From: klaes@verga.enet.dec.com (Larry Klaes)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro,alt.sci.planetary
Subject: Soviet and U.S. Space Missions After LUNA 3
Keywords: LUNA, Moon, Soviet, farside
Date: 9 Oct 92 17:40:11 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation


    In Article 49956, wa2ise@cbnewsb.cb.att.com (robert.f.casey) writes:

    > I seem to remember that there were no follow-ups to that mission, 
    > like to map the missing area on the far side (of the Moon, not the 
    > cartoons), and/or to get better resolution pictures.  Did they try 
    > and fail, or just didn't have budget or hardware to do it, or maybe 
    > they figured they already got enough bragging rights out of the 
    > first one? :-) 

        There were two possible follow-on Soviet space missions to LUNA 3 
    after its success in October of 1959.  The first was launched on April 
    12, 1960 aboard a VOSTOK rocket but failed to reach Luna.  The second,
    launched on April 18, met the same fate.  These unnamed probes may have 
    been improved versions of the LUNA 3 craft, designed to take better 
    images of the lunar farside.  

        Around this time the United States was also attempting to place
    a number of PIONEER probes in lunar orbit to obtain their own images
    of the hidden hemisphere.  None were completely successful.  The
    series ended in late 1960.

        The Soviets did not launch another known probe to Earth's moon 
    until January of 1963.  By then they were concentrating on surface 
    landers, a goal they would eventually achieve with LUNA 9 in 1966.

        In July of 1965, the Soviets sent ZOND 3 on a flyby mission of
    Luna on its way to the orbit of Mars.  The probe became the first
    vehicle to photograph the lunar farside since LUNA 3.  The images
    were a vast improvement over the 1959 pictures.  ZOND 3 also imaged 
    the remaining parts of the farside missed by LUNA 3.  The United 
    States would not have its own farside images until the following 
    year with the LUNAR ORBITER series.

        For more information on these missions, please read the following
    articles written by Andrew J. LePage from the Electronic Journal of the 
    Astronomical Society of the Atlantic (EJASA), available from anonymous
    FTP at chara.gsu.edu (131.96.5.29).

        "The Great Moon Race: In the Beginning..." - May 1992
 	"The Great Moon Race: The Commitment" - August 1992
        "The Great Moon Race: The Long Road to Success" - September 1992

        References -

	Barabashov, N. P., A. A. Mikhailov, and Yu. N. Lipsky, AN ATLAS 
    OF THE MOON'S FARSIDE, 1961

	Brockman, M. H., H. R. Buchanan, R. L. Choate, and L. R. Malling,
    "Extraterrestrial Radio Tracking and Communication", PROCEEDINGS OF 
    THE I.R.E., April, 1960

	Burrows, William E., EXPLORING SPACE: VOYAGES IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM
    AND BEYOND, 1990

	Gatland, Kenneth, THE ILLUSTRATED ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SPACE TECHNOLOGY, 
    1988

	Gatland, Kenneth, ROBOT EXPLORERS, 1972

	Johnson, Nicholas, HANDBOOK OF SOVIET LUNAR AND PLANETARY 
    EXPLORATION, 1979

	Lipsky, Yuri N., "ZOND 3 Photographs of the Moon's Far Side", SKY &
    TELESCOPE, December 1965

        Schurmeier, H. M., "Lunar Exploration", LUNAR MISSIONS AND EXPLORATION,
    1964

	Von Braun, Wernher, and Fredrick I. Ordway III, HISTORY OF ROCKETRY 
    AND SPACE TRAVEL, 1966

	Wilson, Andrew, (JANE'S) SOLAR SYSTEM LOG, 1987

        Larry Klaes  klaes@verga.enet.dec.com
		     or - ...!decwrl!verga.enet.dec.com!klaes
    		     or - klaes%verga.dec@decwrl.enet.dec.com
                     or - klaes%verga.enet.dec.com@uunet.uu.net

             "All the Universe, or nothing!" - H. G. Wells

        EJASA Editor, Astronomical Society of the Atlantic
Newsgroups: sci.space