Word: moons
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...beyond doubt one of the greatest achievements of Soviet science. By landing the unmanned Luna 9 spacecraft softly on the surface of the moon in condition to take and transmit pictures, Russian space scientists did more than edge ahead of the U.S. in the race to place a man on the lunar landscape. They proved that he would find a surface solid enough to stand on when he got there. Inexplicably, after announcing the landing, the Russians delayed capitalizing further on their triumph. Then, when British astronomers intercepted Luna 9's pictures and released them first, a Soviet scientist...
Even more significant, the pictures showed no evidence of the thick and treacherous layer of dust that many astronomers and physicists have predicted might envelop vehicles landing on the moon's surface. Said Astronomer Kui per, who at times during the past several years has stood nearly alone in insisting that there is little or no lunar dust: "There was never any basis for believing it anyway, but the idea seemed to fascinate people in the same way as flying saucers." The surface of the Ocean of Storms, Kuiper said, seemed to have been formed by lava flow during...
...Upright Landing. This minor disappointment detracted but little from the magnitude of the Russian feat. By successfully slowing an unmanned, 3,400-lb. spacecraft from an approach velocity of 6,000 m.p.h. to a speed of about 10 m.p.h., and setting it down upright on the moon's surface, the Russians proved that they had finally mastered a technique essential for a manned mission. The first U.S. softlanding attempt with the problem-plagued Surveyor will not take place before May. And even then, U.S. space scientists will not have the experience that their Soviet counterparts have gained during four...
Nonetheless, the Russians have yet to learn another essential technique that the U.S. developed during the flights of Gemini 6 and 7: rendezvous in space. And the well-managed U.S. Apollo program is making such rapid headway that space officials still hope to land Americans on the moon before 1969. Quite possibly, they will try the trick even before their instrument-carrying Surveyor is able to carry out its mission successfully. Neither contestant is yet an odds-on favorite in the lunar sweepstakes...
Cooper has let his imagination soar even farther. Using different radii and gravitational forces in his formulas, he has laid out the mathematical groundwork for extraterrestrial travel networks. According to his calculations, straight-line tunnel travel between any two surface locations would be 53 minutes on the moon, 49 on Mars...