Today in Technology History
(To receive "Today in Technology History" by e-mail, click here. To read past issues click here.)
August 23
Today we discuss the anniversaries of two Moon missions, one an abject failure, the other a spectacular success.
With its "Ranger" series of spacecraft, NASA aimed for the Moon, hoping to photograph the lunar surface during the flights. Each of the nine Ranger probes had six cameras which were supposed to take pictures until the moment of impact.
The first Ranger mission began with a launch exactly 41 years ago, on August 23, 1961. This mission was supposed be easy: instead of going all the way to the Moon, the first Ranger would just orbit the Earth, testing all the sensitive scientific equipment it carried (such as magnetometers, X-ray scintillation counters, and an ionization chamber). Unfortunately, Ranger 1 failed even to achieve a stable orbit, and it began tumbling. After a week, it burned up in Earth's atmosphere.
Ranger 1 started a trend: all of the first six Ranger missions failed, including one that missed the Moon by over 20,000 miles. (That probe is apparently still out in space somewhere, orbiting the Sun.) Only the last three Ranger missions were deemed successful.
These failures were of course redeemed by NASA's later triumphs in the race to the Moon. One of NASA's most breathtaking lunar achievements occurred exactly 36 years ago. Unlike the Ranger probes, the unmanned "Lunar Orbiter" spacecraft were supposed to orbit the Moon before crashing into it. On August 23, 1966, Lunar Orbiter 1 trained its cameras briefly toward home, and relayed back to us the first image of Earth as seen from near the Moon.
Related links:
Click here to visit the NASA homepage for the Ranger 1 mission.
Click here for the Lunar Orbiter 1 homepage.
Click here to visit the NASA homepage for the Lunar Orbiter missions.
| Biotechnology | Convergence | Creativity | Culture | E-conomics | Education |
| Equity | Gov't & Politics | Innovation | National Security | Personal Security |
For errors, broken links, questions or comments,
contact webmaster@tecsoc.org.
