Today in history: Luna 9
Hello Steemians!
Welcome to today's episode of the "Today in History" serial, where I bring you daily historical facts and events of the current date.
Today in 1966. the spacecraft Luna 9 landed on the Moon!
Luna 9
Luna 9 was a Soviet spacecraft which became the first spacecraft to achieve landing without damage on a space object other then Earth, namely the Moon and also the first one to send pictures back to Earth.
A picture taken by Luna 9
Luna 9 had a weight of 99 kg and it consisted of a radio, timing device, heat control system, television system, power source and a radiation detector all hermetically sealed in a container.
It landed on the Moon's surface at 18:35 UTC on February 3. 1966. at an speed of 22 km/h using it's landing bag to escape the landing undamaged.
After landing the spacecraft begun the mission resulting in radio material of 8 hours as well as three pictures.
Luna 9 measured the radiation on the Moon at 0.3 miligrays per day and also set a fact that one can land on the Moon's surface without sinking into the lunar dust.
Last contact with the Lunar 9 spacecraft was made at 22:55 UTC on February 6.
Thanks for reading!
I hope you liked this short introduction into the small but meaningful spacecraft that wrote history by being the first one
to land on our Moon!
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org
https://apod.nasa.gov
http://pages.erau.edu
http://lunarnetworks.blogspot.com
http://battlebrotherhood.com/
https://www.youtube.com
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