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Ranger 4: Lunar Impact

Mission Details

Mission Name: Ranger 4
Mission Type: Lunar Impact
Operator: NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)
Launching State: United States
Location: Between Evans & Belopol’skiy Craters ?
Latitude: -15.5
Longitude: -130.7
Launch Date: 23 April 1962, 20:50:00 UT
Landing Date: 26 April 1962, 12:49:53 UT
Objects on or Related to Site:
Ranger 4
Image Source: NASA

Description

The Ranger project of the 1960s was a US 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 4 was designed to transmit pictures of the lunar surface to Earth stations during a period of ten minutes prior to impacting on the Moon.

Read more:
https://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/past/ranger.html

Heritage Consideration

An onboard computer failure caused failure of the deployment of the solar panels and navigation systems; as a result the spacecraft crashed on the far side of the Moon without returning any scientific data.

Object on or Related to Site

Object Name: Ranger 4
Cospar: 1962-012A
Norad: N/A
Location: Precise location unknown or undisclosed.
Launch Date: 23 April 1962, 20:50:00 UT
Landing Date: 26 April 1962, 12:49:53 UT
Deployment: N/A
End Date: N/A
Function: Lunar imagery.
Image Source: NASA

Description

Ranger 4 was a spacecraft of the Ranger program designed to transmit pictures of the lunar surface to Earth stations during a period of 10 minutes of flight prior to crashing upon the Moon, to rough-land a seismometer capsule on the Moon, to collect gamma-ray data in flight, to study radar reflectivity of the lunar surface, and to continue testing of the Ranger program for development of lunar and interplanetary spacecraft. An onboard computer failure caused failure of the deployment of the solar panels and navigation systems; as a result the spacecraft crashed on the far side of the Moon without returning any scientific data.

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