Beyond_Earth-_A_Chronicle_of_Deep_Space_Exploration_1958-2016.pdf

84

Kosmos 167 [Venera]

Nation: USSR (48)

Objective(s): Venus impact

Spacecraft: V-67 (1V no. 311)

Spacecraft Mass: c. 1,100 kg

Mission Design and Management: GSMZ imeni Lavochkina

Launch Vehicle: Molniya-M + Blok VL (8K78M no. Ya716-71, also Ya15000-71)

Launch Date and Time: 17 June 1967 / 02:36:38 UT

Launch Site: NIIP-5 / Site 1/5

Scientific Instruments:

Lander:

• 1. MDDA altimeter
• 2. G-8 and G-10 gas analyzers
• 3. TPV densitometer and thermometer
• 4. barometer

Bus:

• 1. SG-59M triaxial magnetometer
• 2. 4 ion traps
• 3. STS-5 gas discharge counter
• 4. radiation detectors
• 5. SBT-9 gas discharge counter
• 6. KS-18-2M cosmic ray particle counters
• 7. LA-2 spectrometer

Results: This identical twin craft to Venera 4 failed to leave Earth orbit when its Blok VL trans-interplanetary stage failed to fire, because the engine's turbopump had not been cooled prior to ignition. The spacecraft remained stranded in Earth orbit and reentered on 25 June 1967.

85

Surveyor IV

Nation: USA (37)

Objective(s): lunar soft-landing

Spacecraft: Surveyor-D

Spacecraft Mass: 1,037.4 kg

Mission Design and Management: NASA / JPL

Launch Vehicle: Atlas Centaur (AC-11 / Atlas D no. 291 / Centaur D)

Launch Date and Time: 14 July 1967 / 11:53:29 UT

Launch Site: Cape Kennedy / Launch Complex 36A

Scientific Instruments:

• 1. TV camera
• 2. surface sampler

Results: Like Surveyor III, Surveyor IV was equipped with a surface claw (with a magnet in the claw) to detect and measure ferrous elements in the lunar surface. The mission appeared successful until all communications were abruptly lost 2 seconds prior to retro-rocket cutoff at 02:03 UT on 17 July 1967 just two-and-a-half minutes before landing on the Moon. The landing target was Sinus Medii (Central Bay) at 0.4° N / 1.33° W. NASA believed that the solid propellant retro-rocket might have exploded, destroying the vehicle.

86

Explorer XXXV / Anchored International Monitoring Platform 6

Nation: USA (38)

Objective(s): lunar orbit

Spacecraft: AIMP-E

Spacecraft Mass: 104.3 kg

Mission Design and Management: NASA / GSFC

Launch Vehicle: Thor Delta E-1 (Thor Delta E-1 no. 50 / Thor no. 488/DSV-3E)

Launch Date and Time: 19 July 1967 / 14:19:02 UT

Launch Site: Cape Kennedy / Launch Complex 17B

Scientific Instruments:

• 1. magnetometers
• 2. thermal ion detector
• 3. ion chambers and Geiger tubes
• 4. Geiger tubes and p-on-n junction
• 5. micrometeoroid detector
• 6. Faraday cup

Results: Explorer XXXV (35) also known as the Anchored Interplanetary Monitoring Platform (AIMP-E or AIMP-6) was designed to study interplanetary space phenomena, particularly the solar wind, the interplanetary magnetic field, dust distribution near the Moon, the lunar gravitational field, the weak lunar ionosphere, and the radiation environment. The spacecraft left Earth on a direct ascent trajectory and entered lunar orbit on 21 July 1967 after a 23-second burn. The main engine separated 2 hours later, the spacecraft having entered an initial elliptical orbit of 800 × 7,692 kilometers at 147° inclination. The spacecraft, similar to Explorer XXXIII, which had failed to achieve lunar orbit, found that the Moon has no magnetosphere, that solar wind particles impact directly onto the surface, and that the Moon creates a "cavity" in the solar wind stream. After six years of successful operation, the satellite was turned off on 24 June 1973. The lunar satellite later impacted on the surface, although the precise location remains unknown. Explorer XXXV was launched by the fiftieth Thor Delta booster, of which only three had failed to date, giving it a success rating of 94%.

87

Lunar Orbiter V

Nation: USA (39)

Objective(s): lunar orbit

Spacecraft: LO-E (Spacecraft 3)

Spacecraft Mass: 385.6 kg

Mission Design and Management: NASA / LaRC

Launch Vehicle: Atlas Agena D (Atlas Agena D no. 24 / Atlas D no. 5805 / Agena D no. AD159/6634)

Launch Date and Time: 1 August 1967 / 22:33:00 UT

Launch Site: Cape Kennedy / Launch Complex 13

Scientific Instruments:

• 1. imaging system
• 2. micrometeoroid detectors
• 3. radiation dosimeters

Results: Lunar Orbiter V was the last in a series of highly successful missions to map the Moon for potential landing sites and conduct general observational surveys. This last mission's objectives were both photographic (the primary mission) and non-photographic (the secondary). The former involved taking additional pictures of Apollo sites, broad surveys of unphotographed areas of the farside, imaging the Surveyor landing sites, and photographic areas of scientific value. The secondary goals included acquisition of precise trajectory information for improving the definition of the lunar gravitational field, measurement of the micrometeoroid flux and radiation dose in the lunar environment, and helping to prepare the Manned Space Flight Network for the Apollo missions. After a single mid-course correction on 3 August, Lunar Orbiter V entered lunar polar orbit two days later after an engine firing at 16:48 UT that lasted 8 minutes, 28 seconds. Initial orbital parameters were 194.5 × 6,023 kilometers at 85.01° inclination. The orbital period was 8.5 hours. Lunar Orbiter V began its photography mission at 01:22 UT on 7 August before executing a maneuver to bring it to its operational orbit at 100 × 6,023 kilometers. The spacecraft photographed 36 different areas on the near side and mapped most of the farside via a set of 212 frames until the photography mission ended on 18 August. These included five potential Apollo landing sites, 36 science sites, and 23 previously unphotographed areas of the farside, as well possible targets for future Surveyor missions. Controllers also extensively used the spacecraft to map the Moon's gravitational field in order to predict orbital perturbations on future lunar orbital missions. The probe also obtained a spectacular high-quality photo of Earth showing Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Africa at 09:05 UT on 8 August 1967. A further orbital change on 9 August brought the orbit down to 1,499.37 × 98.93 kilometers at 84.76° inclination. Lunar Orbiter V was commanded to impact on the lunar surface on 31 January 1968, which it did at 0° N / 70° W. In total, the five Lunar Orbiters photographed 99% of the lunar surface. Perhaps the most important finding credited to data from the Lunar Orbiters (and Lunar Orbiter V, in particular) is the discovery of "mascons" or lunar mass concentrations under the lunar ringed maria, first published by JPL researchers P. M. Muller and W. L. Sjogren in mid-1968.

88

Surveyor V

Nation: USA (40)

Objective(s): lunar soft-landing

Spacecraft: Surveyor-E

Spacecraft Mass: 1,006 kg

Mission Design and Management: NASA / JPL

Launch Vehicle: Atlas Centaur (AC-13 / Atlas 3C no. 5901C / Centaur D-1A)

Launch Date and Time: 8 September 1967 / 07:57:01 UT

Launch Site: Cape Kennedy / Launch Complex 36B

Scientific Instruments:

• 1. TV camera
• 2. alpha-scattering instrument
• 3. footpad magnet

Results: Surveyor V was similar to its predecessor but the surface sampler from the earlier vehicle was replaced by an alpha-backscatter instrument to determine the relative abundance of the chemical elements in lunar material. In addition, a small bar magnet was installed on one of the lander's footpads to indicate whether the lunar soil had magnetic properties. Overcoming a near-fatal helium leak in a pressure regulator, engineers from JPL and Hughes Aircraft Company (the prime contractor for the spacecraft) expertly managed to safely land Surveyor V on the surface of the Moon in the south-eastern region of Mare Tranquilitatis at 1.42° N / 23.20° E at 00:46:42 UT on 11 September 1967. The malfunction put the lander about 29 kilometers away from its target in an angular incline within the slope of rimless crater. Surveyor V was, however, the most successful of the series so far. The lander returned 18,006 photos before lunar night descended on 24 September. Controllers successfully commanded the vehicle to take a further 1,000 photographs during the second lunar day between 15 and 24 October 1967 and the fourth lunar day in December. In total, 20,018 pictures were transmitted. In a new experiment, on 13 September controllers fired the main engine for 0.55 seconds to examine the effects of disturbing the lunar surface. NASA announced that no new craters were created, nor was there any significant dust cloud due to the firing. The alpha-scattering instrument had earlier been activated and found the soil to be composed of more than half oxygen with various amounts of silicon and aluminum. Contact was lost with the lander on 16 December 1967.

89

[Zond, 7K-L1 no. 4L]

Nation: USSR (49)

Objective(s): circumlunar flight

Spacecraft: 7K-L1 (no. 4L)

Spacecraft Mass: c. 5,375 kg

Mission Design and Management: TsKBEM

Launch Vehicle: Proton-K + Blok D (8K82K no. 229-01 / 11S824 no. 12L)

Launch Date and Time: 27 September 1967 / 22:11:54 UT

Launch Site: NIIP-5 / Site 81/23

Scientific Instruments: [unknown]

Results: This spacecraft, a 7K-L1 type, was the first of a series of spacecraft that the Soviets tried to send on circumlunar missions as part of a larger project to send two cosmonauts around the Moon. The program, which was officially approved in October 1965, involved combining forces between two of the leading space organizations in the Soviet Union, those headed by Vasiliy Mishin (1917–2001) (who provided the 7K-L1 spaceship and the Blok D translunar injection stage) and Vladimir Chelomey (1914–1984) (who provided the 3-stage Proton-K launch vehicle). The 7K-L1 spacecraft was a stripped-down version of the larger 7K-OK Soyuz spacecraft intended for Earth-orbital operations. The proximate goal was to send two cosmonauts around the Moon by the fiftieth anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, in November 1967. The project moved into a new stage with two technological flights in Earth orbit in March and April 1967, which involved high-speed reentries. During this particular launch, the ascent was steady for 61 seconds before diverting from a nominal path, which activated the emergency rescue system into action. The 7K-L1 descent module immediately separated from the wandering launch vehicle, and although the capsule was destabilized at the moment of separation because of an unexpected pressure shock, it landed safely in one piece not far from wreckage of the booster which was destroyed at T+97.4 seconds.

90

Surveyor VI

Nation: USA (41)

Objective(s): lunar soft-landing

Spacecraft: Surveyor-F

Spacecraft Mass: 1,008.3 kg

Mission Design and Management: NASA / JPL

Launch Vehicle: Atlas Centaur (AC-14 / Atlas 3C no. 5902C / Centaur D-1A)

Launch Date and Time: 7 November 1967 / 07:39:01 UT

Launch Site: Cape Kennedy / Launch Complex 36B

Scientific Instruments:

• 1. TV camera
• 2. alpha-scattering instrument
• 3. footpad magnets

Results: Surveyor VI landed safely on the Moon at 01:01:04 UT on 10 November 1967 in the Sinus Medii (Central Bay) at coordinates announced as 0.46° N / 1.37° W (but probably closer to 0.473° N / 1.427° W). The spacecraft returned 29,952 images of the lunar surface during less than two weeks of operation before the onset of lunar night on 24 November, because of which the spacecraft was placed in hibernation mode on 26 November. During its initial operations, the alpha-scattering instrument acquired about 30 hours of data on the chemical composition of the lunar surface. Although controllers regained contact briefly on 14 December 1967, primary landing operations had ceased by this time. Before termination of operations, on 17 November 1967, Surveyor VI was commanded to fire its three main liquid propellant thrusters for 2.5 seconds. As a result, the lander became the first spacecraft to be launched from the lunar surface. Surveyor VI lifted up to about three meters before landing two-and-a-half meters west of its original landing point. Cameras then studied the original landing footprints in order to determine the soil's mechanical properties and also accomplish some stereo imaging, now that the source point had been displaced. Surveyor VI also sent back pictures of the bar magnet at the footpad allowing investigators to determine the concentration of magnetic material in the lunar surface.