Lunar Orbiter 2

Lunar Orbiter 2 was the second of five lunar probes of the Lunar Orbiter program of the U.S. space agency NASA. With the Lunar Orbiter program the moon should be photographically recorded and mapped in order to find landing sites for the space probes of the Surveyor program and for the manned lunar landing.

Mission

Lunar Orbiter 2 launched on November 6, 1966 on an Atlas - Agena D. After reaching the parking orbit, the probe was brought to the moon by firing the thrusters on a web. This reached 92.5 hours after the start and waving in a highly elliptical orbit of about 196 times 1.850 km. She was inclined 12 ° to the ecliptic. Since most of the landing sites of the following probes were planned near the equator, a stronger tendency was not necessary.

Lunar Orbiter 2 took place between the 18th and the 25th of November on 1966 609 208 images of high and medium resolution pictures and forwarded them to 7 December 1966 on the earth. The pictures were mostly of excellent quality and achieved resolutions of 1 m. Below is an oblique view of the crater Copernicus, which was received by the press as a " picture of the century". The other systems of the probe worked flawlessly and registered three impacts of micrometeorites. Lunar Orbiter 2 remained for tracking purposes in lunar orbit until the probe crashed near 3.0 ° N, 119.1 ° E on 11 October 1967.

The exact crash site was identified in 2011 and photographed by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera ( LROC ). The wreckage of the open at an angle of about 45 degrees probe reminiscent of the wings of a butterfly.

External links and sources

NASA Lunar Orbiter 2 (English)
Bernd Leitenberg: Lunar Orbiter

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