Abstract
In the near future United States space vehicles, such as the Centaur, will be soft landing 300 to 730 lb payloads on the moon. By the early 1970’s, the Nova vehicle will be landing payloads of 20,000 lb — enough payload to permit a man to go to the moon and come back. The lack of an appreciable atmosphere on the moon rules out the possibility that these space vehicles could make soft landings based on the use of aerodynamical devices (parachutes, lifting surfaces). In lieu of this, these space vehicles will carry astronautical reaction-type devices (retrorockets, etc.) to be used to effect the soft landing. As a corollary, the moon vehicles will carry a lunar landing sensor capable of providing the necessary intelligence for control of this energy. An initial design of such a soft lunar landing guidance sensor is the subject of this paper [1].
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
H. Newell, “Capabilities for Space Research,” in Exploration of Space, ed. R. Jastrow, New York, Macmillan, 1960.
Technical Reports of Jet Propulsion Lab., Pasadena, Calif., California Institute of Technology; see, for example, T.R. #32–28.
H. Bernent, “Lunar Guidance,” Astronautics (September 1960).
R. Sohn, “Lateral Speed Indicator,” ARS Journal (April 1960).
C. Hendrix, “Proposal for a Simple System for Achieving Soft Landing of a Rocket Vehicle,” NOTS, China Lake, California, Technical Publication 2495 (unclassified).
Walter Fried, “Doppler Radars for Guidance,” ARS Journal (December 1959).
K. C. M. Glegg, “Continuous Wave Doppler Radar with Low Noise,” Meeting Notes of Aeronautical Electronics Conference, Dayton (1958).
R. K. Brown, “A Lightweight and Self-Contained Airborne Navigation System,” Proceedings of the IRE (May 1959).
D. Luck, FM Radar, New York, McGraw Hill, 1949.
T. B. A. Senior and K. M. Siegel, “A Theory of Radar Scattering by the Moon,” Journal of Research, 64D:3 (May-June 1960).
George Haydon, “Optimum Frequencies for Outer Space Communications,” Journal of Research, 64D: 2 (March-April 1960).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1962 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Barabush, A. (1962). Soft Lunar Landing Guidance Sensor. In: Fleisig, R., Hine, E.A., Clark, G.J. (eds) Lunar Exploration and Spacecraft Systems. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6439-7_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-6439-7_8
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-6215-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-6439-7
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive