Luna 3

Lunik 3 was the third successful lunar probe of the Soviet Union.

Mission History

The spacecraft was launched on October 4, 1959, and weighed 278.5 kg. Lunik 3 had, in contrast to Lunik 1, a camera with which she took spectacular photos of the far side of the moon that had never seen a human before. The image quality of the photos was low and there were considerable difficulties in signal transmission. The images were developed here on board and transmitted using conventional image wireless technology. A total of 29 photographs were taken of the moon back, which reflected 70 percent of the far side. However, not all photos were successfully transmitted to Earth. The main discovery was that on the far side of the bright highlands towards the dark lowlands far more prevalent than on the known side and large missing Maria accordingly. The most striking of the Mare levels found by Lunik 3 are the Moscow Sea and the particularly dark floor of the crater Tsiolkovskiy. The probe came after a moon circling back into the dominant gravitational field of the earth and burned up in April 1960 in the Earth's atmosphere. Radio contact with her ripped off on 22 October 1959.

Lunik 3 was another success of the Soviet Union in a number of crimes would at the beginning of the space age and the race to the moon.