Luna 11
 |
|
| Operator | Soviet Union |
|---|---|
| Major contractors | GSMZ Lavochkin |
| Mission type | Lunar Science Lunar Orbit |
| Satellite of | Moon |
| Orbits | 277 |
| Launch date | August 24, 1966 08:09:00 UTC (45 years, 5 months and 8 days ago) |
| Carrier rocket | Molniya-M (4-Stage R-7 / SS-6) |
| Launch site | Baikonur LC-31/6 |
| Mission duration | 38-days. Last contact October 1, 1966 |
| Mission highlight | Entered lunar orbit on August 27, 1966, 21:49 UTC (45 years, 5 months and 5 days ago) |
| COSPAR ID | 1966-078A |
| Mass | 1,640 kg (3,600 lb) |
| Orbital elements | |
| Semimajor axis | 2,414.5 km (1,500.3 mi) |
| Eccentricity | .22 |
| Inclination | 27° |
| Apoapsis | 2,931 km (1,821 mi) |
| Periapsis | 1,898 km (1,179 mi) |
| Orbital period | 178 minutes |
| Instruments | |
| Main instruments |
|
Luna 11 (E-6LF series) was an unmanned space mission of the Soviet Union's Luna program. It is also called Lunik 11. Luna 11 was launched towards the Moon from an earth-orbiting platform and entered lunar orbit on 27 August 1966. The objectives of the mission included the study of:
- lunar gamma- and X-ray emissions in order to determine the Moon's chemical composition;
- lunar gravitational anomalies;
- the concentration of meteorite streams near the Moon; and,
- the intensity of hard corpuscular radiation near the Moon.
A total of 137 radio transmissions and 277 orbits of the Moon were completed before the batteries failed on 1 October 1966.
This subset of the “second-generation” Luna spacecraft, the Ye-6LF, was designed to take the first photographs of the surface of the Moon from lunar orbit. A secondary objective was to obtain data on mass concentrations (“mascons”) on the Moon first detected by Luna 10. Using the basic Ye-6 bus, a suite of scientific instruments (plus an imaging system similar to the one used on Zond 3) replaced the small lander capsule used on the soft-landing flights. The resolution of the photos was reportedly 15 to 20 meters. A technological experiment included testing the efficiency of gear transmission in vacuum as a test for a future lunar rover. Luna 11, launched only two weeks after the U.S. Lunar Orbiter, successfully entered lunar orbit at 21:49 UT on 27 August. Parameters were 160 x 1,193 kilometers. During the mission, the TV camera failed to return usable images because the spacecraft lost proper orientation to face the lunar surface when a foreign object was lodged in the nozzle of one of the attitude-control thrusters. The other instruments functioned without fault before the mission formally ended on 1 October 1966 after the power supply had been depleted.
| Preceded by Luna 10 |
Luna programme | Succeeded by Luna 12 |
[edit] External links
|
|||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
