Mission type | Lunar sample return |
---|---|
Operator | OKB-1 |
COSPAR ID | 1976-081A |
SATCAT no. | 09272 |
Mission duration | 13 days (achieved) |
Spacecraft properties | |
Spacecraft type | Luna |
Bus | Ye-8-5 |
Manufacturer | NPO Lavochkin |
Launch mass | 5,800 kg (12,800 lb) [1] |
Start of mission | |
Launch date | 9 August 1976, 15:04:12 UTC [2] |
Rocket | Proton-K / Blok DM (s/n 288-02) |
Launch site | Baikonur, Site 81/23 |
Contractor | Krunichev |
End of mission | |
Landing date | 22 August 1976, 17:55 UTC |
Landing site | 61°3′36″N75°54′0″E / 61.06000°N 75.90000°E , [3] 200 km (120 mi) South-East of Surgut, Western Siberia |
Orbital parameters | |
Reference system | Selenocentric orbit |
Regime | Circular orbit |
Periselene altitude | 115 km (71 mi) |
Aposelene altitude | 115 km (71 mi) |
Inclination | 120.0° |
Period | 1 hour 59 minutes |
Lunar orbiter | |
Orbital insertion | 14 August 1976 |
Orbits | ~48 |
Lunar lander | |
Landing date | 18 August 1976,06:36 UTC |
Return launch | 19 August 1976,05:25 UTC |
Landing site | 12°42′52″N62°12′35″E / 12.7145°N 62.2097°E [4] |
Sample mass | 170.1 g (6.00 oz) |
Instruments | |
Stereo photographic imaging system Improved drill/Remote arm for sample collection Radiation detector Radio-altimeter | |
Luna 24 was a robotic probe of the Soviet Union's Luna programme. The 24th mission of the Luna series of spacecraft,the mission of the Luna 24 probe was the third Soviet mission to return lunar soil samples from the Moon (the first two sample return missions were Luna 16 and Luna 20 ). The probe landed in Mare Crisium (Sea of Crises). The mission returned 170.1 g (6.00 oz) of lunar samples to the Earth on 22 August 1976.
Luna 24 was based on the Ye-8-5 spacecraft body,consisting of two attached stages,an ascent stage mounted on top of a descent stage. The lander stood 3.96 meters tall and had an unfueled landed mass of 1880 kg. With a full load of fuel its launch mass was between 5600 and 5750 kg. [5]
The descent stage was the same as the Ye-8 lower stage for the Lunokhod rovers,a cylindrical body with four protruding landing legs,fuel tanks,a landing radar altimeter,and a dual descent engine complex. The main descent rocket,the KTDU-417,was a throttleable 1920 kg thrust engine used for mid-course corrections,orbit insertion,braking for descent to the surface,and to slow the craft until it reached a cutoff point which was determined by the onboard computer based on altitude and velocity. After cutoff a bank of lower thrust (210 and 350 kg) vernier jets was used for the final landing. The descent stage also acted as a launch pad for the ascent stage. The spacecraft descent stage was equipped with a television camera,radiation and temperature monitors,telecommunications equipment,and a 90 cm extendable arm with a drilling rig for the collection of a lunar soil sample. Communications were via a conical antenna at the end of a boom at 768 and 922 MHz (downlink) and 115 MHz (uplink). [5]
The ascent stage was a smaller cylinder with a spherical top which replaced the Lunokhod rover and housing from the Ye-8 bus. It carried a cylindrical hermetically sealed soil sample container inside a spherical re-entry capsule,mounted on a 1920 kg thrust KRD-61 rocket. Total mass of the ascent stage was 520 kg,of which 245 kg was the nitric acid and UDMH propellant. It was 2 meters tall. The sample return cabin was 50 cm in diameter and had a mass of 39 kg. The KRD-61 could only fire once,for 53 seconds,to put it on a free return trajectory to Earth. Specific impulse of the engine was 313 seconds,it could impart a velocity of 2600-2700 m/s to the return craft. [5]
Lunar mission | Sample returned | Year |
---|---|---|
Luna 16 | 101 g [6] | 1970 |
Luna 20 | 30 g [7] | 1972 |
Luna 24 | 170.1 g [5] | 1976 |
Luna 24 was the third attempt to recover a sample from the unexplored Mare Crisium,the location of a large lunar mascon (after Luna 23 and a launch failure in October 1975). After a trajectory correction on 11 August 1976,Luna 24 entered lunar orbit three days later. Initial orbital parameters were 115 by 115 km (71 by 71 mi) at 120°inclination. After further changes to its orbit,Luna 24 set down safely on the lunar surface at 06:36 UTC on 18 August 1976 at 12°45' North latitude and 62°12' East longitude,not far from where Luna 23 had landed. [8] Exact landing location (12.7145°N,62.2097°E) was determined by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter probe orbital cameras in 2012. [9]
Under command from ground control,the lander deployed its sample arm and pushed its drilling head about two metres into the nearby soil. The sample was safely stowed in the small return capsule,and after nearly a day on the Moon,Luna 24 lifted off successfully at 05:25 UTC on 19 August 1976. After an uneventful return trip,Luna 24's capsule entered Earth's atmosphere and parachuted safely to land at 05:55 UTC on 22 August 1976,about 200 km (120 mi) southeast of Surgut in western Siberia. Study of the recovered 170.1 g (6.00 oz) of soil indicated a laminated type structure,as if laid down in successive deposits. The Soviet Union swapped a gram of the mission sample for a lunar sample from NASA in December 1976. [8] Luna 24 was the final lunar spacecraft to be launched by the Soviet Union. It was also the last spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon until the landing of China's Chang'e 3 on 14 December 2013,37 years later. For over 44 years,it was also the last Lunar sample return mission until China's Chang'e 5 in December 2020.
In February 1978, Soviet scientists M. Akhmanova, B. Dement'ev, and M. Markov of the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytic Chemistry published a paper claiming a detection of water fairly definitively. [10] [11] Their study showed that the samples returned to Earth by the probe contained about 0.1% water by mass, as seen in infrared absorption spectroscopy (at about 3 µm wavelength), at a detection level about 10 times above the threshold, [12] although Crotts points out that "The authors... were not willing to stake their reputations on an absolute statement that terrestrial contamination was completely avoided." [13] This would represent the first detection of water content on the surface of the moon, although that result has not been confirmed by other researchers. [14]
The Luna programme, occasionally called Lunik by western media, was a series of robotic spacecraft missions sent to the Moon by the Soviet Union between 1959 and 1976. 29 were failures and 15 were successful, each designed as either an orbiter or lander, and accomplished many firsts in space exploration. They also performed many experiments, studying the Moon's chemical composition, gravity, temperature, and radiation.
Luna 9 (Луна-9), internal designation Ye-6 No.13, was an uncrewed space mission of the Soviet Union's Luna programme. On 3 February 1966, the Luna 9 spacecraft became the first spacecraft to achieve a survivable landing on a celestial body.
Luna 15 was a robotic space mission of the Soviet Luna programme, that was in lunar orbit together with the Apollo 11 Command module Columbia.
Luna 16 was an uncrewed 1970 space mission, part of the Soviet Luna program. It was the first robotic probe to land on the Moon and return a sample of lunar soil to Earth. The 101 grams sample was returned from Mare Fecunditatis. It represented the first successful lunar sample return mission by the Soviet Union and was the third lunar sample return mission overall.
Luna 18, part of the Ye-8-5 series, was an uncrewed space mission of the Luna program.
Luna 20 was the second of three successful Soviet lunar sample return missions. It was flown as part of the Luna program as a robotic competitor to the six successful Apollo lunar sample return missions.
Luna 23 was an uncrewed space mission of the Luna program developed by the Soviet Union.
The Apollo Lunar Module, originally designated the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), was the lunar lander spacecraft that was flown between lunar orbit and the Moon's surface during the United States' Apollo program. It was the first crewed spacecraft to operate exclusively in the airless vacuum of space, and remains the only crewed vehicle to land anywhere beyond Earth.
A lander is a spacecraft that descends towards, then comes to rest on the surface of an astronomical body other than Earth. In contrast to an impact probe, which makes a hard landing that damages or destroys the probe upon reaching the surface, a lander makes a soft landing after which the probe remains functional.
Mare Crisium is a lunar mare located in the Moon's Crisium basin, just northeast of Mare Tranquillitatis. Mare Crisium is a basin of Nectarian age.
A Moon landing or lunar landing is the arrival of a spacecraft on the surface of the Moon. This includes both crewed and robotic missions. The first human-made object to touch the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 2, on 13 September 1959.
Lunar water is water that is present on the Moon. Diffuse water molecules in low concentrations can persist at the Moon's sunlit surface, as discovered by the SOFIA observatory in 2020. Gradually, water vapor is decomposed by sunlight, leaving hydrogen and oxygen lost to outer space. Scientists have found water ice in the cold, permanently shadowed craters at the Moon's poles. Water molecules are also present in the extremely thin lunar atmosphere.
Luna E-8-5M No.412, also known as Luna Ye-8-5M No.412, and sometimes identified by NASA as Luna 1975A, was a Soviet spacecraft which was lost in a launch failure in 1975. It was a 5,300 kg (11,700 lb) Luna E-8-5M spacecraft, the second of three to be launched. It was intended to perform a soft landing on the Moon, collect a sample of lunar soil, and return it to the Earth.
A lunar lander or Moon lander is a spacecraft designed to land on the surface of the Moon. As of 2023, the Apollo Lunar Module is the only lunar lander to have ever been used in human spaceflight, completing six lunar landings from 1969 to 1972 during the United States' Apollo Program. Several robotic landers have reached the surface, and some have returned samples to Earth.
A sample-return mission is a spacecraft mission to collect and return samples from an extraterrestrial location to Earth for analysis. Sample-return missions may bring back merely atoms and molecules or a deposit of complex compounds such as loose material and rocks. These samples may be obtained in a number of ways, such as soil and rock excavation or a collector array used for capturing particles of solar wind or cometary debris. Nonetheless, concerns have been raised that the return of such samples to planet Earth may endanger Earth itself.
The physical exploration of the Moon began when Luna 2, a space probe launched by the Soviet Union, made an impact on the surface of the Moon on September 14, 1959. Prior to that the only available means of exploration had been observation from Earth. The invention of the optical telescope brought about the first leap in the quality of lunar observations. Galileo Galilei is generally credited as the first person to use a telescope for astronomical purposes; having made his own telescope in 1609, the mountains and craters on the lunar surface were among his first observations using it.
The LK was a lunar module developed in the 1960s as a part of several Soviet crewed lunar programs. Its role was analogous to the American Apollo Lunar Module (LM). Three LK modules, of the T2K variant, were flown without crew in Earth orbit, but no LK ever reached the Moon. The development of the N1 launch vehicle required for the lunar flight suffered setbacks, and the first Moon landings were achieved by US astronauts on Apollo 11. As a result, having lost the Space Race, both the N1 and the LK programs were cancelled without any further development.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is a NASA robotic spacecraft currently orbiting the Moon in an eccentric polar mapping orbit. Data collected by LRO have been described as essential for planning NASA's future human and robotic missions to the Moon. Its detailed mapping program is identifying safe landing sites, locating potential resources on the Moon, characterizing the radiation environment, and demonstrating new technologies.
Resource Prospector is a cancelled mission concept by NASA of a rover that would have performed a survey expedition on a polar region of the Moon. The rover was to attempt to detect and map the location of volatiles such as hydrogen, oxygen and lunar water which could foster more affordable and sustainable human exploration to the Moon, Mars, and other Solar System bodies.