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Not for profit website/blog on astronomy, space and my writing

Declassified Files. Luna 16 Mission. USSR’s first robotic lunar sample return mission 24 Sep 1970

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On 24 September 1970, the USSR’s robotic sample return mission, Luna 16 returning 101g of Lunar Soil to Kazakstan from where it had departed for the Moon almost two weeks earlier. Following Apollo 11 in July and Apollo 12 in November 1969, Luna 16 was the third mission to return lunar sample to Earth.

On the 50th anniversary of Luna 16 parachuting down to Earth, documents, (in Russian but Google Translate does a pretty good job) videos, illustrations and photos were made public on 24th September 2020. Direct link to archive here. This was brought to my attention by the USSR/Russia and China space specialist and author Brian Harvey.

In total, the USA brought back 380kg of lunar soil and rocks in 6 crewed Apollo (11-12, 14-17) missions and the USSR, 301g in three robotic missions. Another 2kg is expected to be added to this tally. China’s Change’5 lunar sample return mission is due to launch in late November.

A summary of all the lunar sample return missions below.

The 3 part film “Rocket and space complex” 8K82K – E8-5 “tells of USSR’s robotic lunar program return programme.

Part 1
Part 2

Part 3
Lunar Sample return Missions

  • September 1970 Luna 16 101g
  • February 1972 Luna 20 30g
  • August 1976 Luna 24 170
  • Total 301g (USSR)
  • July 1969 Apollo 11 22kg
  • November 1969 Apollo 12 34kg
  • January 1971 Apollo 14 43kg
  • July 1971 Apollo 15 77kg
  • April 1972 Apollo 16 94kg
  • December 1972 Apollo 17 110kg
  • Total 380kg (USA)

Buzz Aldrin in Yorkshire

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To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11- reposting this 10-minute interview with Buzz Aldrin recorded on 30 April 2008. This was originally posted as episode 12. Some of the topics we spoke about were

  • Only became an astronaut after he failed to acquire a Rhodes scholarship.. twice!
  • Saw the Aurora borealis (Northern lights) from New Jersey
  • Saw more stars from Texas or Hawaii than when is space. The visor protection prevented him from seeing anything in the night sky except the Earth and the Sun from the lunar surface.
  • Dedicated his PhD thesis to the “the crew members of this country’s present and future manned space programs”.
  • Was concerned that his illness from Hepatitis may have impacted his NASA selection.
  • In 2002 he whacked a guy (persistent conspiracy theorists) at the “spur of the moment”.
  • Agrees that the film “In the shadow of the Moon” portrayed an accurate representation of the manned mission to the Moon

Chandrayaan-2 – Back to the Moon

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Pragyan Touchdown. – Scheduled for 01:55 IST on 7 September 2019

[ycd_countdown id=5360]

T+
Successful Launch on 14:43 IST on Monday 22 July 2019

Second Attempt: Monday 22 July 10:13 BST (14:43 IST)
First Attempt: Sunday 14 July – 22:21 BST. ** Launch aborted at T- 56M 24s**

Reason for abort: The third stage of the GSLV Mk3 uses a cryogenic engine where liquid Hydrogen and liquid Oxygen are the propellents. Loading these propellents (first Oxygen and then Hydrogen) is completed just minutes prior to lift off.  A Helium container above the Oxygen tank began to leak at a particular pressure. It was the detection of this leak at T-56 minutes that the mission was aborted. ISRO engineers have confirmed that they can make the fix at the launch pad without the need to return the launch vehicle to the Vehicle Assembly Building.

Reschedule: The new launch date is 22nd July 2019 at 10:13 BST. Chandrayaan-2 was going to take 54 days to get to the Moon, the delayed departure will be compensated for during the Earthbound manoeuvres. It will now take 47 days to get to the Moon. The original landing date of 6th September will not change.

ISRO  Links

Web https://www.isro.gov.in/
Twitter http://www.twitter.com/isro
Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw5hEVOTfz_AfzsNFWyNlNg
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/isro
Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/ISRO
NASA Spaceflight Forum https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?board=62.0

Launch Live Stream 

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USpCu-Z1usk
[2] http://cdn.24fd.com/e19/07/isro/15/index.html

If all goes to plan (weather is looking a little dodgy) Chandrayaan-2, India’s second moon mission will lift off from India’s Space Port – Sriharikota at 22:21 BST. This will be India’s second Moon mission since Chandrayaan-1 launched in 2008. 

This mission consists of an orbiter, lander and a rover. It will be launched on a GSLV Mk3, India’s “heavy lift” launcher. To date, the GSLV-Mk3 has had 3 successful flights (one of which was suborbital). Click on any image to open gallery view.

Links

For more pictures and information see the gallery and the brochure. The orbiter has 8 instruments, the lander (called Vikram) has 3 and the rover (called Pragyan) has 3.

OrbiterLanderRover
1 Terrain Mapping Camera: An instrument for Lunar Seismic ActivityAlpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer
2 Chandrayaan 2 Large Area Soft X-ray Spectrometer Chandra’s Surface Thermo-physical ExperimentLaser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscope
3 Solar X-Ray MonitorLangmuir ProbeLaser Retroreflector Array (LRA) – Passive experiment from NASA
4 Imaging IR Spectrometer
5 Synthetic Aperture Radar L&S Bands
6 Chandra’s Atmospheric Composition Explorer-2
7 Orbiter High-Resolution Camera
8 Dual Frequency Radio Science Experiment

Episode 87 – Apollo Era recollections of a Brit working in NASA

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David Baker has been involved with the USA since childhood. First attending a US school in England and then studying in the US under a scholarship program sponsored by Senator Clinton P Anderson. He returned to the USA and worked for NASA on various programs from Gemini to the SpaceShuttle. After leaving NASA, he set up one of the earliest private space sector companies in London.

(Note – following questions on the veracity of his Phd, David Baker resigned from the BIS as the editor of Spaceflight on 25th March 2021.)

Today he is the editor of the British Interplanetary Society’s monthly journal – Spaceflight and a prolific author of space books. Some of the topics we spoke about include

  • Early interest in space and astronomy stimulated by milestones such as breaking of the sound barrier, Sputnik and Gagarin’s flight.
    Completed his PhD in Earth and Planetary physics.
  • Worked for Nasa between 1965 and 1984. Mainly in the mission
    Setup a consultancy in 1984 to bring US launch and satellites services to the wider international community.
  • Setup a consultancy in 1984 to bring US launch and satellites services to the wider international community
  • Delayed the launch of STS-41B in February 1984 carrying payloads for Indonesia and Western Union but problems with the payload Assist Modules did not meet the insurance certification requirements.
  • Was involved in the purchase by India its 4 INSAT satellites (INSAT 1A-1D) from Ford Aerospace in the USA.
  • Published over 110 books and more in the pipeline to mark the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11.

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