Luna 13
Luna 13 — the third spacecraft to land softly on the Moon, after Luna 9 and Surveyor 1 (24 December 1966, Ocean of Storms). Besides panoramas of the landscape, it pushed a penetrometer into the soil, measured its density and took the surface temperature, until its batteries ran down on 28 December.
Key facts
Mission & specifications
Mission
- Operator
- Lavochkin (USSR)
- Launched
- December 21, 1966
- Status
- Completed
Mission
Luna 13 was the third spacecraft to land softly on the Moon, after Luna 9 and the American Surveyor 1, and it did more than look around. Launched on 21 December 1966, it fired its retrorockets about 70 km above the surface on 24 December and touched down at 18:01 UT in the Ocean of Storms. Four minutes later its petals had opened, its antennas were up and it was transmitting to Earth — about six and a half hours before sunrise at the site. Its 112 kg lander carried more than Luna 9's camera. A penetrometer pushed into the regolith to test how firm it was, a radiation densitometer measured how dense it was, an infrared radiometer took the surface temperature, and a dynamograph recorded the forces of the landing itself. On 25 and 26 December the camera sent panoramas of the landscape with the Sun at 6°, 19° and 32° above the horizon, each taking about 100 minutes to transmit. The last session ended at 06:13 UT on 28 December, when the batteries were thought to have run down, and on 31 December the Soviet news agency TASS announced that the mission was complete.
- 1966Luna 13 launches toward the Moon from the Baikonur CosmodromeLaunch
A Ye-6M lander with instruments to test the lunar soil.
It touches down at 18:01 UT, the third spacecraft to land softly on the Moon.
- 1966Panoramas and soil testsMilestone
Over two days it sends panoramas under three Sun angles and probes the firmness and density of the regolith.
- 1966Last transmissionMission end
The final session ends at 06:13 UT as its batteries run down.
Images
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