MORE LUNA PICTURES

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30979, 8 February 1966, Page 17

MORE LUNA PICTURES

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter— Copyright) MANCHESTER, (England), Feb. 7.

Russia’s Luna IX spaceship sent back more pictures of the moon last night.

Scientists at Jodrell Bank Observatory said, however, the probe’s power appeared to be fading. The new pictures included two photographs that, when joined, show a broad view of the lunar landscape. Sir Bernard Lovell, director of the observatory, said the photographs were of poor quality. The new photographs were the third batch transmitted by the probe and monitored at Jodrell Bank since Luna IX was soft-landed on the moon on Thursday night. At first, a sudden switch in the frequency Of the signals from the moon-probe led to speculation that Luna IX was moving, possibly lifting off the lunar surface. However, a scanning of space in the region around the moon by the observatory’s powerful radio-tele-

scope suggested that Luna IX was staying put. “There is no evidence that the probe is anywhere but on the lunar surface,” Sir Bernard Lovell said,

The probe’s solar batteries, which draw their energy from sunlight, appeared to be fading.

“The level of the signal has been going down since

the landing,” Sir Bernard Lovell said.

Jodrell Bank planned to tune in to Luna IX’s frequency again tonight to intercept any new signals. Last night’s 81-minute transmission was something of a mystery. The Soviet news agency, Tass, had said earlier that Luna IX’s research programme had ended. Sir Bernard Lovell said this was a matter of “interest and speculation.” He did not know what lay behind the strange signals. Lovell’s Interpretation

Asked about Moscow criticism of his release of the moon station’s pictures, he said: “My interpretation of this is that there may be internal criticism in Russia that we had made the pictures available before the Russians had been able to see them.” Sir Bernard Lovell said it was too early to estimate how much information, which the Russians might otherwise have withheld, had been released by them as a result of the work of Jodrell Bank. He said that Jodrell Bank was a university department and on principle released any information it received to the world at large.

“The Russians themselves have considerably benefited from this in the past.” Sir Bernard Lovell said he intended to offer Russia tape recordings of signals received from Luna IX.