Word: lunik
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...said the Moscow radio. "Listen now to the signals coming in from the cosmos, from the third cosmic rocket launched today." Then came the signals, sounding like hoarse violin notes at A above middle C. By that time, 1 p.m. Moscow time Oct. 4 (6 a.m. New York time), Lunik III was already 67,000 miles from the earth. Britain's big radio station at Jodrell Bank, instructed where to look by a telegram from Moscow, picked up the signal too and held it for 20 minutes. Then the violin notes stopped suddenly as if shut...
Whipping around the moon and returning to the earth is considerably harder than hitting the moon, as Lunik II did. A little too much speed could toss the probe beyond the moon and into an orbit around the sun. Slightly bad aim or timing could make the probe crash into the moon. Even harder is putting an object into a permanent orbit around the moon, but the Russians apparently did not hope to do that-not this time...
...beyond and returning again. It might make many different swings, perturbed by the influence of the moon. One thing was certain: it would not go into a permanent orbit around both earth and moon. The moon is relatively fast on its own orbit around the earth; by the time Lunik III swung back, the moon would have moved...
...Lunik III carried "scientific and radio equipment powered by solar batteries and chemical sources of electricity." The Russians explained that radio signals carrying data from the instruments would be sent to earth intermittently for a total of two to four hours a day. "The operation of the equipment will be controlled from a coordinating and computing center on the earth." Since Soviet receiving stations do not girdle the turning earth, Lunik III was presumably programed to transmit its signals only when they would reach Soviet territory...
...Lunik III soared on, Soviet scientists waxed confident, began to loosen up about its objectives. Leningrad Physicist Lev Ponayeton said that data from the unseen side of the moon will help determine its shape and distribution of mass, which will be of tremendous help to manned space flights. Semi-official science reporters went farther, predicted that Lunik III would transmit actual photographs of the other side of the moon. Official scientists did not mention photographs, but it was significant that they launched their rocket at a time when most of the far side of the moon was in sunlight. Presumably...