Far Space Exploration Missions

The beginning of the Space Race between the United States and Soviet Union started with Sputnik 1 was the first probe to go into space. It was launched on Oct. 4, 1957, by the former Soviet Union. On Jan. 31, 1958, the United States sent a probe called Explorer 1 into space. Once probes could reach space, the two countries started sending probes to fly past the moon and other planets. Mariner 2 was the first probe to study another planet. On Dec. 14, 1962, Mariner 2 flew past the planet Venus. It confirmed that Venus is very hot. A different probe, called Mariner 4, was the first probe to snap a picture of a planet. On July 14, 1965, Mariner 4 flew past Mars. Its images of Mars showed a cold, cratered, moon-like surface. In 1971, Mariner 9 arrived at Mars and became the first probe to orbit, or circle, another planet. Mariner 9 took a picture of Mars that showed the largest volcano in the solar system.

Ranger 7 is the first American spacecraft to successfully transmit near-surface images of the moon to Earth. It is also the first fully successful flight of the Ranger program. Launched on July 28,1964, Ranger 7 is designed to reach a lunar impact trajectory and transmit high-resolution images of the lunar surface during the last few minutes of flight until impact. Ranger 7 transmits more than 4,300 photographs during the last 17 minutes of flight.

Ranger 7 is credited with the beginning of the "peanut" tradition in NASA's control room. At the time of Ranger 7's success, someone in the control room was seen eating peanuts, which was immediately interpreted as the reason for the mission's success. Since 1964, in the control room, a package of peanuts has been solemnly opened in order to bring luck and tradition

Mariner 2 (Mariner-Venus 1962), an American space probe to Venus, was the first robotic space probe to conduct a successful planetary encounter. The Mariner 2 spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral on August 27, 1962.

The mission proved to be the first fully successful interplanetary mission performed by any nation. After a midcourse correction on 4 September, the spacecraft flew by Venus at a range of 34,762 km on 14 December 1962. During a 42-minute scan of the planet, Mariner 2 gathered significant data on the Venusian atmosphere and surface before continuing on to heliocentric orbit.

Mariner 4 is the fourth in a series of NASA space probes for interplanetary exploration by overflight. It made the first flight over the planet Mars, sent the first images of the Martian surface and thus the first close-up images of another planet. The sterile and cratered surface photos amazed the scientific community.

Surveyor 1 is the first lunar probe of the American Surveyor program, designed to explore the Moon. The program was managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, using engines designed and built by Hughes Aircraft. It was launched on May 30,1966 and successfully landed on June 2 of the same year on the Storm Ocean. This is the first lunar landing by the United States, 4 months after the Soviet Luna 9 probe with significantly more limited technical and scientific characteristics. The space probe provides valuable information on the consistency of the lunar soil, which made it possible to prepare the first landing of man on the Moon. The probe transmits a total of 11,237 images to Earth.

To land men on the moon as part of the Apollo program, NASA needed to know the consistency of the lunar soil. At the time of probe launch, it was not known whether the dusty soil would be able to support the weight of the Apollo lunar module and how many feet and the size of the soles they would be equipped with. Under pessimistic assumptions, the moon probe would be swallowed up by the moon dust.

More than 10,000 images were taken by Surveyor 1 before the moonset on June 14,1966, including narrow angle panoramas, photometric studies, special area surveys and celestial photographs. The probe responded to the camera activation command on July 7 and, until July 14,1966, sent another 1,000 frames.

More on the blog https://www.space-collectibles.com/blog/surveyor-fabulous-mosaic-pictures

Surveyor 7 was the seventh and last lunar lander of the American unmanned Surveyor program sent to explore the surface of the Moon. A total of 21,091 pictures were transmitted to Earth.

Surveyor 7 was the fifth and final spacecraft of the Surveyor series to achieve a lunar soft landing. The objectives for this mission were to perform a lunar soft landing (in an area well removed from the maria to provide a type of terrain photography and lunar sample significantly different from those of other Surveyor missions); obtain postlanding TV pictures;

The spacecraft landed on the lunar surface on January 10, 1968, on the outer rim of the crater Tycho. Operations of the spacecraft began shortly after the soft landing and were terminated on January 26, 1968, 80 hours after sunset. On January 20, while the craft was still in daylight, the TV camera clearly saw two laser beams aimed at it from the night side of the crescent Earth, one from Kitt Peak National Observatory, Tucson, Arizona, and the other at Table Mountain at Wrightwood, California.[1][2]
Operations on the second lunar day occurred from February 12 to 21, 1968. The mission objectives were fully satisfied by the spacecraft operations. Battery damage was suffered during the first lunar night and transmission contact was subsequently sporadic. Contact with Surveyor 7 was lost on February 21, 1968.
 

The Lunar Orbiter 1 unmanned robotic spacecraft, part of the Lunar Orbiter Program, was the first American spacecraft to orbit the Moon. It was designed primarily to photograph smooth areas of the lunar surface for selection and verification of safe landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo missions.

A total of 42 high-resolution and 187 medium-resolution frames were taken and transmitted to Earth covering over 5 million square kilometers of the Moon's surface, accomplishing about 75% of the intended mission, although a number of the early high-resolution photos showed severe smearing. It also took the first two pictures of the Earth ever from the distance of the Moon.

The Lunar Orbiter 2 robotic spacecraft, was designed primarily to photograph smooth areas of the lunar surface for selection and verification of safe landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo missions.

The spacecraft acquired photographic data from November 18 to 25, 1966, and readout occurred through December 7, 1966. A total of 609 high resolution and 208 medium resolution frames were returned, most of excellent quality with resolutions down to 1 metre (3 ft 3 in). These included a spectacular oblique picture of Copernicus crater, which was dubbed by the news media as one of the great pictures of the century.

The Lunar Orbiter 4 was given a more general objective, to "perform a broad systematic photographic survey of lunar surface features. After initial photography on May 11, 1967 problems started occurring with the camera's thermal door, which was not responding well to commands to open and close. Fear that the door could become stuck in the closed position covering the camera lenses led to a decision to leave the door open. This required extra attitude control maneuvers on each orbit to prevent light leakage into the camera which would ruin the film. On May 13 it was discovered that light leakage was damaging some of the film, and the door was tested and partially closed. Some fogging of the lens was then suspected due to condensation resulting from the lower temperatures. Changes in the attitude raised the temperature of the camera and generally eliminated the fogging. Continuing problems with the readout drive mechanism starting and stopping beginning on May 20 resulted in a decision to terminate the photographic portion of the mission on May 26. Despite problems with the readout drive the entire film was read and transmitted. The spacecraft acquired photographic data from May 11 to 26, 1967, and readout occurred through June 1, 1967.

A total of 419 high-resolution and 127 medium-resolution frames were acquired, covering 99% of the Moon's near side at resolutions from 58 to 134 metres (190 to 440 ft). (including this beautiful view of moon and earth)

Lunar Orbiter 5, the last of the Lunar Orbiter series, was designed to take additional Apollo and Surveyor landing site photography and to take broad survey images of unphotographed parts of the Moon's far side.

The Lunar Orbiter program consisted of 5 Lunar Orbiters which returned photography of 99% of the surface of the Moon (near and far side) with resolution down to 1 meter. Altogether the Orbiters returned 2180 high resolution and 882 medium resolution frames.

The Lunar Orbiters were all eventually commanded to crash on the Moon before their attitude control gas ran out so they would not present navigational or communications hazards to later Apollo flights. The Lunar Orbiter program was managed by NASA Langley Research Center and involved building and launching 5 spacecraft to the Moon at a total cost of $163 million. take a look at this beautifull photo

Luna 20 (or Lunik 20) is a Soviet space probe launched on February 14,1972; The main objective of the Luna 20 mission was to return a sample of the lunar soil to Earth. This is the eighth probe in the Luna program to attempt to bring back a lunar sample. On 18 February, three days after placing itself on a circular lunar orbit of 100 km it landed unhindered on 21 February 1972 . A 55 gram sample of lunar soil was taken from a stretch arm equipped with a drill and placed in a sealed capsule. The lift stage was then ignited on February 22nd, The capsule was recovered by the Soviets on 25 February 1972.

The Luna 21 mission embarking the rover Lunokhod 2 was launched on 8 January 1973. Here again, the mission is carried out in a nominal way: the rover travels 37 km and survives for 5 months.

The Luna 21 spacecraft landed on the Moon and deployed the second Soviet lunar rover (Lunokhod 2). The primary objectives of the mission were to collect images of the lunar surface and examine ambient light levels to determine the feasibility of astronomical observations from the Moon.

Lunokhod 2 was equipped with three TV cameras, one mounted high on the rover for navigation, which could return high resolution images at different rates (3.2, 5.7, 10.9 or 21.1 seconds per frame). These images were used by a five-man team of controllers on Earth who sent driving commands to the rover in real time. After landing, the Lunokhod 2 took TV images of the surrounding area, then rolled down a ramp to the surface at 01:14 UT on 16 January and took pictures of the Luna 21 lander and landing site. It stopped and charged batteries until 18 January, took more images of the lander and landing site, and then set out over the Moon. The rover would run during the lunar day, stopping occasionally to recharge its batteries via the solar panels. At night the rover would hibernate until the next sunrise, heated by the radioactive source. Lunokhod 2 operated for about 4 months, covered 37 km of terrain including hilly upland areas and rilles, and sent back 86 panoramic images and over 80,000 TV pictures.

The Viking program is a NASA space program that placed the first American spacecraft on Martian soil. more info at

https://marsvikings.tumblr.com/ 

https://vikingpreservationproject.org/

https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/viking.html

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/viking-1/

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/viking-2/

 Within the framework of this program, two identical space probes, Viking 1 and Viking 2, were launched in 1974 one month apart. Each of these missions included a spacecraft intended to orbit the planet and a module that would land on the ground and conduct investigations while remaining stationary. The scientific objectives were to produce high-resolution images of the planet's surface, determine the structure and composition of the atmosphere and eventually identify the presence of life on Mars.

The Viking program remains to date the most ambitious and expensive of the missions sent to Mars with a budget of US$3.8 billion (updated to 2014). The various modules that make up the Viking program have been running for 1 to 6 years. Viking space probes discovered that many geological formations on the surface of Mars had been formed by the action of water. On the other hand, despite the use of sophisticated analytical instruments, it was not possible to determine whether life forms were present in the Martian soil.

The first “clear” image of the surface of Mars, captured by Viking 1 in July 1976. The lander and its orbiter were launched 40 years ago, today, on 20 August 1975. Photo Credit: NASA

U.S. mission to land a spacecraft on the surface of Mars.

NASA’s Viking Project, comprised of Viking 1 and Viking 2, took photographs and collected data on the surface of Mars. They also looked for possible signs of life on the planet. At this time, the Viking Project was the most expensive mission sent to Mars, with the total cost amounting to one billion dollars. It was also a very successful mission. Most of the information known about Mars through the early 2000s was discovered through this program.

By the way A LOT of people were involved in Viking. Thousands in fact.

Today, these missions are remembered principally for their close-up, clear and in-situ perspectives of the Martian surface, but the twin Vikings—whose orbiters were designed for a 120-day operational lifetime and whose landers for about 90 days’ activity on the Red Planet—endured far longer than intended. Viking 1 became the first spacecraft in history to soft-land on Mars and complete its mission, picking up the baton from the Soviet Union’s failed Mars 3, which had successfully alighted on alien soil in December 1971 and produced a partial, though unintelligible image, before transmission ended and contact was lost. The spacecraft also afforded humanity our best and most complete perspective of the planet for the next two decades and the Viking 1 lander survived for 2,307 days from its touchdown on 20 July 1976 through its End of Mission (EOM) on 11 November 1982.

And yes, they actually hand-counted boulders (Viking Intern Jayne Aubele above) from photos received from the data sets the Orbiters communicated to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Target landing areas were examined extensively to extrapolate to determine the likelihood of boulders large enough to caution or damage the en route Landers’ undercarriage.

Mike Carr, Planetary Geologist on Viking working in the Viking Orbiter Lab at JPL) Because of these men, women AND the Orbiters, the very landing itself was successful, along with some incredible engineering design by the Martin Marietta folks

Voyager 1 is one of two twin space probes in NASA's Voyager space program launched on September 5,1977 to study the outer planets of the Solar System that had previously been observed only through telescopes on Earth. This mission is made possible by an exceptional alignment of the outer planets that occurs only every 176 years. The main objective of Voyager 1 is to collect data on the Jupiter and Saturn systems with particular emphasis on the main moon of the latter, Titan. Voyager 1, with its twin probe, is the source of a large number of discoveries on the Solar System that sometimes call into question or refine existing theoretical models. As such, it is one of the American Space Agency's most successful space missions. Among the most remarkable results are the complex functioning of the Jupiter Great Red Spot, the first observation of Jupiter rings, the discovery of Io volcanism, the strange structure of the European surface, the composition of Titan's atmosphere, the unexpected structure of Saturn rings, and the discovery of several small moons of Jupiter and Saturn.

The space probe has a long lifespan and still has operational instruments in place by 2015 to collect scientific data on the environment it passes through. In August 2012, it left the heliosphere - the region of space under the magnetic influence of the Sun - and is now progressing in the interstellar medium. Starting in 2020, however, the instruments will have to be phased out gradually to cope with the weakening of its electric power source, supplied by three thermoelectric radioisotope generators due to the distance from the Sun. Voyager 1 will no longer be able to transmit data beyond 2025.

Voyager 2 is one of two space probes in the Voyager program. It was launched on 20 August 1977. Like Voyager 1, it was designed and built at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near Pasadena, California. Technically identical to Voyager 1, Voyager 2 was launched on a slower and more curved trajectory, keeping it in the ecliptic plane (where the planets of the Solar System are located). Thus, it was able to be directed towards Uranus and Neptune using gravitational assistance during overflights of Saturn in 1981 and Uranus in 1986. Because of the chosen trajectory, Voyager 2 could not get as close as Voyager 1 from Titan, Saturn's largest satellite. However, it is today the only spacecraft to have approached Uranus and Neptune and flew over them. The particular configuration of the four giant planets that made their flight possible only happens every 176 years.