Luna 1 at the Dawn of Interplanetary Exploration

The Luna 1 Soviet Space Probe

A New Era in exploration of other worlds began in 1959 with launches of the first satellite probes to the Moon. On 3 January the first spacecraft to leave Earth's orbit was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan by the former Soviet Union. Luna 1, or Mechta ("Dream" in Russian) rode atop a Luna rocket, breaking free of Earth's pull to reach escape velocity, around 33 times the speed of sound. According to plan, the rocket fell back to Earth, while the spacecraft was thrust into space. Luna 1 started a long path around the sun, with the goal of reaching the moon along the way.

Luna 1
RIA Novosti Archive / Alexander Mokletsov / CC-BY-SA 3.0 

Luna 1 Mission Payload

Luna 1 carried a rudimentary collection of scientific gadgets for measurements and communication.  Tracking systems and remote telemetry units kept scientists on the ground in contact. Meanwhile a magnetometer allowed Luna 1 to detect possible magnetic fields coming from the moon. Radiation levels were measured with a geiger counter. A scintillation counter was mounted to obtain information about other types of radiation. Finally, a micrometeorite detector on board gathered measurements of debris and particles floating in space between the Earth and the Moon. All of this information would later be critically important for astronauts planning manned expeditions to the Moon.

Luna 1 Sodium Gas Experiment

Along the way to the moon, flying 119,500 km (74,300 mi) above our planet, Luna 1 released a payload of sodium gas. This created a streaky orange cloud of light, lasting several minutes. Witnesses in the Soviet Union and as far away as Scotland reported sighting this synthetic comet. The United States and the Soviet Union were in a fierce competition at the time, to demonstrate to the world their technological strength and primacy. While this experiment provided some information about the behavior of gas in exotic environments, it was also a spectacular sight to see and a powerful advertisement for the dominance of the Soviet space program at the time.

Luna 1 loaded onto carrier rocket Vostok-L
RIA Novosti Archive / Alexander Mokletsov / CC-BY-SA 3.0 

Missing the Moon

Towards the completion of the journey, if all went according to plan, Luna 1 would crash into the moon, all the while beaming scientific information back to Earth. However, after a 34 hour flight, Luna 1 missed the Moon by 5,995 km (3,725 mi), due to a programming error. Even still, the mission succeeded in gathering information about the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon. We learned that the Moon does not have a detectable magnetic field. Observations during the journey also provided details about the solar wind. The solar wind is a powerful flow of energy and matter in the form of ionized plasma traveling between the planets and beyond into outer space. While transmitting this information back to Earth, Luna 1 set a record for longest distance communications ever made. Luna 1 did not crash into the moon as planned, but instead wound up in orbit around the Sun. It remains there still today, like a human-made planet, between the Earth and Mars.

Next steps

The exploration of interplanetary space continued two months later.  On 3 March 1959, the United States NASA project launched Pioneer 4.  This craft would fly by the Moon a day later, at a speed of 7,230 km an hour (4500 miles/hr).

Ice Moon Station will continue to publish articles on early space exploration.
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