Full Version: Soviet Luna Missions
I suppose this is as good a place as any to ask; has Luna 2's impact site been seen by LRO, or is it even possible? A search didn't tell much, it would be nice to see the oldest artificial crater on another object (1959)!
Hasn't been found as far as I know, and I would not be surprised if it's location is highly uncertain.
No problem re Luna 20, Phil. Rather than post it publicly initially, I was giving you some thinking time!
Your 2007 position was a really good interpretation from the somewhat fuzzy horizon hills, I thought. And the main error was in range to the horizon, so the analysis of the skyline was pretty spot-on.
Good detective work updated by new data. It's so fascinating to see all this stuff emerge from its previous obscurity.
Your 2007 position was a really good interpretation from the somewhat fuzzy horizon hills, I thought. And the main error was in range to the horizon, so the analysis of the skyline was pretty spot-on.
Good detective work updated by new data. It's so fascinating to see all this stuff emerge from its previous obscurity.
Looking ahead to the next Russian missions...
Check out these presentations on Luna-Glob and Luna-Resource site selection!
Phil
http://www.iki.rssi.ru/conf/2011-lg/presentations/
Check out these presentations on Luna-Glob and Luna-Resource site selection!
Phil
http://www.iki.rssi.ru/conf/2011-lg/presentations/
apparently a tiny Luna 16 sample is to be auctioned, if you have a spare million...
Moon Rocks Collected By Soviets Expected To Fetch Up To $1 Million At Auction
the article does not mention it, but I remember a similar sample from Luna 20 being auctioned in the early 1990s.
Moon Rocks Collected By Soviets Expected To Fetch Up To $1 Million At Auction
the article does not mention it, but I remember a similar sample from Luna 20 being auctioned in the early 1990s.
Some good news about Russia's Luna 25, that it's still on-track for an October 1, 2021 launch.
http://en.roscosmos.ru/21544/
http://en.roscosmos.ru/21544/
check out this Roskosmos release for the 50th anniversary of Luna 16 last September!
lots of documents, images and videos (I had never seen the details of how the sampling system really worked shown in the 2nd video)
https://www.roscosmos.ru/29219/
video links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFyQZz9BPVg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-qVNnQDRio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg2-g0qGOo8
lots of documents, images and videos (I had never seen the details of how the sampling system really worked shown in the 2nd video)
https://www.roscosmos.ru/29219/
video links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFyQZz9BPVg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-qVNnQDRio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg2-g0qGOo8
I have grabbed from one of the videos in the previous post four Luna 12 images. I have checked my references, and I am not sure that these have been published before. Maybe Phil Stooke can confirm this.
Interesting! They seem new to me, but the first has vertical lines which look a bit like the framelets in Lunar Orbiter images. I will have to give this some thought. They were shot on film and scanned and transmitted like the Luna 3 (and Lunar Orbiter) images.
EDIT: OK, now I am a bit suspicious. First, the video clearly uses at least one Lunar Orbiter image, the famous "Picture of the Century" oblique view across Copernicus crater. That was Lunar Orbiter 2 which flew after Luna 12, so the video date must be later than that.
Second - look at image 3 from Paolo. 4 horizontal dark lines separate the image into 3 horizontal bands with a bit extra top and bottom, Within each band are vertical fainter light and dark lines. Those look very much like Lunar Orbiter image features (framelet boundaries and scan lines) and are not obvious in the four Luna 12 images I have seen and included in my old atlas. (See also http://mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogMoon.htm). I will acknowledge that there are very faint markings a bit like that in those Luna 12 images, but nothing like as clear as in Lunar Orbiter images. On the other hand the lighting in the third image shows that the framelets run north-south which limits it to lunar Orbiter 4 and 5. It's all a bit confusing. Also why is the time stamp not using a Cyrillic 'L'?
At the moment I don't know what to think. I certainly don't have time to search through all 2500 Lunar Orbiter images to try to find them! So I will just say I am confused. If anyone looks at Lunar Orbiter images now, note that modern processing has removed many of these artifacts, so you really need to look at older prints or scans.
Phil
EDIT: OK, now I am a bit suspicious. First, the video clearly uses at least one Lunar Orbiter image, the famous "Picture of the Century" oblique view across Copernicus crater. That was Lunar Orbiter 2 which flew after Luna 12, so the video date must be later than that.
Second - look at image 3 from Paolo. 4 horizontal dark lines separate the image into 3 horizontal bands with a bit extra top and bottom, Within each band are vertical fainter light and dark lines. Those look very much like Lunar Orbiter image features (framelet boundaries and scan lines) and are not obvious in the four Luna 12 images I have seen and included in my old atlas. (See also http://mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogMoon.htm). I will acknowledge that there are very faint markings a bit like that in those Luna 12 images, but nothing like as clear as in Lunar Orbiter images. On the other hand the lighting in the third image shows that the framelets run north-south which limits it to lunar Orbiter 4 and 5. It's all a bit confusing. Also why is the time stamp not using a Cyrillic 'L'?
At the moment I don't know what to think. I certainly don't have time to search through all 2500 Lunar Orbiter images to try to find them! So I will just say I am confused. If anyone looks at Lunar Orbiter images now, note that modern processing has removed many of these artifacts, so you really need to look at older prints or scans.
Phil
QUOTE (Explorer1 @ Mar 24 2011, 12:09 PM) 
I suppose this is as good a place as any to ask; has Luna 2's impact site been seen by LRO, or is it even possible? A search didn't tell much, it would be nice to see the oldest artificial crater on another object (1959)!
If I am right this could be the one
Took the impact site from this one - http://strabo.moonsociety.org/publications...yspring2009.pdf
It says that actual impact might be near 4.97E and 25.7N and the below one might be very well the rocket impact stage but not sure
https://quickmap.lroc.asu.edu/query?extent=...AyAbwF8BdC0yioA
QUOTE (Paolo @ Oct 27 2020, 09:14 PM)
check out this Roskosmos release for the 50th anniversary of Luna 16 last September!
and now we are getting a similar quantity of documents, pictures, videos etc on Lunokhod 1 for its 50th anniversary!
well done, Roskosmos!
https://www.roscosmos.ru/29563/
QUOTE (Paolo @ Nov 16 2020, 02:52 PM)
and now we are getting a similar quantity of documents, pictures, videos etc on Lunokhod 1 for its 50th anniversary!
well done, Roskosmos!
https://www.roscosmos.ru/29563/
well done, Roskosmos!
https://www.roscosmos.ru/29563/
The panorama images are beautiful & are in much good shape
There are lot of images - http://www.planetology.ru/panoramas/lunokh...anguage=english
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