Ranger 4, 1962 [photograph].

  1. Resources
  2. View Resource

ArchivalResource

Ranger 4, 1962 [photograph].

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/733105985

Assemble RA-4 A-E Hng. AMR (color). 6 Mar 1962 [Description from photo index.] (AMR is the Atlantic Missile Range, later cknown as the Eastern Test Range.). On March 6, 1962 in the assembly hangar at Cape Canaveral, technicians prepared the Ranger 4 spacecraft for launch. An impact absorbing sphere made of balsa wood sits atop the spacecraft, painted with a saw-tooth pattern to maintain thermal balance during its mission to the Moon. The sphere contained a lunar seismometer, which was to rough land just south of the equator on the rim of the Ocean of Storms and measure "lunarquakes." The master clock in Ranger 4's computer failed during flight and the spacecraft did not respond to commands. It crashed into the far side of the Moon on April 26, 1962. Despite the failure to return information, the use of balsa wood was an important precursor in the design of other rough landings on extra terrestrial bodies, particularly Mars. Aerobraking, gliding, impact absorption, parachuting, and retro rockets have all been considered.

Electronic file.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory Library and Archives

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 8108252

Jet Propulsion Laboratory Library and Archives

Related Entities

There are 1 Entities related to this resource.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (U.S.). Photolab.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6g26rt0 (corporateBody)

One of the first people hired at GALCIT Project #1 in November 1941 was photographer George Emmerson (1913-1994), an emigrant from Newcastle, Great Britain. Audrey Voice and Mary J. Taylor as photographer's assistants joined Emmerson in 1943. Emmerson took almost all the early photos that became a part of this collection, a collection described in brief as the work product of the JPL Photolab. As JPL grew, so did the assignments to the Photolab to photograph all Laborato...