Ranger Viii Television Pictures Of The Moon

[Music] the Ranger 9 spacecraft last in the series was launched from Cape Kennedy on 21 March 19 1965 and impacted on the moon 24 March within the crater alonsus Less Than 3 mil from the predicted impact point this is the Ranger 7 impact point in Mar cognitum and that of Ranger 8 in an area not illuminated in this picture in Mar tranquilatus like Rangers 7 and 8 Ranger 9 carried six television cameras which transmitted over two channels one of which contain camera a and Camera B and the other containing cameras P1 P2 P3 and P4 Ranger 9 transmitted a total of 6,150 pictures now the Ranger 9 pictures the first a camera picture showed an area 708 M across by 676 Mi the area diminishing rapidly as impact neared until the final a picture which covered an area approximately 2 mi on a side North is at the top in all the pictures beginning at 259 mi from the Moon a slightly longer look the crater alonsus has a diameter of 70 Mi 1 and 1/2 minutes to impact 49 Mi across this picture note the smoothness of the central Peak Rising 3,500 ft above the crater floor the large crater which can be seen near the left hand margin is 1.6 m in diameter and is situated on a shallow rill running North the final a camera picture shows a 4 squ M area of the lunar surface with the impact point in the right central portion of the picture the initial b camera photo covered an area 277 M across by 230 Mi the impact Point visible in the early pictures is out of the field of view toward the end beginning at 327 mi from Impact a slightly longer look at the TV photos note the smoothness of the Highland areas as compared with the crater floor and the similarity to the central peak of alonsus an area 32 M across by 27 miles is shown here the last pictures in the B series show clearly The prominent reals broken by dark Halo type craters the impact area is not visible here at the right of the picture is the East edge of alonsus note that the Halo type craters have soft Contours and the surrounding area appears to be covered by material representing the darker material on the moon as the spacecraft moved closer in several shallow depressions with numerous dimple craters and fine structure in the shadowed area became visible the smallest craters discernible are approximately 30 ft in diameter this partial picture is the final B camera view covering an area 545 ft by 76 1/2 ft the wide band on the right is receiver noise the P1 and P2 cameras were equipped with 3-in lenses P3 and P4 with 1-in lenses the P channels cameras provided overlapping among themselves and all four P cameras for photographed areas included within the coverage of the A and B cameras each of the four cameras sent a total of 1340 highquality pictures to the receiving station at Goldstone California total spacecraft travel time on its picture-taking Journey To The Moon 64 hours 31 minutes 12 seconds distance traveled 29,43 miles the spacecraft at impact was traveling at a velocity of just under 6,000 M an hour the impact point in the crater alonsus was approximately 12.9 de south latitude and 2.4 deest west longitude just Northeast of the crater's central Peak the final P Channel pictures showed craters as small as 18 in in diameter similar in size to those shown in the B camera coverage the last P Channel picture taken by camera P3 one4 of a second before impact covered an area 253 ft by 226 ft the last three frames show the impact Point clearly performance of a terminal maneuver made it possible for all cameras except B to show the impact point