Beyond_Earth-_A_Chronicle_of_Deep_Space_Exploration_1958-2016.pdf

Luna 23

Nation: USSR (91)

Objective(s): lunar sample return

Spacecraft: Ye-8-5M (no. 410)

Spacecraft Mass: 5,795 kg

Mission Design and Management: GSMZ imeni Lavochkina

Launch Vehicle: Proton-K + Blok D (8K82K no. 285-01 + 11S824 no. 0901L)

Launch Date and Time: 28 October 1974 / 14:30:32 UT

Launch Site: NIIP-5 / Site 81/24

Scientific Instruments:

• 1. stereo imaging system
• 2. LB09 drill for sample collection
• 3. radiation detector
• 4. radio altimeter

Results: Luna 23 was the first modified lunar sample return spacecraft, designed to return a deep core sample of the Moon's surface (hence the change in index from Ye-8-5 to Ye-8-5M). The main differences were the use of a new drilling and sampling instrument, the LB09, the removal of the low-altitude Kvant altimeter, and lightening of the toroidal instrument compartment. The diameter of the container containing soil in the return capsule had also been increased from 68 to 100 mm. While Luna 16 and 20 had returned samples from a depth of 0.3 meters, the new spacecraft was designed to dig to 2.3 meters. After a mid-course correction on 31 October, Luna 23 entered orbit around the moon on 2 November 1974. Parameters were 104 × 94 kilometers at 138° inclination. Following several more changes to the orbit, the spacecraft descended to the lunar surface on November 6. The first part of the descent occurred without anomalies until the vehicle was at 2.28-kilometer altitude. At that point, the DA-018 Doppler radar was switched on to provide data on the final stage of descent. At a height of 130 meters, however, all altitude measurements stopped. Nevertheless, the vehicle managed to land in one piece despite a landing velocity of 11 meters/second (instead of 5 meters/second). Landing was in the southernmost portion of Mare Crisium at 12° 41′ N / 62° 17′ E. As a result of the hard landing, equipment on the lander was damaged—there was a depressurization of the instrument compartment and failure of a transmitter. Subsequent attempts to activate the drill all failed, preventing fulfillment of the primary mission, the return of lunar soil to Earth. Controllers devised a makeshift plan to conduct a limited science exploration program with the stationary lander and maintained contact with the spacecraft until 9 November 1974. Images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) in 2012 showed that Luna 23 was actually laying on its side on the lunar surface.

Helios 1

Nation: Federal Republic of Germany (1)

Objective(s): heliocentric orbit

Spacecraft: Helios-A

Spacecraft Mass: 370 kg

Mission Design and Management: DFVLR / NASA / GSFC

Launch Vehicle: Titan IIIE-Centaur (TC-2 / Titan no. 23E-2 / Centaur D-1T)

Launch Date and Time: 10 November 1974 / 07:11:02 UT

Launch Site: Cape Canaveral / Launch Complex 41

Scientific Instruments:

• 1. plasma detector
• 2. flux gate magnetometer
• 3. 2nd flux gate magnetometer
• 4. plasma and radio wave experiment
• 5. cosmic ray detector
• 6. low energy electron and ion spectrometer
• 7. zodiacal light photometer
• 8. micrometeoroid analyzer
• 9. search coil magnetometer
• 10. Faraday effect experiment

Results: Helios 1 was a joint German-U.S. deep space mission to study the main solar processes and solar-terrestrial relationships. Specifically, the spacecraft's instruments were designed to investigate phenomena such as solar wind, magnetic and electric fields, cosmic rays, and cosmic dust in regions between Earth's orbit and approximately 0.3 AU from the Sun. It was the largest bilateral project to date for NASA with Germany paying about $180 million of the total $260 million cost. The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) provided the spacecraft, named after the Greek god of the Sun, and NASA the launch vehicles. After launch, Helios 1 entered into a parking orbit around Earth and then sent into an elliptical orbit around the Sun at 0.985 × 0.3095 AU at 0.02° inclination to the ecliptic. The Centaur boost stage on this mission, after separation from the first stage, conducted a set of maneuvers to provide data for the (then-called) Mariner Jupiter-Saturn missions planned for launches in 1977. By January 1975, control of the mission had been transferred from the U.S. to West Germany, which faced a few minor communications problems, especially with antennas for both the American and German plasma wave experiments. On 15 March 1975, Helios 1 passed within 46 million kilometers of the Sun (at perihelion) at a speed of 238,000 kilometers/hour, a distance that was the closest any human-made object had been to our nearest star. The spacecraft achieved a second close flyby of the Sun on 21 September 1975 when temperatures on its solar cells reached 132°C. During its mission, the spacecraft spun once every second to evenly distribute the heat coming from the Sun, 90% of which was reflected by optical surface mirrors. Its data indicated the presence of 15 times more micrometeoroids close to the Sun than there are near Earth. Helios 1's data was correlated with the Interplanetary Monitoring Platform (IMP) Explorers 47 and 50 in Earth orbit, the Pioneer solar orbiters, and Pioneer 10 and 11 leaving the solar system. Data was received through the late 1970s and early 1980s but after 1984, both primary and backup receivers failed and the high-gain antenna lost tracking of Earth. Last telemetry from the spacecraft was received on 10 February 1986 after which the spacecraft automatically shut down its transmitter due to lack of power.

Venera 9

Nation: USSR (92)

Objective(s): Venus orbit and landing

Spacecraft: 4V-1 (no. 660)

Spacecraft Mass: 4,936 kg (in Earth orbit)

Mission Design and Management: NPO imeni Lavochkina

Launch Vehicle: Proton-K + Blok D-1 (8K82K no. 286-01 + 11S824M no. 1L)

Launch Date and Time: 8 June 1975 / 02:38:00 UT

Launch Site: NIIP-5 / Site 81/24

Scientific Instruments:

Orbiter:

• 1. imaging system
• 2. infrared radiometer
• 3. infrared radiometer
• 4. photometer
• 5. photopolarimeter
• 6. ultraviolet imaging spectrometer
• 7. radiophysics experiment
• 8. magnetometer
• 9. plasma electrostatic spectrometer
• 10. charged particle traps

Lander:

• 1. panoramic imaging system
• 2. 5 thermometers
• 3. 6 barometers
• 4. mass spectrometer
• 5. anemometer (ISV)
• 6. IOV-75 photometers
• 7. MNV-75 nephelometers
• 8. gamma-ray spectrometer
• 9. radiation densitometer
• 10. accelerometers

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Results: Venera 9 was the first of a new generation of Soviet space probes ("4V") designed to explore Venus, and designed on the basis of the M-71 and M-73 Mars platforms. Launched by the more powerful Proton-K launch booster, the new spacecraft were nearly five times heavier than their predecessors. Each spacecraft comprised of both a bus and a lander, the former equipped with a powerful 11D425A engine capable of 1,928 kgf thrust (throttleable down to 1,005 kgf). For this series of missions, the 2,300-kilogram (mass at Venus orbit insertion) buses would serve as orbiters photographing the planet in ultraviolet light and conducting other scientific investigations. The 660 kilogram landers, of a completely new design, employed aerodynamic braking during Venusian atmospheric entry and contained a panoramic photometer to take images of the surface. During the coast to Venus, they would be packed inside a 1,560-kilogram spherical reentry pod with a diameter of 2.4 meters. Without any apparent problems and two trajectory corrections (on 16 June and 15 October), Venera 9's lander separated from its parent on 20 October 1975 and two days later hit Venus' turbulent atmosphere at a velocity of 10.7 kilometers/hour. After aerodynamic deceleration, the cover of the parachute compartments was jettisoned at about 65 kilometers altitude, with two parachutes (one a drogue and the second to remove the upper portions of the heat shield casing) successively deployed. Descent velocity reduced, as a result, from 250 meters/second to 150 meters/second. At that point, a long drag parachute deployed and data transmission began. The drag parachute decreased descent velocity down to 50 meters/second before, finally, at 62 kilometers attitude, three large canopy parachutes deployed (with a total area of 180 m2). Four seconds after deployment, the lower hemisphere of the heat-shield casing was discarded. The now fully deployed descent vehicle descended for approximately 20 minutes before the main parachutes were jettisoned. The rest of the descent was slowed only by the capsule's own disc-shaped aerobrakes. The lander impacted on the surface at a velocity of approximately 7 meters/second. Pravda noted on 21 February 1976 that "the landing units, which are thin-walled toroidal shells, were deformed [as planned] during landing, thereby absorbing the energy of the impact and assured an oriented position of the descent vehicle on the planet." Landing occurred on the planet's dayside at 05:13:07 UT on 22 October. (Times were only announced for reception of landing signal on Earth). Landing coordinates were within a 150-kilometer radius of 31.01° N / 290.64° E at the base of a hill near Beta Regio. During its 53 minutes of transmissions from the surface, Venera 9 took and transmitted the very first picture of the Venusian surface, taken from a height of 90 centimeters. These were, in fact, the very first photos received of the surface of another planet. The lander was supposed to transmit a full 360° panorama, but because one of the two covers on the camera failed to release, only a 180° panorama was received. Illumination was akin to a cloudy day on Earth. The image clearly showed flat rocks strewn around the lander. The Venera 9 orbiter meanwhile entered a 1,510 × 112,200-kilometer orbit around the planet at 34° 10′ inclination and acted as a communications relay for the lander. It became the first spacecraft to go into orbit around Venus. The Soviets announced on 22 March 1976 that the orbiter's primary mission, which included using French-made ultraviolet cameras to obtain photographs in 1,200 kilometer swaths, had been fulfilled.

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Three versions of the first surface panoramic image taken by Venera 9 on Venus. In the upper image, made up of the raw 6-bit data, the vertical lines represent telemetry bursts that interrupted the image data. The second and third images have been processed by American researcher Don Mitchell. These were the first clear images taken on the surface of a planet. Credit: Don Mitchell

Venera 10

Nation: USSR (93)

Objective(s): Venus orbit and landing

Spacecraft: 4V-1 (no. 661)

Spacecraft Mass: 5,033 kg (in Earth orbit)

Mission Design and Management: NPO imeni Lavochkina

Launch Vehicle: Proton-K + Blok D-1 (8K82K no. 285-02 + 11S824M no. 2L)

Launch Date and Time: 14 June 1975 / 03:00:31 UT

Launch Site: NIIP-5 / Site 81/24

Scientific Instruments:

Orbiter:

• 1. imaging system
• 2. infrared radiometer
• 3. infrared radiometer
• 4. photometer
• 5. photopolarimeter
• 6. ultraviolet imaging spectrometer
• 7. radiophysics experiment
• 8. magnetometer
• 9. plasma electrostatic spectrometer
• 10. charged particle traps

Lander:

• 1. panoramic imaging system
• 2. 5 thermometers
• 3. 6 barometers
• 4. mass spectrometer
• 5. anemometer (ISV)
• 6. IOV-75 photometers
• 7. MNV-75 nephelometers
• 8. gamma-ray spectrometer
• 9. radiation densitometer
• 10. accelerometers

Results: Venera 10, like its sister craft Venera 9, fully accomplished its mission to soft-land on Venus and return data from the surface. The spacecraft followed an identical mission to its twin, arriving only a few days later after two trajectory corrections on 21 June and 18 October 1975. The 1,560-kilogram lander separated from its parent on 23 October and entered the atmosphere two days later at 01:02 UT. During reentry, the lander survived loads as high as 168 g's and temperatures as high 12,000°C. It performed its complex landing procedures without fault (see Venera 9 for details) and landed without incident at 05:17:06 UT approximately 2,200 kilometers from the Venera 9 landing site. (Times were only announced for reception of landing signal on Earth). Landing coordinates were a 150-kilometer radius of 15.42° N / 291.51° E. Venera 10 transmitted for a record 65 minutes from the surface, although it was designed to last only 30 minutes. A photo of the Venera 10 landing site showed a smoother surface than that of its twin. The small image size was part of the original plan, and was determined by the slow telemetry rates and an estimated 30-minute lifetime. Like Venera 9, the Venera 10 lander was supposed to take a 360° panorama but covered only 180° of the surroundings because of a stuck lens cover. Soviet officials later revealed that termination of data reception from both Venera 9 and 10 landers was not due to the adverse surface conditions but because the orbiter relays for both spacecraft flew out of view. Gamma-ray spectrometer and radiation densitometer (shaped a bit like a paint-roller deployed on the surface) data indicated that the surface layer was akin to basalt rather than granite as hinted by the information from Venera 8. The Venera 10 orbiter meanwhile entered a 1,620 × 113,000-kilometer orbit around Venus inclined at 29° 30′, transmitting data until at least June 1976. Unlike the Venera 9 orbiter, photographs taken by the Venera 10 orbiter were never released and it remains unclear whether it actually carried a camera.