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1st Moonshot yesterday...
Hello All,
I would have posted this yesterday (when it occurred *60* years ago), but I just got my computer back after a long stint in the local repair shop: On August 17, 1958, the first attempt to reach the Moon was made, when a Pioneer probe was launched from Cape Canaveral aboard a Thor-Able vehicle. This mission is often referred to as Pioneer 0 (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_0 ), because it failed just over a minute after liftoff when the Thor exploded due to a turbopump bearing failure. The next--and the most successful--of these three Thor-Able Pioneer lunar orbiter attempts, Pioneer 1, was undertaken by the infant NASA on October 11 of that year, and reached a record-breaking 70,712 mile distance from the Earth (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_1 ). Pioneer 2 only achieved an ICBM-like suborbital flight because the launch vehicle's third stage failed to ignite.
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Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see: http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185 http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050 http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511 All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com. NAR #54895 SR |
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-Wolfram v. Kiparski NAR 28643 - TRA 15520 MTMA Section #606 President |
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Ah...that's an apropos large-format, "patina-ed" picture of the first-ever--and NASA's first--deep space probe. As a "vanity/historic recreation" project, it would be interesting to launch a Pioneer 0/1/2 replica, complete with the infrared spin-scan TV scanner, into lunar orbit, as a "hitch-hiker" payload (the Atlas V, whose Centaur stage has already demonstrated the capability to dispose of itself in solar orbit from a near-polar orbit, could easily carry such a replica lunar orbit probe as a secondary payload).
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Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see: http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185 http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050 http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511 All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com. NAR #54895 SR |
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That big pic was of the Pioneer 1 attempt. Pioneer 0 launches into history atop Thor Able 127 in this pic:
__________________
-Wolfram v. Kiparski NAR 28643 - TRA 15520 MTMA Section #606 President |
#5
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I know--that famous night shot of Pioneer 1 on the pad shortly before launch is iconic. Pioneer 0 was launched during the day, and Pioneer 2 also went at night (see: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F...I_Pioneer_2.png ). After it "fizzled," the U.S. Army and NASA got two additional tries, using Juno II rockets and the much smaller, conical JPL lunar flyby Pioneer spacecraft, on December 6, 1958 and March 3, 1959 (see: http://www.google.com/search?q=Pion...iw=1440&bih=794 ), and:
They had originally been intended to make figure-8 loops behind the Moon to photograph the far side, radioing back the pictures when near the Earth again. A film camera/developer/"flying spot of light" picture scanner was developed for these Pioneers, but when Pioneer 1's radiation data showed that radiation shielding for the film would be too heavy (the tiny ~13 pound probes were all the Juno II could boost to the Moon!), JPL started developing a spin-scan TV camera, but it wasn't ready in time. (The deployable "wizard's cap" conical low-gain antennas on the Ranger 3, 4, and 5 probes [the Block II series that carried the hard-landing seismometer capsules] were re-purposed Pioneer 3/4 rod-and-cone, off-center-fed dipole antennas.) As well: Pioneer 3 suffered a fate similar to Pioneer 1, rising about 63,000 miles before falling back to Earth after the stretched Jupiter first stage cut off slightly early, returning more radiation data. Pioneer 4 achieved escape velocity, returning radiation data out to 407,000 miles after passing about 37,000 miles from the Moon. Between the Pioneer 3 and 4 launches, the Soviet Union's Luna 1--an intended lunar impact probe--had been launched on January 2, 1959, and had missed the Moon by 3,725 miles (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_1 ) before entering solar orbit, making Pioneer 4 an "also ran."
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Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see: http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185 http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050 http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511 All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com. NAR #54895 SR |
#6
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Did you ever replace your computer like you were planning to a few years back?
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Bernard J. Herman Ohio RLS Starport Sagitta Rockets email bherman@sagittarockets.com NAR # 97971 SR What's your idea on the best way to change Washington D.C.? Let us know at the Cantina Sagitta Cantina We're looking for a few good Catos, please tell us about any you may have had. Survey of Anecdotal Malfunctioning Engines or S.A.M.E. |
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Quote:
It's amazing to think of the things they did with the technology they had in the fifties. There is so much the younger generations take for granted today that engineers of that time would have given, well would have given all they had to get it. Can you imagine what they would have done with a Go-Pro and the digital visualizing of it's images?
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Bernard J. Herman Ohio RLS Starport Sagitta Rockets email bherman@sagittarockets.com NAR # 97971 SR What's your idea on the best way to change Washington D.C.? Let us know at the Cantina Sagitta Cantina We're looking for a few good Catos, please tell us about any you may have had. Survey of Anecdotal Malfunctioning Engines or S.A.M.E. |
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