Starship Asterisk*

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_7K-L1 wrote:

[b][color=#0000FF]Artist's impression of the Soyuz 7K-L1 en route to the Moon.[/color][/b]

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<<The Soyuz 7K-L1 "Zond" (Зонд; Russian for "probe") spacecraft was designed to launch men from the Earth to circle the Moon without going into lunar orbit in the context of the Soviet manned moon-flyby program in Moon race. It was based on the Soyuz 7K-OK with several components stripped out to reduce the vehicle weight. The most notable modifications included the removal of the orbital module (the orbital module was replaced by a support cone and a high gain parabolic antenna) and a reserve parachute; and the addition of the gyro platform and star navigation sensors for the far space navigation. The spacecraft was capable of carrying two cosmonauts. In the beginning there were serious reliability problems with both the new Proton rocket, the Proton 7K-L1, and the similar new Soyuz spacecraft. With the first four unmanned test starts being partially successful or unsuccessful, including two under common open name "Kosmos" as for any Soviet test spacecraft, the mission of 2–7 March 1968 and subsequent ones were the flights of the L1 spacecraft under the open designation "Zond" that were given by Soviets for test missions to far space.

After the successful US Apollo 8 manned flight around Moon, the Soviet manned moon-flyby missions lost political motivation. The first manned flight of the L1/Zond spacecraft with Alexey Leonov and Valery Bykovsky planned for the end of 1970 was cancelled.

All L1/Zond spacecraft made only unmanned automatic flights from 1967–1970, from (Zond 4 to Zond 8), and four of these five Zond flights suffered malfunctions.

Test flights conducted around the Moon showed problems using their star sensors for navigation. These problems caused ballistic reentry due to the failed guidance. One direct descent re-entry was performed on a steep ballistic trajectory with deceleration of up to 20 Gs and splashed down in the Indian Ocean. Three others performed a maneuver known as "skip reentry" to shed velocity. One of those also performed an unsafe (for humans) descent of up to 20 Gs of deceleration, the other suffered main parachute failure, and only one flight - Zond 7 - would have been safe for cosmonauts.

Zond 5 was the first spacecraft to carry a group of terrestrial creatures (tortoises being the most complex) on a circumlunar flight and return relatively safely to Earth. Zond 5 splashed down in the Indian Ocean after descending steeply with a 20 G deceleration rate. Although unsafe for humans these high Gs apparently didn't affect the tortoises' health, and they were reportedly able to breed afterwards.

The Soviet moon-flyby program was closed in 1970 without the achievement of its manned primary goal. The intended manned use of L1/Zond spacecraft was documented in official Soviet sources at first time but from 1968 until 1989 this and the moon-landing N1-L3 programs were classified and the Soviet government denied the existence of both. Near 1968 a rare open Soviet sources (Big Soviet Encyclopedia's Yearbook, Kosmonavtika small encyclopedia) sporadically referred to Zond's as tests of space ships for lunar missions (omitting but meaning words manned - in difference to term space apparate used by Soviets for non-manned spacecraft).>>

Boomer12k wrote:Too bad The Moon does not rotate...

bystander wrote:

Boomer12k wrote:Too bad The Moon does not rotate...

The Moon does rotate. Its rotational period is equal to its orbital period, once every 27.321582 days.

bystander wrote:

Boomer12k wrote:
Too bad The Moon does not rotate...

The Moon does rotate. Its rotational period is equal to its orbital period, once every 27.321582 days.

Boomer12k wrote:
Too bad The Moon does not rotate so we can see it in all its glorious sides.

neufer wrote:

bystander wrote:

Boomer12k wrote:
Too bad The Moon does not rotate...

The Moon does rotate. Its rotational period is equal to its orbital period, once every 27.321582 days.

But.....

Boomer12k wrote:
Too bad The Moon does not rotate so we can see it in all its glorious sides.

emc wrote:Too bad it’s not made of cheese. That would make a visit more habitable.

emc wrote:If I had a space suit, I would want the butt cover to be transparent so I could moon from the Moon!

... How's that? I am the butt of my own joke!

Beyond wrote:

emc wrote:If I had a space suit, I would want the butt cover to be transparent so I could moon from the Moon!

... How's that? I am the butt of my own joke!

I just can't seem to improve on that one. Well done

Anthony Barreiro wrote:As soon as I saw this picture, before reading the title or caption, I thought it was an old photograph and figured it might have been from a Soviet flyby. There's something about photographs as compared with digital images that makes the photos appear richer, deeper, and more three-dimensional. I wonder if somebody who knows more about imaging can explain the technical differences.

geckzilla wrote:

Anthony Barreiro wrote:As soon as I saw this picture, before reading the title or caption, I thought it was an old photograph and figured it might have been from a Soviet flyby. There's something about photographs as compared with digital images that makes the photos appear richer, deeper, and more three-dimensional. I wonder if somebody who knows more about imaging can explain the technical differences.

When making digital art, a lot of artists choose to mimic the texture of a canvas or the way paint is spread with a brush. You can create images digitally using perfectly smooth application of colors and a lot of people do it but it's interesting how many choose to take the extra step in difficulty required to make the digital medium look closer to traditional painting. The texture fakes that extra dimension into the image and textured brushes can also be used either to quickly create things like leaves or to evoke some kind of feeling such as speed or just add that extra stylistic flare.

It's the same way with photography. I often see digital photographers purposefully add grain, alter the colors of the photo, add vignette, etc. to make their photos look like they came from a film camera. In am amusing combination of the two arts, I also often see digital artists add chromatic aberration to their paintings.

Of course, you are also reminiscing about the past when you look at the Zond image.

harsha wrote:has the zond or any other moon flyby probe taken hires images of the american flag or the footprints on sites where the apollo programs visited??