Luna 1

Luna 1 (also called Lunik 1 or Mechta ) was the first space engine to be passed near the Moon.

Of spherical form with five antennas located on one of its hemispheres and the instruments exceeding at the surface of this sphere, Luna 1 did not have clean system of propulsion.

Its launching took place on January 2nd, 1959 since Baïkonour and constituted the first successful launch of the program of interplanetary probes Luna. The same day, Luna 1 became the first object created by the man to reach the Escape velocity of the Earth thus freeing itself from the terrestrial attraction. While passing through the belt external of Van Allen, the measurements taken by its Scintillateur made it possible to discover that there were very few particles of high energy in this part of the Ceinture of Van Allen.

January 3rd, at a distance of 113.000 km of the Earth, Luna 1 released an important cloud (1 kg) of gas sodium making of this probe first artificial comet. The orange luminous trail thus created, visible with the top of the Indian Ocean and a luminosity comparable with a star magnitude 6, made it possible to the astronomers to follow the probe. That was also used to observe the gas reaction of in space. Luna 1 approached to 5.995 km surface the Moon on January 4th after 34 hours vol. It was then put into orbit around the Sun in an area ranging between the Earth and consequently becoming Mars, on July 12th, 1959, the first artificial body to orbit around the Sun. Many observers think however that its final objective was to be to be crushed on the Moon what the probe Luna 2 will manage to do a few months later.

The probe transported various types of scientific materials to study interplanetary space, including/understanding a Magnétomètre, a Geiger counter, a Scintillateur, a detector of microphone-meteorites… the measurements taken during this mission provided new data on the terrestrial belt of radiations (known as of Van Allen) and on space. The two principal discoveries of this mission were the absence of detectable magnetic field near the Moon and the presence of the Solar wind in interplanetary space.

The probe Luna 1 materialized the beginning of the Space conquest.

Characteristics mission

Internal bonds

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