Evening star., 1962-04-24
RANGER
Continued From Page Al

| OOntlnueu from rage Al
ton occurred in the spacecraft
telemetry (radio) system"
1T does look like we have q
fairly significant problem with
the spacecraft," said DR.. Pick
ering, minutes later. I'VE don't
really know how major the
failure is"
He said it could be in the
crafts transmitting system
only. However. he added there
is an indication that the space
craft has not locked onto
(turned its solar battery panels
toward) the sun. The space
craft is slowly tumbling."
The fact that it hadn't locked
onto the sun, he said, Ger
tainly indicates that the trou-
BILE is pretty deep in the brain
of the system"
Later. the trouble was ten
tatively diagnosed as a NAL
functioning timer, a clock like
electronic device which was
activated a few seconds before
launching. 1t was supposed to
provide the timetable for a CEN
tral computer and sequencer
which were to issue steering
commands to Ranger-4.
Through the evening, COM
mandS were sent to the errant
rocket from ground stations in
an effort to shock it into ac-
ton. But shortly before mid
night, the Jet Propulsion Lab
oratory at Goldstone, Calf, is
sued this statement:
Since Ranger-4 has not re-
sponded to commands from
earth stations, a decision ha.
been made not to send the
spacecraft mid-course or ter
minal maneuver commands. i"
The mid-course maneuver
scheduled for about 7:5O am.
today when the rocket should
have been near the midway
point Of its 229,54l-mile Jour-
ney, would have corrected its
aim. The terminal mancuver,
an hour before the impact with
the moon, would have turned
the craft so that the TV camera
would have taken pictures of
the lighted side which :aces
the earth.
Efforts Seen Futile
NASA scientists felt that any
attempt to perform these ma
neuvers now would probably be
futile and might knock Ranger
4 off its collision course.
Although Ranger-4;s radio
command system failed. its
radio beacons that permit
ground stations to track it con-
tinued to function. The battery
poWering these beacons was
expected to fail today and the
solar battery which was to
take its place was not func-
tioning.
But the powerful tracking
antenna at Goldstone will still
be able to follow the craft even
without the beacons.
Four scientific experiments
dissolved with Ranger-4's fail
ure.
Its job as it neared the moon
was to take photographs of the
bright side, measure radioactive
lty emanating from the surface
and measure the moons radar
reflection properties. Then il
was to land the balsa wood en-
cased ball containing instru-
ments to record moonquakes
meteor hits and the tempera-
ture range.
Eighth Failure
The information would have
helped settle the old scientific
question of whether the moon
gots its pockmarked face from
volcano eruptions, or meteor
impacts, or a combination of
both. 1t would have helped
prepare the way for landing a
man on the moon.
The failure was the eighth
straight by which a lunar probe
by the United States has failed
to achieve its goal. But this
time, scientists expect to hit
the moon.
Ranger-5, another ATTEMPT
to do the same thing, had pre-
vlously been scheduled for
launching next October. It is
the last of the lunar impact
experiments.
Russia hit the moons bright
side with Lunik-2 in 1859. and
that same year sent Lunik-3 3
around the moon for the first
and only photographs of the
never visible backside.
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