 39th anniversary of the launch of the Ranger 8 spacecraft. The Ranger series was designed to obtain the first high resolution images of the lunar surface to help plan for Surveyor and Apollo landings. Indeed, the Rangers provided the first ever US images of the Moon from space, and the 2nd ever, following the Soviet Luna 3 farside images of 1959. Ranger 7 was the first of the Ranger series to work, and Ranger 8 demonstrated that that success was not a fluke - the US had finally learned to fly space missions. Ranger carried multiple cameras which took pictures and radioed them to Earth in sequence - the upper right frame was being transmitted when Ranger 8 smashed into the Moon - noise replaces the picture. Although 7,137 images were acquired as Ranger 8 plummeted towards destruction on Mare Tranquillitatis, the last few images were most important for they showed that craters existed at all scales - landing a spacecraft could be precarious. During the Ranger program I was a student worker at the Lunar & Planetary Lab, whose director was Gerard Kuiper, the Principal Investigator for Ranger. It was thrilling to see each Ranger's series of photographs start with familiar wide angle view and end with never before seen details. It was clear, the work of a crater counter might never end! (The +s and other marks are fiduciary marks - if the image was distorted, the known geometry of these marks could be used to restore it.)

Related Links:
Ranger 8 Description

<<  Fevral'  >>
Pn Vt Sr Cht Pt Sb Vs
            1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
2004   2005  
Yanvar'
Fevral'
Mart
Aprel'
Mai
Iyun'
Iyul'
Avgust
Sentyabr'
Oktyabr'
Noyabr'
Dekabr'

Publikacii s klyuchevymi slovami: Moon - Luna - Lunar Photo of the Day - LPOD
Publikacii so slovami: Moon - Luna - Lunar Photo of the Day - LPOD
Sm. takzhe:
Vse publikacii na tu zhe temu >>

Ocenka: 2.2 [golosov: 11]
 
O reitinge
Versiya dlya pechati Raspechatat'

Astronet | Nauchnaya set' | GAISh MGU | Poisk po MGU | O proekte | Avtoram

Kommentarii, voprosy? Pishite: info@astronet.ru ili syuda

Rambler's Top100 Yandeks citirovaniya