as the technology of man in space was
developing it became more and more
apparent that our knowledge of the moon
surface as a possible landing site was
not sufficient to land man safely on the
moon and get him safely off again we had
to know whether we could set up a
precise enough trajectory to reach the
moon could we design and build a
spacecraft to land gently on the moon
among all those lunar craters could we
find a place clear and little enough for
a safe landing site
to make it possible for a man to land in
the Apollo zone on the moon better
pictures were needed than those taken
through earth's best telescopes in fact
better pictures might do more than find
a landing site for Apollo scientists
hope they might resolve questions
unanswered in the 300 years since
Copernicus prompted Galileo to study the
moon
what were the lunar craters Galileo
observed it's dug by objects hurled from
space for the scars of old volcanoes
telescopic photographs far from
answering these questions scarcely
reveal features on the moon as big as
the meteor crater in Arizona almost a
mile across can several hundred fifty
Ranger was designed simply to hit the
moon before it crashed into its lunar
impact point it would send back to his
close-up TV pictures of a portion of the
moon surface extract the first
successful Ranger reached a small lunar
see since renames maría cognitum the
seed that has become known market has
one minute back as soon as the cameras
were turned on the pictures were
transmitted to the tracking station at
Goldstone California from here they were
retransmitted to the jet propulsion
laboratory in nearby pasadena here in
the spaceflight operations facility
great excitement prevailed is Ranger
near the moon and it's pictures came
alive on the TV monitor at last
scientists could turn to close up
pictures like these
video good
normal
my pack
impact video still good strength
three
Prince of each picture were made for
immediate study by scientists and
engineers on the theory that all lunar
seas were flat and would offer the best
landing sites Ranger examine the surface
of two such areas the photographs at
first showed little evidence of any
volcanic activity on the moon
no boulders no rubble no crosses no dust
pictures of craters covering craters
suggested that the surface of the moon
was long ago dug into and loosened by
repeated impacts in Ranger eight
photographs the first signs of volcanic
activity on the moon seemed to appear
the lunar landscape Rangers TV cameras
explored was bleak a flat surface
studied with craters some are miles
across others no bigger than a washed-up
all were probably formed billions of
years ago the last target area was the
floor of the alphonsus crater chosen
because it was not a lunar see there was
a lot of interest in the dark smaller
craters within alphonsus which might
explain more about the forming of the
lunar surface on the alphonsus floor new
signs of variety on the moon surface
began to appear creators caused by
volcanoes long since dead i get about
the only person around it doesn't have
TV coverage of the fruit
man they got the black up now you're
gonna feel
empty picture never fail yet we are
getting a TV picture children now d-1
all
