My mission to write one post everyday almost hit a roadblock today because, well, mental block. I guess my day wasn't intriguing enough to inspire my inertia-ridden mind into vomiting thoughts that can dazzle and excite when read by you. But I did want to give it a shot. So I opened up my laptop to stare at my screen, willing topics to walk into my head and form sentences.
When that didn't happen, I flirted with the idea of writing a song. Song titles included "Twenty-twenty joy aplenty", "Get me some new funk" and an untitled 'un-worded' song that goes something like:
Dub Dub Budub Bub
Bub Dudub Budub
Bub Dudub Budub Bub
Bubbidy Dub Budub.
As much potential as this song had, I felt that I should write something less ambitious today. I then remembered those memes on the internet that started correlating the 1920s to the 2020s and wondered what happened a 100 years ago on Jan 2, 1920. So I wikied that shit up and found out that something called the 'Red Scare' was happening in the United States and their Government was rounding up scary communists (suspected) from different parts of the country. Obviously, that topic depressed the shit out of me, so I decided - F*** the year, lets just look at what happened on Jan 2nd, through the ages. And that brings me to Luna!
On 2 January 1959, Luna (or Luna 1) was launched by the Russians and eventually became the first man-made satellite to reach the vicinity of the moon and orbit the Sun. Being an astronomy nut, this little nugget of information caught my eye and a few search tabs later, I discovered a neat little story about this satellite that I can share with you. I will try to not get too technical with this topic because - a) I wouldn't understand it myself and b) It would be take me too long to write and I have a flight to catch in a bit.
So, Luna was a spherical, antenna-ridden gizmo that weighed about 361 kilograms. It had a bunch of sensors to measure cosmic radiation, magnetic fields of the earth & the moon, meteoric particles in space and a bunch of other things I don't really understand. It also had this pocket in it filled with Sodium gas, which was released once she attained escape velocity. This gas formed a trail behind Luna glowing orange in the twilight, so that other astronomers around the world could trace her path. Luna did not have any thrusters, so she could not control her speed or direction after the last booster detached from it. Hence, NASA guesses (Russia shrouded her mission objectives with an air of mystery like only Russia could) that the eventual fate of Luna was to crash down on the surface of the moon. But fate had other plans for her.
During those days, satellite commands were apparently not pre-programmed but sent via signals from Earth at different intervals. One such command was to stop a rocket booster in time so that Luna could reduce her speed and get into the orbit around the moon. But allegedly, there was a delay in relaying this signal and this gave Luna an extra 175 miles/second that led to her overshooting her orbit around the Moon. She did pass by the moon but at a distance of 5995 kilometres (3725 miles).
While this was undoubtedly a disappointment, it led to a new milestone for man-made spacecrafts. Rather than following a moon-centric orbit, Luna ended up in a helio-centric orbit - that is, an orbit around the Sun - making her the first human-made object to reach a helio-centric orbit. In light of this unexpected achievement, this satellite was given a new name - Mechta - Russian for 'Planet', by a scientific writer from the Soviet called Alexander Kazantsev (Read his complete statement here for a good dose of socialist nationalism). So Mechta was tracked for a couple of more days by the Soviets until her battery ran out and now, I guess Mechta is drifting a lonely path around the solar system.
Here comes the plot twist though - there are a fair few who doubt if this mission was actually successful. One guy even wrote that Luna 1 wasn't a successful mission. Some Western astronauts even claimed that they tried capturing Luna's signals during her mission, but were unable to do so. The Russians however ignored all of this and even issued commemorative stamps in Luna/Mechta's honour. I, for one, truly hope that Luna/Mechta's story is indeed true and one day, some Asimov-esque AI-powered spacebot will find her drifting blissfully in the dark ocean of space.
Oh, and speaking of Isaac Asimov, he was born on January 2, 1920.
When that didn't happen, I flirted with the idea of writing a song. Song titles included "Twenty-twenty joy aplenty", "Get me some new funk" and an untitled 'un-worded' song that goes something like:
Dub Dub Budub Bub
Bub Dudub Budub
Bub Dudub Budub Bub
Bubbidy Dub Budub.
As much potential as this song had, I felt that I should write something less ambitious today. I then remembered those memes on the internet that started correlating the 1920s to the 2020s and wondered what happened a 100 years ago on Jan 2, 1920. So I wikied that shit up and found out that something called the 'Red Scare' was happening in the United States and their Government was rounding up scary communists (suspected) from different parts of the country. Obviously, that topic depressed the shit out of me, so I decided - F*** the year, lets just look at what happened on Jan 2nd, through the ages. And that brings me to Luna!
On 2 January 1959, Luna (or Luna 1) was launched by the Russians and eventually became the first man-made satellite to reach the vicinity of the moon and orbit the Sun. Being an astronomy nut, this little nugget of information caught my eye and a few search tabs later, I discovered a neat little story about this satellite that I can share with you. I will try to not get too technical with this topic because - a) I wouldn't understand it myself and b) It would be take me too long to write and I have a flight to catch in a bit.
So, Luna was a spherical, antenna-ridden gizmo that weighed about 361 kilograms. It had a bunch of sensors to measure cosmic radiation, magnetic fields of the earth & the moon, meteoric particles in space and a bunch of other things I don't really understand. It also had this pocket in it filled with Sodium gas, which was released once she attained escape velocity. This gas formed a trail behind Luna glowing orange in the twilight, so that other astronomers around the world could trace her path. Luna did not have any thrusters, so she could not control her speed or direction after the last booster detached from it. Hence, NASA guesses (Russia shrouded her mission objectives with an air of mystery like only Russia could) that the eventual fate of Luna was to crash down on the surface of the moon. But fate had other plans for her.
During those days, satellite commands were apparently not pre-programmed but sent via signals from Earth at different intervals. One such command was to stop a rocket booster in time so that Luna could reduce her speed and get into the orbit around the moon. But allegedly, there was a delay in relaying this signal and this gave Luna an extra 175 miles/second that led to her overshooting her orbit around the Moon. She did pass by the moon but at a distance of 5995 kilometres (3725 miles).
While this was undoubtedly a disappointment, it led to a new milestone for man-made spacecrafts. Rather than following a moon-centric orbit, Luna ended up in a helio-centric orbit - that is, an orbit around the Sun - making her the first human-made object to reach a helio-centric orbit. In light of this unexpected achievement, this satellite was given a new name - Mechta - Russian for 'Planet', by a scientific writer from the Soviet called Alexander Kazantsev (Read his complete statement here for a good dose of socialist nationalism). So Mechta was tracked for a couple of more days by the Soviets until her battery ran out and now, I guess Mechta is drifting a lonely path around the solar system.
Here comes the plot twist though - there are a fair few who doubt if this mission was actually successful. One guy even wrote that Luna 1 wasn't a successful mission. Some Western astronauts even claimed that they tried capturing Luna's signals during her mission, but were unable to do so. The Russians however ignored all of this and even issued commemorative stamps in Luna/Mechta's honour. I, for one, truly hope that Luna/Mechta's story is indeed true and one day, some Asimov-esque AI-powered spacebot will find her drifting blissfully in the dark ocean of space.
Oh, and speaking of Isaac Asimov, he was born on January 2, 1920.
Boo
ReplyDeleteHahaha this was unexpectedly hilarious and quite interesting.
ReplyDeleteThat last line tho!
ReplyDelete