Talk:Luna 1

Questions about name of Luna 1/Lunik I
I have a question. Was the space craft call Lunik by the Russians? And why is it called Luna 1 by English speaking people? Does Lunik mean Moon in Russian?

And in the text I see "Luna 1 (Russian: Lunik I | Space Rocket I)". What does the pipe (|) means? What is the Space Rocket I doing there?

Thanks in advance for answering. Laudaka 11:26, 26 Jan 2004 (UTC)


 * There is no such word in Russian as "Lunik" (I'm Russian). "Luna" is a Russian word for moon, and all spacecrafts were named such. I'm correcting this. Int19h 04:05, 16 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Question about if in the text there should be Luna x or Lunik x
In the text of Luna 1, Luna 2, Luna 3, etc. I see sometimes Lunik x and sometimes Luna x. I'm in the process of changing all those to Luna x. I suppose it makes most sense to use the name by which it was called in newspapers. Does anybody know whether it was called Luna x or Lunik x in the newspapers? (I wasn't born yet so I'm not sure :-P ) Thanks in advance for answering. Laudaka 11:26, 26 Jan 2004 (UTC)


 * The Russians didn't call it Luna-1 until much later. Luna-1 through 3 were called the "First (second, third) Cosmic Rocket".  Cosmic rocket refered specifically to a rocket that reached the second cosmic speed -- escape velocity.  The Luna terminology was applied retroactively, perhaps Luna-4 was the first that was actually named that way. DonPMitchell (talk) 04:19, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

Question about its current location
Can Luna 1 still be located? That is, is the trajectory known well enough and is it big enough to be observable from earth? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.233.97.85 (talk) 04:38, 7 November 2017 (UTC)

It is too small to be seen by terrestrial telescopes, and due to the complexity of calculating an orbit with so many gravity sources out there, it'd be difficult to plot its orbit. A fun college project, though! --Neopeius (talk) 20:17, 8 February 2019 (UTC)

Over the Indian ocean?
The cloud of sodium gas may have been over the Indian ocean briefly, but it couldn't have been there indefinitely since it was at the wrong distance for a geostationary orbit. --Doradus 13:21, Sep 14, 2004 (UTC)

copyright?
i am new to wikipedia - maybe someone can help me by answering this question so that i may create my own pages properly in the future: why does this addition of this material not constitute a copyright violation if it was brought directly from the source webpage without modification?--James Naeger 03:52, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Twelve years late, but it is in the public domain, so it can be copied without modification or attribution.  Kees08  (Talk)   18:07, 10 November 2019 (UTC)

Mission failed?
This article suggests that the mission was a failure (probe supposed to hit the moon?) but doesn't say anything specific. Any information on that? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 190.40.130.44 (talk) 18:00, 16 April 2007 (UTC).
 * I don't have the sources here but I've seen them in the past. In the press at the time, the Soviets soft-pedaled that Luna 1 was a lunar impact mission; most likely they didn't have a lot of confidence in their ability to hit the moon on their first shot. As it was, Luna 1 was hardly a failure. A lot of useful science was gathered from its mission, plus it became the first probe in history to leave the Earth, enter the solar system and orbit the Sun. Luna 2 was a different story. The Soviets trumpeted that they were going to hit the moon, and they did. Jsc1973 (talk) 04:32, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

Rocket?
What rocket was Luna 1 launched on?--66.41.59.217 02:32, 24 April 2007 (UTC)


 * The R-7, according to Deborah Cadbury's Space Race book. --203.184.43.88 10:40, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Earth orbit crossing
If the periastron in less than 1 and the apoastron in greater than 1, is there a possible end to Luna 1 in the atmosphere of Earth? AMCKen 03:02, 28 August 2007 (UTC)AMCKen


 * It'd be very unlikely. 58.178.185.129 (talk) 13:03, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

reference 5
Reference 5 doesn't work — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.131.2.134 (talk) 01:41, 20 February 2012 (UTC)

External links modified
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Units of flux-gate magentometer?
In the text, it says, "The flux-gate magnetometer was triaxial and could measure ± 3000 gammas." (with no specific citation). I'm not familiar with units of "gamma" for magnetic field; is this something from the Soviet literature of the time? The SI unit is tesla (lowercase, with symbol "T"); the Earth's magnetic field is 32 μT. The old CGS unit is "gauss" (lowercase, with symbol "G"); the Earth's magnetic field in those units is 0.32 G. Kelseymh (talk) 03:19, 2 January 2024 (UTC)


 * Good question. I had not heard of it either.  It turns out a gamma is a nanotesla.  See Tesla_(unit).  I've also updated the reference so you can see the page in the book. Nowa (talk) 14:21, 2 January 2024 (UTC)

Dimensions?
I don't see any information about how big Luna 1 was. There is a weight but no size. Seems like basic info that would be informative. Unknowntouncertain (talk) 19:23, 2 January 2024 (UTC)


 * Agreed, but the only info I can find is weight. Nowa (talk) 21:40, 2 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Here's an article that says 4-foot diameter. The Luna 1 Hoax Hoax | Air & Space Magazine| Smithsonian Magazine Unknowntouncertain (talk) 21:53, 4 January 2024 (UTC)
 * Great find! I added the diameter to the article. Nowa (talk) 21:06, 5 January 2024 (UTC)