Luna 9

Luna 9 (also called Lunik 9 or Object 01954 ) was the ninth Soviet probe of the Programme Luna.

The probe Luna 9 will remain in the History like the first machine to carefully make a success of a landing on a celestial body and to transmit photographs taken in situ towards the Earth. The undercarriage itself weighed 99 kg. This capsule seals was provided with radio operator equipment, of an internal clock, a thermal control system, equipment scientists, sources of power and system of television. The payload of Luna 9 was put in terrestrial orbit by vehicle A-2-E then injected towards the the Moon by the fourth stage of the rocket which will separate some thereafter. The payload separated from the devices of flight right before the landing. The landing took place in Oceanus Procellarum (the Ocean of the storms) on February 3rd, 1966. The four petals which constituted the external structure of the undercarriage opened then towards outside, stabilizing the probe on the lunar ground. The antennas, assembled on spring, were spread nominally and the rotary mirror camera (this system authorized two degrees of freedom for the catches of sights: rotation in a horizontal plane and a slope compared to the local vertical) began the catch from sight of the neighborhoods. Seven sessions of transmissions, is a total of 8:00 and 5min, allowed the restitution of three series of stereotypes. Once assembled, one could reconstitute a panoramic sight of the place of landing. These photographs comprised catches of sights of the surrounding rocks as well as the horizon located at 1,4 km of the undercarriage.

Objectives of the mission

The objective of this experiment was to obtain information on the characteristics of the lunar ground. Among them one can quote:

quantity of craters, their structure like their size
quantity, distribution and size of the rocks
mechanical properties of surface such as its resistance, its cohesion, its compressibility
determination and the recognition of the processes in the beginning of the geological formations visible at lunar surface

Characteristics mission

Country: Union of the Soviet socialist republics
Launch date: January 31st 1966 with 11:45 min 00s (UTC)

Site of launching: Tyuratam, Cosmodrome de Baïkonour (Kazakhstan)
Launcher: SS-6 (Sapwood) modified with an upper floor of second generation + stage of release

Mass: 1580 kg
Date of landing: February 3rd 1966 with 18:44 min 52s (UTC)

Longitude of the site of landing: 295,63° E
Latitude of the site of landing: 7,08° NR

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