Lunar Orbiter 5
Template:Short description Template:Use American English Template:Infobox spaceflight
Lunar Orbiter 5, the last of the "Lunar Orbiter series",<ref name=Byers_1976/> was designed to take additional Apollo and Surveyor landing site photography and to take broad survey images of unphotographed parts of the Moon's far side. It was also equipped to collect selenodetic, radiation intensity, and micrometeoroid impact data and was used to evaluate the Manned Space Flight Network tracking stations and Apollo Orbit Determination Program.
Mission summaryEdit
The spacecraft was placed in a cislunar trajectory and on August 5, 1967 was injected into an elliptical near polar lunar orbit Template:Convert with an inclination of 85 degrees and a period of 8 hours 30 minutes. On August 7 the perilune was lowered to Template:Convert, and on August 9 the orbit was lowered to a Template:Convert, 3 hour 11 minute period.<ref name=nssdc1/>
The spacecraft acquired photographic data from August 6 to 18, 1967, and readout occurred until August 27, 1967.<ref name=nasa1/> A total of 633 high resolution and 211 medium resolution frames at resolution down to Template:Convert were acquired, bringing the cumulative photographic coverage by the five Lunar Orbiter craft to 99% of the Moon's surface.<ref name=lpi5/> Accurate data were acquired from all other experiments throughout the mission. The spacecraft was tracked until it struck the lunar surface on command<ref name=nssdc1/> at 2.79 degrees S latitude, 83 degrees W longitude (selenographic coordinates) on January 31, 1968.
Features on the near side of the Moon that were photographic targets included Petavius, Hyginus, Messier, Tycho, Copernicus, Gassendi, Vitello, Mons Gruithuisen Gamma, Prinz, Aristarchus, Vallis Schroteri, Marius Hills, Montes Apenninus, Rimae Plato, Sinus Aestuum, Hipparchus, Rimae Sulpicius Gallus, Rimae Calippus, Censorinus, Dionysius, and the future landing site of Apollo 11.<ref name=Hansen_1970/>
| Lunar Photographic Studies : | Evaluation of Apollo and Surveyor landing sites |
| Meteoroid Detectors : |
Detection of micrometeoroids in the lunar environment |
| Caesium Iodide Dosimeters : | Radiation environment en route to and near the Moon |
| Selenodesy : | Gravitational field and physical properties of the Moon |
- Lunar Orbiter V image of earth.jpg
Image of the Earth taken by Lunar Orbiter 5, enhanced by LOIRP
- Lunar Orbiter 5 - FRAME 5091-M - DPLA - 23d0944947b5ada4a859b87e8dbc1966.jpg
Rimae Sulpicius Gallus on August 13, 1967 (Template:Coord)
- Lunar Orbiter 5 - FRAME 5179-H1 - DPLA - ab9cbc6ca4faed735b557a9d2a6ce14a.jpg
Southern rim of Gassendi A crater on August 17, 1967
- Lunar Orbiter 5 - FRAME 5198-H3 - DPLA - 6a113a5cf26e003e5423f9d1bd785b6f.jpg
Rim of Aristarchus crater on August 18, 1967 (Template:Coord)
See alsoEdit
Template:PortalTemplate:Sister project
- Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project
- Exploration of the Moon
- List of artificial objects on the Moon
- List of missions to the Moon
ReferencesEdit
{{#invoke:Navbox|navbox}} Template:Moon spacecraft Template:Orbital launches in 1967 Template:NASA space program