Luna 2

Lunik 2 (Russian Луна -2, Luna -2) was the second spacecraft of the Soviet Union and the first lunar probe, which opened specifically on the moon.

Construction

Lunik 2 was similar to its predecessor Lunik 1, that was a spherical 390 -pound body with a dominant antenna and an instrument part. The probe was equipped with a Geiger counter, a magnetometer, a micrometeorite detector and a scintillation counter, but did not have its own drive unit. Before the start it was sanitized to einzuschleppen no micro-organisms on the moon.

History of the flight

The probe was launched on 12 September in 1959 in the framework of the Lunik mission. On the flight a flash light ( HPS ) was ignited in about 130,000 km Erdentfernung that was visible for observatories on Earth and also served as an experiment for the gas expansion in the space next to the tracking.

After about 1.5 days Lunik 2 reached the moon. The impact took place on September 14th at 00:02:24 Moscow time ( according to UTC on 13 September). Shortly before the hard impact between the craters Autolycus and Archimedes - at the edge of her named in honor in 1970 in sine Lunicus Moon Bay - at a speed of 3.3 km / s ( 12,000 km / h), were metal strips with Soviet emblems ejected. The third stage of the rocket that followed the probe struck about 30 minutes later, also above the bottom of rot, Palus Putredinis, between the craters Archimedes and Autolycus, and although quite exactly on the zero meridian and about 29.1 degrees north latitude. Two a soccer ball -like objects contained an explosive device, whereby individual pentagonal emblems were released from stainless steel.

Results

Lunik 2 confirmed the measurement of the past flown on lunar probe Lunik 1, after the moon compared to the earth does not have a significant strong magnetic field or a comparable strong radiation belt features.

Lunik 2 also had a special military-political significance in the context of the arms race during the Cold War. The flight of the probe to the moon was the state visit of Khrushchev in the USA ahead a few days and once again demonstrated the ability of the Soviet Union, to be able at any time to attack with ICBMs.

The Soviet lunar exploration was soon continued on with Lunik 3.