FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1965
1965 - 2636.PDF
850 FLIGHT International, 27 JAay 1965 Spaceflight There may be other vehicles weighing 6,000,0001b, measuring 131ft long by 114ft wide and having a top speed of 2 m.p.h. (unloaded) or I m.p.h. (loaded), but the only one known to "Flight" is NASA's crawler/ transporter at Merritt Island, near Cape Kennedy. This vehicle will carry a Saturn V rocket, complete with mobile launcher, from the S2Sft tall vertical assembly building seen in the background to the launch pad some three miles distant MORE ON LUNA 5 A comment on the flight of Luna 5 and on Soviet lunar exploration is general was given in a Tass interview on May 14 by Academician Mstislav Keldysh, president of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Although the second and third Soviet lunar probes were included in the comment, Luna 4 was not mentioned. Academician Keldysh was asked to describe the purpose of the Luna 5 flight and its importance for lunar exploration. He replied:—• "Exploration of the Moon using astronomical equipment has already been conducted for a long time and Soviet scientists and scientists abroad have achieved major results in this field. We now know much about the relief of the Moon—its main physical features. But a more detailed study of the Moon has become possible only in the space age with the help of automatic apparatus launched in the general direction of the Moon or straight to its surface. All this is one of the complex tasks of modern space engineering. "The first craft to reach the Moon was the Soviet station Luna 2. This made valuable scientific measurements and discovered in particular that the Moon's magnetic field is extremely small compared with the magnetic field of the Earth. The automatic station Luna 3 allowed Soviet scientists to take pictures of the hidden side of the Moon, and for the first time to transmit television pictures to Earth from space. "American scientists received a series of interesting pictures of the Moon's surface taken from close range by the Ranger space- craft, which transmitted a series of television pictures of the Moon's surface from various distances as it approached the Moon. That craft crashed on the surface of the Moon, but in the last moments of the flight it transmitted a large number of television pictures to the Earth. "Of course, the most interesting and the most effective method of studying the Moon is to land on its surface an automatic station with scientific instruments and television cameras capable of trans- mitting to Earth pictures of the lunar landscape around the landing site as well as data on the direct measurements of the physical parameters of the Moon's surface. But the soft-landing of an automatic station on the surface of the Moon is one of the most difficult and still unsolved technical problems of space study. Its intricacy, above all, arises from the lack of atmosphere on the Moon which makes it impossible to use the soft-landing methods which have been tried and tested in the launching of Soviet cosmonauts. "The lack of atmosphere precludes the possibility of braking the craft by the resistance of the atmosphere and the use of a para- chuting system. In order to land on the Moon's surface the craft's comparatively great speed of approach to the Moon, something like 2,3OOm/sec, has to be slowed down by retro-rockets, and the braking must begin from comparatively small altitudes above the Moon and ended exactly on its surface. If the speed of the space- craft is slowed down earlier than necessary it will simply fall from that height on to the Moon and crash. It is also unfortunate if momentum is not halted in time. There are also other problems involved. "Soviet scientists are seriously studying the problem of soft landing on the Moon. The main aim of launching the automatic station Luna 5 was to obtain the first experimental data on the functioning of all the station's systems necessary to a soft-landing on the Moon in natural flight conditions, and in their interaction. It was necessary to check the system of astro-orientation and flight correction, which ensures flight into a predetermined area of the Moon; the system for soft-landing, the operation of which is closely connected with and determined by the astro-correction instruments and the ground measuring and command system; and, finally, to check the automatic equipment installed aboard that co- ordinates the functioning of all the instruments of the station HI general. "Many experiments of practical importance were carried out during this flight. Information was obtained on the operation oj numerous systems necessary for soft-landing. This experiment will
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
