PHOTOGRAPHS SHOW HARD MOON SURFACE

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30978, 7 February 1966, Page 13

PHOTOGRAPHS SHOW HARD MOON SURFACE

Russia Chides Jodrell Bank For Publication (N.Z.P.A. Reuter—Copyright) MOSCOW, February 6. Russia unveiled its photographs of the moon’s rock-like surface last night and blamed Britain’s Jodrell Bank laboratory for rushing the pictures to world newspapers a day earlier. The Russians showed two spectacular shots on Moscow television in a sudden eight-minute show, screened without warning.

The pictures, flashed to earth on Friday and Saturday by Luna IX, were released three hours after Soviet ground control started its final radio contact with the moon-ship.

They featured a clear view of the lunar plains, pockmarked by pebbles and mysterious cavities, and showed a partial glimpse of the spacecraft’s tall aerial and its twoway reflector mirror. The Soviet news agency. Tass, said yesterday that Lunar IX “soft-landed” on the moon on Thursday night after a 3j-day flight from earth, and would end its research programme with a 4 a.m. New Zealand time today transmission.

Jodrell Bank nicked up four photographs in a transmission last night. An hour after this transmission ceased, according to Jodrell Bank, more signals were received but only for a few moments The observatory planned to continue monitoring the Luna IX frequency. Number Unknown It was not immediately known how many pictures Luna IX had sent back in all, nor why it took the Russians so long to make them public. Soviet scientists said the lunar pictures proved the lunar surface was solid, with no sign of the thick dust cushion over which earthbound experts have theorised about for years. Last night's were the first pictures the Russians saw. although they were splashed in Western newspapers yesterday morning. A leading Soviet space expert. an academician, Anatoly Blagonravov, chided British astronomers for rushing into print with the pictures.

Professor Blagonravov said 'the British photographs were I distorted. Their horizontal scale was •squeezed about 2J times, he I said. > This would mean that the ■photographs splashed across 'the front pages of most British national daily newspapers yesterday showed lunar features 2j times narrower than in the correct version of the pictures.

He accused Jodrell Bank of “certain motives of a sensational nature.

“It is somewhat surprising that such a well-known observatory as Jodrell Bank was in a hurry to publish the photographs without contacting Soviet scientific organisations and asking for information necessary for correct reproduction of the image,” he said. . A Jodrell Bank observatory spokesman last night said he i thought the immediate release :of the pictures was justified !by their international import- | ance. I Lovell’s Comment The director of the observaj tory. Sir Bernard Lovell, asked about Professor Blagon- : ravov’s statement that the photographs released in Britain were distorted, said he had already pointed out that “only the Russians would have details on the focal lengths and other technical data.

“I stressed the point that there was no indication of scale,” he said. Mr Blagonravov did not say why the Russian pictures had been held up or why only two were released.

Scientists said that the firm- | ness of the lava-like lunar surface, resembling volcanic I rock, proved the inoon could ■withstand the shock of spaceships even bigger than Luna ■ IX, which is about 1 i tons. Professor Mstislav Keldysh, president of the Academy of Sciences, said “flights in the not distant future have become a possibilty.” But tremendous scientific and technical difficulties had to be overcome, although Russia’s triumph in soft-landing Luna IX on Thursday night was one of the problems already conquered. Professor Keldysh was speaking to the Communist i Party newspaper, “Pravda,” I in an interview to be pub- : lished today. The main

| points were released tonight I by Tass. He confirmed for the first I time that Luna IX’s speed was cut to almost zero by a retro-rocket, and said special measures were taken to protect the moon-ship from damage as it glided down for landing. Professor Keldysh predictied more soft-landings—on the planets as well as the moon —to put down instruments and to make television probes “to see a lot on these celestial bodies.” Work Completed The Soviet Union later announced that Luna IX had successfully completed the lunar research programme made possible by its historic soft landing on the moon. The announcement, carried by Tass, said the final radio session with the spaceship had been held. Sir Bernard Lovell described the latest series of pictures as “magnificent.” Signals from Lunar IX began to be picked up at Jodrell Bank at 4.41. a.m. N.Z. time today, and ended at 5.47 a.m.

The first picture to be received and processed was similar to the third photograph received at Jodrell Bank on Friday.

Sir Bernard Lovell said it was a remarkably clear picture and showed not a nose cone but a shield which could not yet be identified. It was a strip of metal and it was possibly part of the antennae of Luna IX.

The second clear picture was received just after 5 a.m N.Z. time: Sir Bernard Lovell described the pictures as “magnificent” and said one must •accept an announcement from Tass that the programme of Luna IX research would be complete after the present session. “But it is inconceivable that this should be all,” he said, “because this system is working superbly.” Sir Bernard Lovell said there was no sign of deterioration of battery power on Luna IX. He said that the cameras appeared to have rotating lenses which were commanded from earth.

Luna IX is an airtight package weighing 1583 kilograms (about If tons), carrying a radio system, a programmetimer, a system of thermoregulation, scientific instruments and its own energy supply sources, Tass disclosed last night.

Its television system ensured a 360-degree view of the lunar landscape. Just before touch-down, the capsule containing scientific instruments detached itself from the engine, and the two landed some distance apart.

The capsule carried aerials, which opened automatically after it settled on the moon’s surface, and a special shockabsorbing system. Metal screens shaped like petals protected the television unit during the touchdown. Four Stages

The flight to the moon last Monday was in four stages. The engine block was launched on an eath orbit, then it was put on a trajectory to the moon. In the third stage the trajectory was corrected, to ensure landing in the right spot, and finally it was braked and soft-landed. Tass said the launching was timed to coincide with the lunar morning, when temperature conditions were best.

The trajectory was corrected on Tuesday, a day after launching, and the speed was changed by 71.2 metres, 234 feet per second. On radio command, the brakes were applied when Luna IX was about 50 miles from the moon—only 48 seconds before it landed. A retro-rocket slowed its speed from about 2840 yards a second to only several yards.

The first communications link began as the aerials unfolded four minutes after touch-down.

The first pictures were relayed nearly seven hours later—early on Friday morning. “The area chosen for the landing is typical in many respects of which can be used extensively in future space experiments,” Tass said. “The landing . . . brings nearer the day when man will step down on the surface of the moon and when scientific stations and observatories will be set up there.”