Subscribe Now. Your Subscription Plan Cancel Subscription. Home India News Entertainment. HT Insight. My Account. The Atlas and Agena both performed well but the spacecraft's signal was fluctuating, signaling to engineers that it was tumbling. It was on track to collide with the moon right on target, but it was a dead spacecraft. Its central computer and sequencer had stopped.
Ranger 5 launched through overcast skies on Oct. The Atlas and Agena sent the spacecraft on a perfect trajectory towards the moon, but then data started coming back garbled. Ranger 5 had switched to battery power.
It wasn't long before the batteries were depleted, leaving the spacecraft tumbling towards the moon. This fifth failure reshaped the Ranger program. The last four missions were canceled and those that remained, Rangers 6 through 9, would be dedicated to capturing close up images of the moon.
Ranger 6 launched towards the Sea of Tranquility at a. The Atlas performed flawlessly and the Agena sent the spacecraft hurtling towards the moon. A mid-course correction trimmed the flight path and put Ranger 6 on a perfect course for its target. The signal had cut out early in the mission for 67 second. When the cameras turned on on Feb. The last four missions were cancelled and those that remained, Rangers 6 through 9, were simplified. Their only purpose was to transmit high-resolution images of the Moon before impacting the surface.
To the end, these missions had an all camera payload: six television vidicon cameras, 2 full-scan cameras, and 4 partial scan cameras. The cameras were divided into separate channels with separate power sources, timers, and transmitters to reduce potential failures.
Ranger 6 launched towards the Sea of Tranquility at in the morning on Thursday, January 30, The Atlas performed flawlessly and the Agena sent the spacecraft hurtling towards the moon.
A mid-course correction trimmed the flight path and put Ranger 6 on a perfect course for its target. The signal had cut out early in the mission for 67 seconds then been spotty. When the cameras turned on on February 2, the signal was weak. After six consecutive failures, morale was at an all-time low.
Higher-ups at NASA were considering replacing the whole program management since the problems had to be originating somewhere.
Others were certain the problems dogging Ranger were nothing short of sabotage. It was through this cloud of doubt and anxiety that Ranger 7 launched towards the Sea of Clouds on July 28, Seeking to help his team relax a little, mission manager Harris Schurmeier handed out peanuts.
It was an arbitrary choice. He figured that chewing on something or just fidgeting with them on the table would give his team something else to focus on. Everyone knew that another failure might kill Ranger and JPL. Distraction was key. With peanuts on desks and in hands, engineers watched as telemetry from the spacecraft came back. Everything was working perfectly, the mission was right on target, but given past experiences, the team figured the mission had a chance of succeeded when they went home for the night.
The mission manager usually assures that we don't run out," said Arthur Amador, MSL's mission manager. As Curiosity finds its way to the surface of Mars , the team will find time to reflect on how they got to this point in history. Those moments can seem to take longer than they really are, added deputy project manager Richard Cook.
That experience is not unique to those inside the control room. Clara Ma, who at age 12 entered and won a NASA essay contest to name the rover, said as Curiosity nears Mars, "everything is getting more and more real.
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