![]() The Ranger missions were daring one-offs, with spacecraft engineered to streak toward the moon and capture as many images as possible before crashing onto its surface. got in the game with nine NASA Ranger spacecraft that launched between 19, and gave scientists the first close-up views of the moon’s surface. That same year, a third Luna mission captured the first, blurry images of the far side of the moon-where the rugged highland terrain is markedly different from the smoother basins on the side closest to Earth. Later in 1959, Luna 2 became the first spacecraft to make contact with the moon's surface when it crashed in the Mare Imbrium basin near the Aristides, Archimedes, and Autolycus craters. ![]() The Soviets scored an early victory in January 1959, when Luna 1, a small Soviet sphere bristling with antennas, became the first spacecraft to escape Earth’s gravity and ultimately fly within about 4,000 miles of the moon’s surface. and Soviet Union sent uncrewed spacecraft to orbit and land on the moon. The earliest forays into lunar exploration were a product of the ongoing Cold War, when the U.S. Now, after six decades of exploration, we are once again aiming to send humans to the lunar surface. Since then, a volley of spacecraft have studied our nearest celestial neighbor, swooping low over its dusty plains and surveying its curious far side. Finally, in the mid-20th century, humans visited Earth’s moon and saw its surface up close. Later, telescopes sharpened our views of its bumps, ridges, and relict lava seas. We could always see our cosmic partner’s mottled, cratered face by eye. For as long as humans have gazed skyward, the moon has been a focus of fascination.
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