Luna 13

Luna 13 (E-6M series) was an unmanned space mission of the Luna program, also called Lunik 13.The Luna 13 spacecraft was launched toward the Moon from an earth-orbiting platform and accomplished a soft landing on December 24, 1966, in the region of Oceanus Procellarum.

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Luna 13 became the second spacecraft (both from the Soviet Union) to successfully soft-land on the surface of the Moon. The probe landed in the Ocean of Storms at 18:01 UT on 24 December 1966, between the Krafft and Seleucus craters at 18°52' north latitude and 62°3' west longitude. Unlike its predecessor, the heavier Luna 13 lander (113 kilograms) carried a suite of scientific instruments in addition to the usual imaging system.

A three-axis accelerometer within the pressurized frame of the lander recorded the landing forces during impact to determine the soil structure down to a depth of 20 to 30 centimeters. A pair of spring-loaded booms was also deployed. One of these booms carried a penetrometer, designed to measure the forces required to penetrate the lunar regolith - the penetrating force being supplied by a minute explosive charge. The other boom carried a backscatter densitometer that was used to infer the density of the lunar near-surface regolith. Fourradiometers recorded infrared radiation from the surface indicating a noon temperature of 117 ±3 °C while a radiation detector indicated that radiation levels would be less than hazardous for humans.

The lander returned a total of five panoramas of the lunar surface, showing a more smooth terrain than seen byLuna 9. One of the two cameras (intended to return stereo images) failed, but this did not diminish the quality of the photographs. After a fully successful mission, contact was lost at 06:13 UT on 28 December when the onboard batteries were exhausted.
*Launch Date/Time: 1966-12-21 at 10:19:00 UTC
*On-orbit dry mass: 1700 kg

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External links

* [http://www.zarya.info/Diaries/Luna/Luna13.php Zarya - Luna 13 chronology]
* [http://www.mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogMoon.htm Soviet Lunar Images]