September 14, 2006 - Spacecraft Trivia

Most of you had the same answer to our Trivia Question, but it was - technically, at least - incomplete. Do YOU know the answer before seeing it here?

TRIVIA QUESTION:

On this day in history... September 14, 1959... The Russian spacecraft Luna 2 did something no other spacecraft had done before. What did Luna 2 do that put it in the history books?

TRIVIA ANSWER:

Became the first manmade object to reach the moon.

Most of you answered that it landed or crashed into the moon. But the BIG thing was the fact that it was the FIRST manmade object to do that.

Luna 2 was the second of the Soviet Union's Luna program spacecraft launched in the direction of the Moon. The first spacecraft to reach the surface of the Moon, it impacted the lunar surface east of Mare Serenitatis near the Aristides, Archimedes, and Autolycus craters.

Luna 2 was similar in design to Luna 1, a spherical spacecraft with protruding antennae and instrument parts. The instrumentation was also similar, including scintillation counters, geiger counters, a magnetometer, Cherenkov detectors, and micrometeorite detectors. There were no propulsion systems on Luna 2 itself.

Scientifically, Luna 2 is most famous for making the discovery of the solar wind, via its hemispherical ion traps designed by Konstantin Gringauz. Luna 1 had provided the first evidence of this phenomenon; and on Luna 2, Gringauz changed the four sensors to a tetrahedral arrangement, instead of planar, to get better measurements of the plasma flux.

After launch and attainment of escape velocity on September 13, 1959, Luna 2 separated from its third stage, which traveled along with it towards the Moon. On September 13 the spacecraft released a bright orange cloud of sodium gas which aided in spacecraft tracking and acted as an experiment on the behavior of gas in space.

On September 14, after 33.5 hours of flight, radio signals from Luna 2 abruptly ceased, indicating it had impacted on the Moon. The impact point, in the Palus Putredinis region, is roughly estimated to have occurred at 0 degrees longitude, 29.1 degrees N latitude. Some 30 minutes after Luna 2, the third stage of its rocket also impacted the Moon. The mission confirmed that the Moon had no appreciable magnetic field, and found no evidence of the Moon having radiation belts.

For more information, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_2

- - - - - - - - - - CHECK-IN's to the NET - - - - - - - - - -

• WB6A - Pat
• WB6ATV - Ron
• KE6CZH - Robert
• KG6DBL - Bill
• W6DTS - Ted *
• K6FCC - Khalil
• KB6IS - Madeline
• N6KAS - Andy
• KG6KTC - Leon
• NY6L - Jay
• K6LMN - Roger
• KD6NIW - Oliver
• W6NVY - Gary
• KG6NWJ - Barry
• KD6OBM - Jason
• N6OEC - Phil
• K6QVZ - Joe
• KG6RDA - Sidney
• AD6UP - Louie
• KF6YBM - Henry
• KF6ZQM - Harry
• N6ZZK - Theo
• W6KC - Jim

And the winner is... Ted, W6DTS, who was the only one to say that Luna 2 was the FIRST manmade object to reach the moon. Congratulations, Ted, and thanks to everybody for checking in tonight.

73.