The Explorers' Club, № MCLXXIV

Operation AXIOM: Destination Moon—The 50th Anniversary of Luna 24
9-22 August 1976: The Luna 24 probe lifted off from the Kazakh S.S.R.'s Baikonur Cosmodrome atop a Proton-K rocket; the probe landed on the Mare Crisium, collected regolith samples, & sealed those samples inside an ascent stage, which lifted off from the Moon & landed back in the Kazakh S.S.R.; Luna 24 was the third & final Soviet lunar sample-return mission, & the final Luna program mission*.

Commentary: Luna 24 returned one hundred seventy point one grams (170.1 g) of lunar regolith to Earth, more than Luna 16 & Luna 20 combined. The three landers returned approximately three hundred grams (300 g) of samples. By way of contrast, the six manned Apollo landings returned approximately three hundred eighty-two kilograms (382 kg; or, 382,000 g) of lunar samples.

*The final Luna program mission of the Soviet Union; the Russian Federation has a latter-day Moon exploration program, Luna-Glob ("Lunar sphere," compare lunar globe), that claims continuity with the old Soviet propgram. In August 2023, the Luna 25 lander failed, crashing into the Lunar surface.

The Waykback Machine Tour of Soviet Lunar Sample-return Missions
"The Explorers' Club," № DCCCXLII: The 51st Anniversary of Luna 16 (1970)
"The Explorers' Club," № CMXXXII: The 51st Anniversary of Luna 20 (1972)

Ex Luna, scientia.

The Explorers' Club, № MCLXXIII

Operation AXIOM: Destination Moon—The 60th Anniversary of Lunar Orbiter 1
10 August 1966: The Lunar Orbiter 1 probe lifted off from Florida's Cape Kennedy Air Force Station aboard an Atlas-Agena rocket; Lunar Orbiter 1 transmitted 42 high-resolution photos & 187 medium-resolution photos from 18-29 August, using cameras Kodak originally developed for the SAMOS spy satellites; the orbiter was crashed into the Far Side of the Moon during its 577th orbit, on 29 October.

Commentary: Lunar Orbiter 1 took the first photo of the Earth from the Moon, though I dare say that in a little over two years it would be surpassed by the Earthrise photo taken during Apollo 8. Such was the rapid rate of progress in those heady days: Lunar Orbiter 1 was America's first spacecraft to orbit the Moon, yet in less than three years three Apollo Command & Service Modules orbited the Moon (Apollo 8, Apollo 10, & Apollo 11), two Lunar Modules orbited the Moon (Apollo 10 & Apollo 11), & the first Lunar Module landed on the Moon (Apollo 11). What a time to be alive!

Bonus! Destination Moon Song o' the Day: Lunar Orbiter 1
Paul Simon, "Kodachrome" from the Negotiations and Love Songs 1971-1986 compilation (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Ex Luna, scientia.

The Explorers' Club, № MCLXIX

Operation AXIOM: The Space Age—The 50th Anniversary of Project Viking, Part IV
20 July 1976: The Viking 1 lander landed at the Chryse Planitia & began to transmit photographs within 25 seconds; a robotic arm scooped up soil samples, which were subjected to four biological experiments for signs of microbial life; atmospheric & seismographic data was collected; the lander operated for 2,307 days (2,245 sols), until a faulty command ended contact on 11 November 1982.

Bonus! Space Age Song o' the Day: Viking 1
David Bowie, "Life on Mars?" from Hunky Dory (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Semper exploro.

The Explorers' Club, № MCLXII

Operation AXIOM: The Space Age—The 50th Anniversary of Project Viking, Part III
19 June 1976: The Viking 1 probe entered orbit of Mars; the Viking 1 lander was scheduled to land on 4 July 1976, the Bicentennial, but imagery showed the initial landing site was too rough & the search for a new site delayed the landing; the Viking 1 orbiter approached Phobos in 1977, & relayed data from the lander & transmitted over 57,000 photographs of Mars for 1,485 orbits until 17 August 1980.

Bonus! Space Age Song o' the Day: Viking 1
The Aquabats!, "Martian Girl!" from The Fury of The Aquabats! (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Semper exploro.

The Explorers' Club, № MCLVIII

Operation AXIOM: Destination Moon—The 60th Anniversary of Surveyor 1
30 May 1966-7 January 1967: The Surveyor 1 probe lifted off from Florida's Cape Kennedy Air Force Station atop an Atlas-Centaur rocket; it made the first American & second overall soft landing on the Moon (2 June) in the Flamsteed Crater on the Ocean of Storms; Surveyor 1 returned 11,237 photos until 14 July & temperature data until 7 January 1967 (except during the two-week-long lunar nights).

Commentary: The Surveyor soft-landing probes (1966-1968) continued on from the Ranger crash-landing probes (1961-1965) & were accompanied by the Lunar Orbiter satellites (1966-1967), which closely mapped the Moon's surface, all in preparation for the crewed Apollo landings (1969-1972).

Ex Luna, scientia.

The Explorers' Club, № MCXLIX

Operation AXIOM: The Space Age
The Halley Armada, an internationally coordinated series of space probes to study Halley's Comet: Vega 1 & Vega 2 (U.S.S.R. & France, launched 15 & 21 December 1984), Giotto (European Space Agency, launched 2 July 1985), & Sakigake & Suisei (Japan, launched 7 January & 18 August 1985); all five probes made their closest approaches to Halley's Comet between 6-14 March 1986.

Commentary: The American observatory Spartan Halley was destroyed in the Challenger disaster. The cancelled Space Shuttle mission S.T.S.-61-E (planned to launch 6 March 1986) was also scheduled to conduct observations of Halley's Comet using the ASTRO-1 payload.

An existing space probe, launched in 1978 as the International Sun-Earth Explorer-3, was retasked & renamed the International Cometary Explorer, passing through the tails of Comet Giacobini-Zinner in September 1985 & Comet Halley in March 1986.

Semper exploro.

The Explorers' Club, № MCXLVIII

Operation AXIOM: Destination Moon—The 60th Anniversary of Luna 10
31 March-30 May 1966: The Luna 10 probe (A.K.A. Lunik 10) lifted off from the Kazakh S.S.R.'s Baikonur Cosmodrome atop a Molniya-M rocket; Luna 10 entered lunar orbit (3 April), the first artificial satellite of the Moon & the first probe to encounter mass concentrations & the resultant gravity anomalies that perturbed its orbit; radio communications was terminated after 460 orbits (30 May).

Commentary: It is unknown precisely when Luna 10's orbit decayed & it crashed into the Moon, nor where.

Ex Luna, scientia.

The Explorers' Club, № MCXXXIX

Operation AXIOM: Destination Moon—The 60th Anniversary of Luna 9
31 January-6 February 1966: The Luna 9 probe lifted off from the Kazakh S.S.R.'s Baikonur Cosmo- drome atop a Molniya-M rocket; the Automatic Lunar Station (A.L.S.) lander was released & made the first soft landing on the Moon (3 February), via landing airbags; the A.L.S. transmitted the first photo panoramas & television images from the surface of the Moon & measured radiation levels.

Commentary: Luna 9's images were decoded by the U.K.'s Jodrell Bank Observatory & published throughout the West, long before the secretive Soviet space program intended to release anything.

Ex Luna, scientia.

The Explorers' Club, № MCX

Operation AXIOM: The Space Age—The 50th Anniversary of Project Viking, Part II
9 September 1975: Viking 2 probe lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station atop a Titan IIIE (A.K.A. Titan III-Centaur) rocket, bound for Mars; Viking 2 consisted of an orbiter, to identify Martian landing sites & photograph the moon Deimos, & a lander, intended to reach the Utopia Planitia region; the Viking 2 orbiter & lander were essentially identical to the Viking 1 orbiter & lander.

Bonus! Space Age Song o' the Day!: Viking 2
The Aquabats!, "Martian Girl!" from The Return of the Aquabats! (Captain Thumbs Up!)

Semper exploro.

The Explorers' Club, № MCVI

Operation AXIOM: The Space Age—The 50th Anniversary of Project Viking, Part I
20 August 1975: The Viking 1 probe lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station atop a Titan IIIE (A.K.A. Titan III-Centaur) rocket, bound for Mars; Viking 1 consisted of an orbiter, to identify Martian landing sites & photograph the moon Phobos, & a lander, intended to land on 4 July 1976; the Viking 1 orbiter was based on the successful Mariner 9 probe, the first probe to orbit another planet.

Bonus! Space Age Song o' the Day: Viking 1
The Skatalites, "Trip to Mars" from Greetings from Skamania (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Semper exploro.

The Explorers' Club, № MXCVIII

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 60th Anniversary of Mariner-Mars 1964, Part III
14-15 July 1965: The Mariner 4 probe flew by Mars, approaching to within 6,118 miles; it was the first Earth probe to return images of another planet from deep space, returning 22 photographs, covering about 1% of the Martian surface; Mariner 4 shattered the science-fiction speculation of Mars as host to abundant life, revealing a thin atmosphere, no liquid water on the surface, & no magnetic field.

Commentary: Mariner 4 continued to transmit data until October 1965, when an imprecise antenna orientation caused a loss of communication for almost two years. Communication was resumed by September 1967, recording multiple micrometeoroid hits; the probe's attitude-control gas supply was exhausted by 7 December & communication terminated on 21 December 1967.

We had to move up by a week the observance of the sixtieth anniversary of Mariner 4's Martian flyby to avoid a conflict with the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.

The Wayback Machine Tour of Mariner-Mars 1964
"The Explorers' Club," № MLV: The 60th Anniversary of Mariner-Mars 1964, Part I (Mariner 3)
"The Explorers' Club," № MLIX: The 60th Anniversary of Mariner-Mars 1964, Part II (Mariner 4)

Semper exploro.

Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives

Saturday, 2 April 2022
M.C. Lars featuring The M.C. Bat Commander & Suburban Legends, "This Gigantic Robot Kills" from the This Gigantic Robot Kills single (Captain Thumbs Up!)

Skammentary: Wayback Machine. Ska bands namechecked in "This Gigantic Robot Kills:" Gwen Stefani (of No Doubt), Goldfinger, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Reel Big Fish, Less Than Jake, The Aquabats!, Save Ferris, Sublime, & The O.C. Supertones.

The Explorers' Club, № MLXXIV

Operation AXIOM: Destination Moon—The 60th Anniversary of AS-103
16 February 1965: AS-103 (Saturn I S.A.-9) lifted off from Florida's Cape Kennedy A.F.S., the third flight of a boilerplate Apollo C.S.M.; the Launch Escape System was jettisoned for the second time; AS-103 deployed the Pegasus I micrometeoroid detection satellite, which remained in operation until 1968 & in orbit until 1978; a television camera recorded the unfolding of Pegasus I's "wings."

Commentary: The AS-103 test flight was launched the day before the Ranger 8 lunar probe (episode № MLXXIII). Busy days on the "Space Coast," endeavoring to achieve the late President Kennedy's goal by the end-of-the-decade deadline.

Ex Luna, scientia.

The Explorers' Club, № MLXXIII

Operation AXIOM: Destination Moon—The 60th Anniversary of Ranger 8
17-20 February 1965: Ranger 8 lifted off from Florida's Cape Kennedy Air Force Station atop an Atlas-Agena rocket, tasked to photograph & then impact the Lunar surface; the midcourse correction burn was successful; all six television cameras functioned perfectly & returned 7,137 photographs of the Moon for twenty-three minutes until Ranger 8 crashed into the Mare Tranquillitatis.

Commentary: Ranger 8 was the second consecutive success of the Ranger program. Ranger 8's impact crater was photographed by Lunar Orbiter 4 in 1967.

Ex Luna, scientia.