KerbalX

THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE FAR SIDE OF THE MOON

Dawn of October 4th, 1959. The Automatic Interplanetary Station, “Luna 3” was ready to launch. It had the purpose of flying by the moon, gathering scientific data and most importantly, taking the first photographs of the far side of the moon.

After launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the Luna 8K72 rocket, with its satellite, Luna-3, flew over the North Pole, then passed behind the Moon. Once there, a photocell was used to detect the Moon and orient the cameras toward it. Using the Yenisey-2 imaging system, it would start to automatically take photos. After the photography was complete, the film was moved to an on-board processor where it was developed, fixed, and dried. It would then be scanned with a resolution of 1000 (horizontal) lines and converted to an electric signal which was to be transmitted to the Earth, It wasn’t close enough though. Thankfully this was planed, its trajectory headed it back to Earth so it could send back its data. The gravity of the Moon changed the spacecraft’s orbit, so the return orbit was calculated so that the spacecraft passed again over the Northern hemisphere, where the Soviet ground stations were located. This maneuver was calculated at the Steklov Institute of Mathematics under the direction of Mstislav Keldysh. It was the worlds first gravity assist.

The camera took 29 pictures over 40 minutes on 7 October 1959, only seventeen of these were successfully transmitted
Contact was lost from the satellite the 22 of October and is thought to have reentered the earth’s atmosphere, destroying it, the April 29 1960. Ending this historic mission…

ABOUT THE REPLICA

This replica was built on-and-off from June ‎14 to August 17, 2022. I am quite proud of what I have built considering the detail, accuracy, and functionality. The rocket itself flies excellently - it’s almost impossible to flip it - with an increased facility of flight due to the automatic staging system. Of Couse there is also the wonderful Korolev cross booster separation, which took me ages to get working right. But now that it’s working, I love it. For the satilite, it was the first thing I made and I think it turned out quite cute.

FLIGHT INFO

Simple.
-Turn on SAS
-Activate abort action group (Backspace); it will start the automatic launch and staging.
-After launch, it’s your job to steer the rocket. Don’t worry about the staging, I will do it itself.
-Once the upper stage (Blok-E) has separated, you now have control over the engine (throttle up). Once in your desired orbit, stage to release the satellite.