|
|
Author
|
Topic: Remembering Mariner 2: 1962 Venus flyby
|
Headshot Member Posts: 1153 From: Vancouver, WA, USA Registered: Feb 2012
|
posted 12-14-2022 01:10 AM
While many of us are remembering that it was 50 years ago Apollo 17 landed on the moon another significant anniversary is upon us.It was 60 years ago, on 14 December 1962, that the U.S. spacecraft Mariner 2 completed humanity's first successful interplanetary voyage. After 109 days and traveling 180 million miles, it encountered the planet Venus. The spacecraft, incredibly simple and crude by today's standards, scanned Venus' disk for 35 minutes with microwave and infrared radiometers, and also measured the planet's magnetic field with a magnetometer. It carried no camera because, at that time, NASA was not convinced that the images it might provide were worth the power requirement, additional weight, and added complexities. Mariner 2 also proved that NASA could track, and communicate with a spacecraft at interplanetary distances. Something that was not a certainty back in 1962. | |
Contact Us | The Source for Space History & Artifacts
Copyright 2022 collectSPACE.com All rights reserved.
Ultimate Bulletin Board 5.47a
|
|
|
advertisement
|