* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Lunar Orbiter 1

Blobrana · L

Anniversary of the Lunar Orbiter 1 launch in 1966.

Blobrana · L

The Lunar Orbiter 1 robotic (unmanned) spacecraft, part of the Lunar Orbiter Program, was designed primarily to photograph smooth areas of the lunar surface for selection and verification of safe landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo missions. It was also equipped to collect selenodetic, radiation intensity, and micrometeoroid impact data.
A total of 42 high resolution and 187 medium resolution frames were taken and transmitted to Earth covering over 5 million square km of the Moon's surface, accomplishing about 75% of the intended mission, although a number of the early high-res photos showed severe smearing. It also took the first two pictures of the Earth ever from the distance of the Moon on August 23, 1966.
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Blobrana · L

45th Anniversary of the Lunar Orbiter 1 Launch on the 10th August, 1966.

Blobrana · L

The Lunar Orbiter 1 robotic (unmanned) spacecraft, part of the Lunar Orbiter Program, was designed primarily to photograph smooth areas of the lunar surface for selection and verification of safe landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo missions.
Read more

The Lunar Orbiter 1 robotic (unmanned) spacecraft took the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the Moon on August 23, 1966.

Blobrana · L

Restoring lunar images after 40 years in the vault

Between 1966 and 1967, five unmanned probes were sent into lunar orbit to map possible landing sites within the moon's equatorial regions at one-meter resolution and to map the rest of the surface at a resolution of 40 meters or better, Wingo explains. Those probes, known as Lunar Orbiters, sent back about 1,800 images that modern technology should be able to greatly improve.
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Blobrana · L

Pictures from the mid-1960s Lunar Orbiter program lay forgotten for decades. But one woman was determined to see them restored.

Rising over the battered surface of the moon, Earth loomed in a shimmering arc covered in a swirling skin of clouds.
The image, taken in 1966 by NASA's robotic probe Lunar Orbiter 1, presented a stunning juxtaposition of planet and moon that no earthling had ever seen before.
It was dubbed the Picture of the Century.
But in the mad rush of discovery, even the breathtaking can get mislaid.

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The Lunar Orbiter 1 robotic (unmanned) spacecraft, part of the Lunar Orbiter Program, was designed primarily to photograph smooth areas of the lunar surface for selection and verification of safe landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo missions. It was also equipped to collect selenodetic, radiation intensity, and micrometeoroid impact data.

Read more