It presumably impacted the lunar surface due to the natural decay of the orbit no later than October 31, 1967, possibly between 22-30 degrees W longitude. The perilune altitude range was 63.9 to 76.6 km. The last known orbit had a semi-major axis of 3752.5 km, an inclination of 85 degrees, and a period of 343.8 minutes. The spacecraft was lowered for tracking purposes until contact was lost on 17 July 1967. Radiation data showed increased dosages due to solar particle events producing low energy protons. Accurate data were acquired from all other experiments throughout the mission. The orbit was then lowered to gather orbital data for the upcoming Lunar Orbiter 5 mission.Ī total of 419 high resolution and 127 medium resolution frames were acquired covering 99% of the Moon's near side at resolutions from 58 meters to 134 meters. The spacecraft acquired photographic data from May 11 to 26, 1967, and readout occurred through June 1, 1967. Despite problems with the readout drive the entire film was read and transmitted. Continuing problems with the readout drive mechanism starting and stopping beginning on 20 May resulted in a decision to terminate the photographic portion of the mission on 26 May. Changes in the attitude raised the temperature of the camera and generally eliminated the fogging. Some fogging of the lens was then suspected due to condensation resulting from the lower temperatures. On 13 May it was discovered that light leakage was damaging some of the film, and the door was tested and partially closed. This required extra attitude control manuevers on each orbit to prevent light leakage into the camera which would ruin the film. Fear that the door could become stuck in the closed position covering the camera lenses led to a decision to leave the door open. The orbit was 2706 km x 6111 km with an inclination of 85.5 degrees and a period of 12 hours.Īfter initial photography on problems started occurring with the camera's thermal door, which was not responding well to commands to open and close. The spacecraft was placed in a cislunar trajectory and injected into an elliptical near polar high lunar orbit for data acquisition. It was also equipped to collect selenodetic, radiation intensity, and micrometeoroid impact data. It was given a more general objective, to "perform a broad systematic photographic survey of lunar surface features in order to increase the scientific knowledge of their nature, origin, and processes, and to serve as a basis for selecting sites for more detailed scientific study by subsequent orbital and landing missions. The orbiter will also identify potential landing sites for future lunar missions.ĭisclaimer: This story has not been edited by the Sakshi Post team and is auto-generated from syndicated feed.Lunar Orbiter 4 was designed to take advantage of the fact that the three previous Lunar Orbiters had completed the required needs for Apollo mapping and site selection. It is assigned to measure the terrain, magnetic strengths, gamma rays and other traits of the lunar surface using six onboard instruments until the end of this year. The science ministry said people can check the real-time location of Danuri on the lunar orbit, along with its photos and collected data, on the orbiter's website.ĭanuri entered the selenocentric orbit on December 27 after 145 days of travelling from Earth and started its operation on February 4 about a month after test runs. On top of that, Danuri has sent separate photos taken with its wide-angle polarimetric camera, PolCam for short, designed to study the moon's surface composition and its volcanic deposits through measuring the degree of polarisation. They are the first photos of the moon's far side that South Korea has taken, reports Yonhap news agency. Seoul, April 12 (IANS) South Korea's unmanned space vehicle Danuri has sent photos of the moon's far side during its mission to collect selenographic data, the science ministry said on Wednesday.ĭanuri, which is rotating around the moon 100 kms above the surface, took pictures of the Tsiolkovskiy crater on March 22 and the Vallis Schrodinger and Szilard M craters each on March 24 with its high-definition cameras, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI).
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