#luna9 — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #luna9, aggregated by home.social.
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Possible Discovery of Luna 9, First Soviet Moon Lander, 60 Years Later
https://newsletter.tf/luna-9-moon-lander-found-1966/
Scientists may have found the lost Soviet Luna 9 Moon lander, the first to land softly and send pictures from the Moon in 1966.
#Luna9, #MoonLanding, #SpaceHistory, #SovietSpace, #LunarExploration
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Old Soviet Moon Lander, Luna 9, Might Be Found After 60 Years
Sixty years ago, the Soviet Union's Luna 9 was the first to land softly on the Moon. It sent back the first pictures from the Moon's surface. Now, using new computer tools and help from many people, scientists think they may have found where it landed.
https://newsletter.tf/luna-9-moon-lander-found-1966/
#Luna9, #MoonLanding, #SpaceHistory, #SovietSpace, #LunarExploration
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Possible identification of the Luna 9 Moon landing site using a novel machine learning algorithm: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44453-025-00020-x -> NASA's Lunar Orbiter May Have Spotted Long-Lost #Luna9 Spacecraft, 60 Years After It Vanished: https://www.iflscience.com/nasas-lunar-orbiter-may-have-spotted-long-lost-luna-9-spacecraft-60-years-after-it-vanished-82507
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Possible identification of the Luna 9 Moon landing site using a novel machine learning algorithm: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44453-025-00020-x -> NASA's Lunar Orbiter May Have Spotted Long-Lost #Luna9 Spacecraft, 60 Years After It Vanished: https://www.iflscience.com/nasas-lunar-orbiter-may-have-spotted-long-lost-luna-9-spacecraft-60-years-after-it-vanished-82507
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Landeplatz von Luna 9 gefunden? Aufnahmen könnten seit 60 Jahren gesuchte Relikte der sowjetischen Mondlandesonde zeigen. #Luna9 #Mondlandung #Mond #Mondsonde #Raumfahrt
https://www.scinexx.de/news/kosmos/landeplatz-von-luna-9-gefunden/ -
Landeplatz von Luna 9 gefunden? Aufnahmen könnten seit 60 Jahren gesuchte Relikte der sowjetischen Mondlandesonde zeigen. #Luna9 #Mondlandung #Mond #Mondsonde #Raumfahrt
https://www.scinexx.de/news/kosmos/landeplatz-von-luna-9-gefunden/ -
Scientists have spent decades searching for the final resting place of Luna 9, the first spacecraft to soft-land on the moon. Now they’re on the cusp of finding it.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/where-did-luna-9-land-on-the-moon
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Scientists have spent decades searching for the final resting place of Luna 9, the first spacecraft to soft-land on the moon. Now they’re on the cusp of finding it.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/where-did-luna-9-land-on-the-moon
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Sometimes I encounter people who pretend that spacecraft operators can hide where their spacecraft are.
Then I remind them of things like this:
QT Jodrell Bank @jodrellbank.bsky.social
2026 February 4On this day in Jodrell’s history.
In 1966, the first close-up photographs of the lunar surface - taken by the Soviet #Luna9 spacecraft - were received at Jodrell Bank, with help from an early type of facsimile machine (a picture receiver) borrowed from the Daily Express
https://bsky.app/profile/jodrellbank.bsky.social/post/3me2kqphgvm2b -
Sometimes I encounter people who pretend that spacecraft operators can hide where their spacecraft are.
Then I remind them of things like this:
QT Jodrell Bank @jodrellbank.bsky.social
2026 February 4On this day in Jodrell’s history.
In 1966, the first close-up photographs of the lunar surface - taken by the Soviet #Luna9 spacecraft - were received at Jodrell Bank, with help from an early type of facsimile machine (a picture receiver) borrowed from the Daily Express
https://bsky.app/profile/jodrellbank.bsky.social/post/3me2kqphgvm2b -
RE: https://mastodon.social/@PlanetariumBochum/116009591473718082
60 years ago #Luna9 accomplished the first soft landing on the Moon!
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RE: https://mastodon.social/@PlanetariumBochum/116009591473718082
60 years ago #Luna9 accomplished the first soft landing on the Moon!
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Während es #ArtemisII frühestens im März - https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/02/03/nasa-conducts-artemis-ii-fuel-test-eyes-march-for-launch-opportunity/ - versuchen kann, jährt sich gerade zum 60. Mal die erste weiche Landung auf dem #Mond mit der sowjetischen #Luna9: https://www.russianspaceweb.com/luna9.html und https://www.drewexmachina.com/2016/02/03/luna-9-the-first-lunar-landing/ und https://reves-d-espace.com/3-fevrier-1966-premier-atterrissage-lunaire-par-luna-9/ und https://habr.com/ru/articles/992292/ = Missions-Verlauf, Bilder und Wirkung, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10164649628359808 = ein weites Panorama, und https://www.swr.de/swrkultur/wissen/archivradio/sowjetische-luna-9-setzt-1966-auf-mondoberflaeche-auf-100.html = wie deutsches Radio damals darüber berichtete. Mit einer kuriosen Anekdote ganz am Ende.
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Während es #ArtemisII frühestens im März - https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/missions/2026/02/03/nasa-conducts-artemis-ii-fuel-test-eyes-march-for-launch-opportunity/ - versuchen kann, jährt sich gerade zum 60. Mal die erste weiche Landung auf dem #Mond mit der sowjetischen #Luna9: https://www.russianspaceweb.com/luna9.html und https://www.drewexmachina.com/2016/02/03/luna-9-the-first-lunar-landing/ und https://reves-d-espace.com/3-fevrier-1966-premier-atterrissage-lunaire-par-luna-9/ und https://habr.com/ru/articles/992292/ = Missions-Verlauf, Bilder und Wirkung, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10164649628359808 = ein weites Panorama, und https://www.swr.de/swrkultur/wissen/archivradio/sowjetische-luna-9-setzt-1966-auf-mondoberflaeche-auf-100.html = wie deutsches Radio damals darüber berichtete. Mit einer kuriosen Anekdote ganz am Ende.
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That puts the landing somewhere in this map. Obviously we can't prove anything here, and I hope this illustrates just how hard it is to figure out where to look for the lander in LRO images.
OK, now we will come back to Luna 13 and see what constraints there are to its location. It's not many! There is a great discovery waiting for someone in images which are already on the ground.
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That puts the landing somewhere in this map. Obviously we can't prove anything here, and I hope this illustrates just how hard it is to figure out where to look for the lander in LRO images.
OK, now we will come back to Luna 13 and see what constraints there are to its location. It's not many! There is a great discovery waiting for someone in images which are already on the ground.
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The Luna 9 panorama does have a bit of local relief on the horizon, especially to the north (see the circular projection of the panorama, though note its horizon relief is exaggerated in that view). I'm moving my preferred location east, just east of a wrinkle ridge in the plains. That ridge will give us a bit of irregularity on the horizon, and might just raise the level of the local horizon enough to hide the distant hills. Here's my new guess. #moon #Luna9
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The Luna 9 panorama does have a bit of local relief on the horizon, especially to the north (see the circular projection of the panorama, though note its horizon relief is exaggerated in that view). I'm moving my preferred location east, just east of a wrinkle ridge in the plains. That ridge will give us a bit of irregularity on the horizon, and might just raise the level of the local horizon enough to hide the distant hills. Here's my new guess. #moon #Luna9
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I'm going to step back in time slightly to look at the Luna 9 location again, then do the same for Luna 13. I'm working on the Luna 9 problem at the same time I'm posting this sequence. I said we don't know how far away the 'southwest hill' is, but still talked about possibly seeing it in the panorama. I now prefer to discount it (i.e. it's a small local mound, not a distant mountain). It looks like you have to go too far north to avoid seeing the 1200 m hill and other mountains.
#moon #Luna9 -
I'm going to step back in time slightly to look at the Luna 9 location again, then do the same for Luna 13. I'm working on the Luna 9 problem at the same time I'm posting this sequence. I said we don't know how far away the 'southwest hill' is, but still talked about possibly seeing it in the panorama. I now prefer to discount it (i.e. it's a small local mound, not a distant mountain). It looks like you have to go too far north to avoid seeing the 1200 m hill and other mountains.
#moon #Luna9 -
To complicate matters further, here is a map drawn basically just using the projected panorama. It doesn''t match the earlier map very well so which should we use?
These are difficult problems but one day a human being will solve them. Are there other approaches? Hyperspectral or radar imaging capable of detecting metal fragments? Maybe, but not at resolutions available to us today.
That's enough about Luna 9. Time to move on to some orbiters. #moon #Luna9
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To complicate matters further, here is a map drawn basically just using the projected panorama. It doesn''t match the earlier map very well so which should we use?
These are difficult problems but one day a human being will solve them. Are there other approaches? Hyperspectral or radar imaging capable of detecting metal fragments? Maybe, but not at resolutions available to us today.
That's enough about Luna 9. Time to move on to some orbiters. #moon #Luna9
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That sounds easy ... but the map is only an interpretation of rather small low angle images. Rolling terrain, lack of stereo at a distance and low resolution make mapping difficult, especially the more distant features. How far away is the northern horizon? We can't really tell. Here is a version of the panorama projected into a circle (my party trick) - it's not easy to relate the previous map to this image. If we find this place in LRO images we should be able to match features. #moon #Luna9
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That sounds easy ... but the map is only an interpretation of rather small low angle images. Rolling terrain, lack of stereo at a distance and low resolution make mapping difficult, especially the more distant features. How far away is the northern horizon? We can't really tell. Here is a version of the panorama projected into a circle (my party trick) - it's not easy to relate the previous map to this image. If we find this place in LRO images we should be able to match features. #moon #Luna9
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Because Luna 9 took pictures we have maps of the surroundings. So we can look for the pattern of craters around Luna 9 as well as the hardware. Between the two we should get a solid identification... IF we can find it.
Let's look at maps of the site. The Soviet publication 'First panoramas of the lunar surface' (Moscow: Akademiya Nauk, 1966) included maps drawn from the images. My map here is a shaded relief version of their drawn maps. #moon #Luna9
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Because Luna 9 took pictures we have maps of the surroundings. So we can look for the pattern of craters around Luna 9 as well as the hardware. Between the two we should get a solid identification... IF we can find it.
Let's look at maps of the site. The Soviet publication 'First panoramas of the lunar surface' (Moscow: Akademiya Nauk, 1966) included maps drawn from the images. My map here is a shaded relief version of their drawn maps. #moon #Luna9
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Here is a view of what it might look like. This is Luna 23 with some fictitious added details. The decent thrusters brighten the surface (we see this at most sites) so we can look for that and the main spacecraft itself. It dropped 2 equipment pods earlier but probably not close by. Then we might see the airbag sections and the lander itself. The lander will just look like a rock but the ensemble will be the evidence we need. But there's more to look for as well...
#moon #Luna9 -
Here is a view of what it might look like. This is Luna 23 with some fictitious added details. The decent thrusters brighten the surface (we see this at most sites) so we can look for that and the main spacecraft itself. It dropped 2 equipment pods earlier but probably not close by. Then we might see the airbag sections and the lander itself. The lander will just look like a rock but the ensemble will be the evidence we need. But there's more to look for as well...
#moon #Luna9 -
(Russianspaceweb is a fantastic resource). The lander is 30 cm across (bigger with its petals) but it's barely resolved and will look like a rock. But there's more to look for. We start with the main spacecraft reaching the ground and shutting down its thrusters (far right). It ejects its landing capsule, encased in a protective 2-lobe airbag. The airbag splits and falls aside, the lander rolls to a stop and opens its petals, thereby righting itself. #moon #Luna9
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(Russianspaceweb is a fantastic resource). The lander is 30 cm across (bigger with its petals) but it's barely resolved and will look like a rock. But there's more to look for. We start with the main spacecraft reaching the ground and shutting down its thrusters (far right). It ejects its landing capsule, encased in a protective 2-lobe airbag. The airbag splits and falls aside, the lander rolls to a stop and opens its petals, thereby righting itself. #moon #Luna9
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Want to find Luna 9? You are not alone, but many people have looked for it without success. All the points I have made about uncertainty in the location help to explain why. We don't know where to look. But feel free to scroll through hundreds of full LRO Narrow Angle Camera images (each one 5000 by 50000 pixels) looking for something very small.
What are we looking for? This link goes to a mission description with an image of the landing process:
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Want to find Luna 9? You are not alone, but many people have looked for it without success. All the points I have made about uncertainty in the location help to explain why. We don't know where to look. But feel free to scroll through hundreds of full LRO Narrow Angle Camera images (each one 5000 by 50000 pixels) looking for something very small.
What are we looking for? This link goes to a mission description with an image of the landing process:
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This map shows the Luna 9 area (from Quickmap again). A is the usual site. B was my older estimate, putting a hill in the right place to be SW hill. C is far enough north to lose the big hills but then where is SW hill? But over at D, still inside the Soviet 50 km radius circle, the 1200 m hill could actually be the SW hill - all its neighbours are now below the horizon.
Is this correct? We can't prove it unless we can find Luna 9 in LRO images. We will consider that tomorrow. #moon #Luna9
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This map shows the Luna 9 area (from Quickmap again). A is the usual site. B was my older estimate, putting a hill in the right place to be SW hill. C is far enough north to lose the big hills but then where is SW hill? But over at D, still inside the Soviet 50 km radius circle, the 1200 m hill could actually be the SW hill - all its neighbours are now below the horizon.
Is this correct? We can't prove it unless we can find Luna 9 in LRO images. We will consider that tomorrow. #moon #Luna9
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I never really tested that assumption. Recently I have revisited the issue with a new tool, the Quickmap synthetic panorama tool. I can make a panorama for any location. Surprise - you have to go quite far north to lose those hills and then there is no good candidate for 'southwest hill'. This is from 30 km north of the map site. But I noticed that the largest hill in that range starts to look the the SW hill if you get far enough away and the other hills are below the horizon. #moon #Luna9
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I never really tested that assumption. Recently I have revisited the issue with a new tool, the Quickmap synthetic panorama tool. I can make a panorama for any location. Surprise - you have to go quite far north to lose those hills and then there is no good candidate for 'southwest hill'. This is from 30 km north of the map site. But I noticed that the largest hill in that range starts to look the the SW hill if you get far enough away and the other hills are below the horizon. #moon #Luna9
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I already pointed out Luna 9 can't be between those hills because they would be visible on the horizon. For years I have argued that Luna 9 has to be further north, as my map suggested, so the hills are over the horizon. A small hill is visible on the southwest - as shown here. I though it might be visible on a map to give another clue. But is it nearby and small or distant and big? There's no way to tell. I show the hill and a suggested location in that earlier map. #moon #Luna9
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I already pointed out Luna 9 can't be between those hills because they would be visible on the horizon. For years I have argued that Luna 9 has to be further north, as my map suggested, so the hills are over the horizon. A small hill is visible on the southwest - as shown here. I though it might be visible on a map to give another clue. But is it nearby and small or distant and big? There's no way to tell. I show the hill and a suggested location in that earlier map. #moon #Luna9
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Time to consider where Luna 9 is. My first map for Luna 9 shows the location of the NSSDCA coordinates, which come from Soviet estimates: 7.08 N, 64.37 W. From my map you might think it looks more like 64.7 west - that shift is caused by better map control today. In 1966 those coordinates would put you in that gap between hills. My map uses modern coordinates but I have moved my point to be in the right place in the landscape. You can't just assume 1960s coordinates are reliable. #moon #Luna9
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Time to consider where Luna 9 is. My first map for Luna 9 shows the location of the NSSDCA coordinates, which come from Soviet estimates: 7.08 N, 64.37 W. From my map you might think it looks more like 64.7 west - that shift is caused by better map control today. In 1966 those coordinates would put you in that gap between hills. My map uses modern coordinates but I have moved my point to be in the right place in the landscape. You can't just assume 1960s coordinates are reliable. #moon #Luna9
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Go here to read about the mission and to see images of the lander:
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1966-006A
Here is one of those images, annotated. The 4 antennae should be visible in the panorama. One is behind the hanging targets at left. The rest are equally spaced - one is in the middle, one at mid-right clearly seen. There should be one at mid-left but its place is taken by a black object. It seems to be the base of an antenna which did not deploy properly. #moon #Luna9
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Go here to read about the mission and to see images of the lander:
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1966-006A
Here is one of those images, annotated. The 4 antennae should be visible in the panorama. One is behind the hanging targets at left. The rest are equally spaced - one is in the middle, one at mid-right clearly seen. There should be one at mid-left but its place is taken by a black object. It seems to be the base of an antenna which did not deploy properly. #moon #Luna9
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Luna 9 took 3 panoramas, shown on the earlier link. They can be combined to make the image shown here. Panorama 1 (the only one with the horizon at each end) is the base. Bad bits in it have been replaced with better bits from the other panoramas. The lander tilted down between panoramas, either from settling in loose soil on a slope or from thermal expansion of its fold-out 'petals'. I cut out the mirrors since they block the scene behind, and added 3 sections seen in the mirrors. #moon #Luna9
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Luna 9 took 3 panoramas, shown on the earlier link. They can be combined to make the image shown here. Panorama 1 (the only one with the horizon at each end) is the base. Bad bits in it have been replaced with better bits from the other panoramas. The lander tilted down between panoramas, either from settling in loose soil on a slope or from thermal expansion of its fold-out 'petals'. I cut out the mirrors since they block the scene behind, and added 3 sections seen in the mirrors. #moon #Luna9
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Here is part of Luna 9 panorama 3 from the site I linked to. It's the middle section, showing how the part that was not seen properly in panorama 1 is seen clearly here. At left I point out one of the mirrors (one half of the dihedral mirror). If you didn't know it was a reflection it would look the same as the surrounding surface. At right is the area it is reflecting (the mirror section copied, pasted, flipped and registered with the base). Fun with Photoshop. #moon #Luna9
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Here is part of Luna 9 panorama 3 from the site I linked to. It's the middle section, showing how the part that was not seen properly in panorama 1 is seen clearly here. At left I point out one of the mirrors (one half of the dihedral mirror). If you didn't know it was a reflection it would look the same as the surrounding surface. At right is the area it is reflecting (the mirror section copied, pasted, flipped and registered with the base). Fun with Photoshop. #moon #Luna9
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Here is a section from the right side of the panorama. At left is an antenna - pictures of the lander show it had 4 of these. At right is a dihedral mirror - a two-sided mirror. Each of its sides reflects a narrow strip of the surface, and if we search for the area viewed in the mirror we can see a bit of the surface from 2 directions and get some topographic information. There were 3 of these. #moon #Luna9
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Here is a section from the right side of the panorama. At left is an antenna - pictures of the lander show it had 4 of these. At right is a dihedral mirror - a two-sided mirror. Each of its sides reflects a narrow strip of the surface, and if we search for the area viewed in the mirror we can see a bit of the surface from 2 directions and get some topographic information. There were 3 of these. #moon #Luna9
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Here, taken from Don Mitchell's site, is panorama 1. There is plenty to say about it. At left is a hanging photometric target. In the middle a big section is washed out by glare - the Sun is only just above the horizon and outside the frame. Panorama 3 fills it in for us - the Sun is higher in the sky. We can see some vertical structures, which we can see better in an enlargement (next post). #moon #Luna9
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Let's look at the panorama transmitted by Luna 9, the first view we ever had on the lunar surface. Actually it's 3 panoramas, taken over 2 earth days, with the lander shifting a bit between them, possibly slipping on a slope. See them here:
http://mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogMoon.htm
(Don MItchell again) - look about 20% of the way down the page.
Here is a translation of a Soviet paper on the pictures:
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19670002910/downloads/19670002910.pdf
