Willy Ley - RANGER TO THE MOON

A small book of 128 pages written in 1965.

The promo on the front cover reads, "The fascinating story behind the
history-making flight of the American rocket Ranger VII -- what science
has learned about the moon's topography, orbit, origins.... ILLUSTRATED"

There is a picture section in the middle with 25 images.  A number are
drawings of what was thought craters were like.

It was very interesting to read about the history of what we knew about
astronomical bodies and the Moon in particular before we started sending
spacecraft to them.  In the beginning eyes only looked up and we wrote
about what we thought we saw, then after Galileo we improved what we
could see and we continued to write about what we thought we saw.  Later
we added cameras which improved what we could see.  There still were
different ideas about what the Moon was really like.  What has gone on
before is hard to change.  When you do your research will you find
volcanoes or meteor impacts?
- LRK -

On the back cover is this paragraph, "July 31, 1964: Ranger VII
transmits over 4,000 close-up photos of the lunar surface....A new era
of astronomy has been introduced---exploration by spacecraft."  It also
mentions that the Russian's crashed a rocket on the Moon before, back on
September 13, 1959.

This little book cost 60 cents back then.  You might find a copy on
Amazon.com for $3.75 or on eBay for as much as $39.99.
http://www.amazon.com/Ranger-Moon-Willie-Ley/dp/1251026680
http://cgi.ebay.com/Ranger-to-the-Moon-Willy-Ley-Good_W0QQitemZ270084189239QQcmdZViewItem


You know who Willy Ley is, right?
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willy_Ley
*Willy Ley*, 1906 - June 24, 1969 was a science writer and space
advocate who helped popularise rocketry and spaceflight in Germany
and the United States.
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You might want to see what the Ranger Missions were all about.  Take a
look at some of the links below.
- LRK -

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update

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* Past Missions - Ranger 1-9*
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http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/past/ranger.html

*Spacecraft*
Mass: 305 to 367 kilograms (675 to 809 pounds)

Configuration: Cone-shaped structure mounted on six-sided base,
flanked by pair of solar panels. Dimensions about 3 to 4 meters (10 to
13 feet) high, 1.5 meter (5 feet) in diameter, spanning about 4.6 to 5.2
meters (15 to 17 feet) across solar panels

Science instruments: Varied; early Rangers emphasized study of
radiation environment in space, while later Rangers featured television
cameras

*Overview*

The Ranger project of the 1960s was the first U.S. effort to launch
probes directly toward the Moon. The spacecraft were designed to relay
pictures and other data as they approached the Moon and finally
crash-landed into its surface. A variety of difficulties plagued the
first several attempted missions in this series, but the later Rangers
were finally a complete success.

Ranger 1 was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on August 23, 1961,
followed by the launch of Ranger 2 on November 18 of that year. In both
cases, the Agena B rocket engine failed to restart and both spacecraft
reentered Earth's atmosphere a short time later.

Ranger 3 was launched January 26, 1962, but an inaccuracy put it off
course and it missed the Moon. Ranger 4 had a perfect launch on April 23
of that year, but the spacecraft was completely disabled. The project
team tracked the seismometer capsule to impact just out of sight on the
far side of the Moon, validating the spacecraft's communications and
navigation system. Ranger 5 missed the Moon following its launch on
October 18, 1962, and was disabled. Ranger 6 was launched January 30,
1964, and had a flawless flight culminating in impact as planned on the
Moon; its television system, however, was disabled by an in-flight
accident and could take no pictures.

The next three Rangers, with a redesigned television, were completely
successful. Ranger 7 was launched July 28, 1964, and sent more than
4,300 pictures on its way down to target in a lunar plain, soon named
Mare Cognitum, south of the crater Copernicus.

Following launch on February 17, 1965, Ranger 8 successfully completed
its mission with a planned crash-landing in Mare Tranquillitatis, where
the Apollo 11 astronauts would land 4-1/2 years later. Ranger 8 garnered
more than 7,300 images.

Ranger 9 was launched March 21, 1965, and impacted the Moon in the
90-kilometer-diameter (75-mile) crater Alphonsus, sending back more than
5,800 images.

More Information:
*Ranger (1961-1965) (National Space Science Data Center)*
<http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/ranger.html>
*Ranger & Surveyor Missions Fact Sheet (PDF)*
<http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/fact_sheets/rangsurv.pdf>
*More about Ranger* <http://sse.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/>

Snip
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranger_program
Ranger program

>From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The *Ranger program* was a series of unmanned space missions  by the United
States in the 1960s whose objective was to obtain the first close-up images
of the surface of the Moon. The Ranger spacecraft were designed to collide
with the lunar surface, returning imagery until they were destroyed upon impact.

Ranger was originally designed, beginning in 1959, in three distinct phases,
called "blocks." Each block had different mission objectives and progressively
more advanced system design. The JPL mission designers planned multiple launches
in each block, to maximize the engineering experience and scientific value of the
mission and to assure at least one successful flight.

Total research, development, launch, and support costs for the Ranger
series of spacecraft (Rangers 1 through 9) was approximately $170 million.

Snip
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http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/ranger/

*Ranger* Photography of the *Moon*
<http://www.lpi.usra.edu/resources/ranger/>

Ranger Photographs of the Moon is the online version of the NASA
documents on the 1964-1965 NASA Lunar Ranger Program. It contains
selected Ranger 7, Ranger 8, and Ranger 9 mission images and
documentation from the photographic edition of the following Ranger
publications.

Ranger VII Photographs of the Moon, Part I: Camera "A" Series,
Photographic Edition (1964)
Also published as Ranger VII Photographs of the Moon, Part I: Camera
"A" Series, NASA SP-61 (1964)

Ranger VII Photographs of the Moon, Part I: Camera "B" Series,
Photographic Edition (1965)
Also published as Ranger VII Photographs of the Moon, Part I: Camera
"B" Series, NASA SP-62 (1965)

Ranger VII Photographs of the Moon, Part I: Camera "P" Series,
Photographic Edition (1965)
Also published as Ranger VII Photographs of the Moon, Part I: Camera
"P" Series, NASA SP-63 (1965)

Ranger VIII Photographs of the Moon, Photographic Edition (1966)
Also published as Ranger VII Photographs of the Moon, NASA SP-111 (1966)

Ranger IX Photographs of the Moon, Photographic Edition (1966)
Also published as Ranger VII Photographs of the Moon, NASA SP-112 (1966)

Snip
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http://agile.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/heasarc/missions/ranger.html
Ranger 3 & 5 Missions

Mission Overview

The Ranger program was a probe series to transmit close-up black and
white photographs of the Moon before crashing into the Lunar surface.
Three of the nine Rangers (7,8,9) were successful. Rangers 1 through 5
experienced technical problems which affected the success of the
missions: the launch vehicles malfunctioned for Ranger 1 and 2, Rangers
3 and 5 missed the Moon, and Ranger 4 landed on the back side of the
Moon and returned no data.

Ranger 3 was launched on 26 January 1962. It carried an instrument
designed to measure gamma-rays coming from the surface of the moon. It
was intended that the instrument would take some 60 hours of data during
the flight before lunar impact in order to determine the interplanetary
gamma-ray flux, and to determine the background for the lunar
measurements. Twelve hours of data were to be taken with the detector in
a stowed position, and the remaining data were to be taken with the
detector extended on a 6 ft. boom. These data permitted a determination
of the satellite body effect on the measured gamma-ray flux. Missing the
moon, the satellite went into a solar orbit (apogee 1.163 AU; perigee
0.9839 AU) and returned no further data.

Ranger 5 was launched on 18 October 1962. Missing the Moon by 725 km, it
went into a heliocentric orbit, with apogee 1.052 AU and perigee 0.949
AU, at orbital inclination 0.39 degrees. Five hours of data were taken
of the cosmic gamma-ray background, with the detector in the stowed
position only.

Snip
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http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4210/pages/Cover.htm
LUNAR IMPACT - A History of Project Ranger

http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4210/pages/Info.htm#I_Top

http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4210/pages/TOC.htm

http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4210/pages/Back.htm#B_Top

Snip
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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