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A rocket launched into the abyss of space during a 1966 mission to the moon was captured by Earth’s gravity and will orbit our planet “for a few weeks”.
NASA launched the unmanned Surveyor 2 probe to the moon in 1966, but a mid-flight problem led to the spacecraft losing control and NASA eventually lost contact.
Now Centaur, the higher stage rocket that helped lift the hapless spacecraft from Earth has been captured by our planet out of its orbit around the Sun.
It is expected to become a temporary satellite for the next few weeks or months until it eventually escapes Earth’s gravitational pull and returns to solar orbit.
A rocket launched into the abyss of space during a 1966 mission to the Moon was captured by Earth’s gravity and will orbit our planet “for a few weeks”
NASA launched the Surveyor 2 mission to the Moon in 1966, but a mid-flight problem led to the spacecraft losing control and NASA eventually lost contact.
The tiny object was spotted in September by astronomers at the NASA-funded Pan-STARRS1 survey telescope in Maui.
They saw that it was following a light but distinctly curved path in the sky – a sign of its proximity to Earth – and was initially thought to be an asteroid.
SURVEYOR 2: THE SICK LUNAR LANDER WHO HAS LOST HIS WAY
Surveyor 2 was supposed to be the second lunar lander launched by NASA as part of the American Surveyor program to explore the Moon.
Surveyor 2 suffered a mid-course correction error that resulted in loss of control of the ship
It was launched in September 1966 from Cape Kennedy in Florida aboard an Atlas-Centaur rocket.
1966 was a busy year for lunar missions – USSR’s Luna 9 spacecraft was the first to get a soft landing on the moon and send photos.
In May, Surveyor 1 became the first US spaceship to land and send photos.
Then in September Surveyor 2 was supposed to do the same thing, but from a different site, but it crashed.
Surveyor 2 suffered a mid-course correction error that resulted in loss of control of the ship.
Contact was lost on September 22, two days after the first start.
During the mid course correction maneuver, one thruster did not fire, resulting in an imbalance and a fall for 54 hours.
It crashed near Copernicus crater on the lunar surface on September 23, three days after launch.
When it was first spotted, the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts called it 2020 SO, a standard designation for an asteroid.
However, scientists at NASA’s JPL Center for Near-Earth Object Studies in Southern California saw the orbit and suspected it was something very different.
Upon further observations, the JPL researchers realized that it was a spent rocket in the early years of the space race.
The Surveyor 2 lunar lander was launched to the moon on September 20, 1966 on an Atlas-Centaur rocket.
The mission was designed for reconnaissance of the lunar surface prior to the Apollo missions which led to the first manned lunar landing in 1969.
Shortly after takeoff, Surveyor 2 separated from its Centaur upper stage booster as expected. But control of the spacecraft was lost the next day when one of its thrusters failed to fire, causing it to spin.
The spacecraft crashed into the moon just southeast of the Copernicus crater on September 23, 1966. The Centaur rocket in the upper stage, meanwhile, passed past the moon and disappeared into an unknown orbit around the sun.
Suspecting that the 2020 SO was a remnant of an old lunar mission, CNEOS Director Paul Chodas “ turned the clock back ” and swiped the object’s orbit back to determine where it had been in the past. .
Chodas found that the 2020 SO had somehow come close to Earth a few times over the decades, but the 2020 SO approach in late 1966, according to his analysis, would have been close enough to be originated from the Earth.
NASA’s JPL said that most asteroids have a more elongated and titled orbit than Earth’s orbit, but were actually similar to Earth’s own orbit.
It was roughly the same distance from the Sun as Earth and had a circular orbit on an orbital plane that corresponded almost exactly to the Earth.
Very unusual for an asteroid, but something you might expect from a satellite.
The pressure exerted by sunlight is small but continuous and has a greater effect on a hollow object than on a solid one.
A spent rocket is essentially a hollow tube and therefore is a low-density object with a large surface area.
So it will be propelled by the pressure of solar radiation more than by a solid mass of high-density rock – just as an empty soda can will be pushed by the wind more than a small stone.
“The pressure of solar radiation is a non-gravitational force caused by the light photons emitted by the sun hitting a natural or man-made object,” said Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer at JPL.
“The resulting acceleration on the object depends on the so-called area-to-mass ratio, which is greater for small and light, low-density objects.”
It is expected to become a temporary satellite for the next few weeks or months until it eventually escapes Earth’s gravitational pull and returns to solar orbit.
So with the new measurements and knowledge of how sunlight was pushing its trajectory, the team realized it was likely a remnant of the first space age.
“One of the possible paths for 2020 SO brought the object very close to Earth and the Moon in late September 1966,” Chodas said.
“It was like a eureka moment when a quick check of the launch dates for the lunar missions showed a match with the Surveyor 2 mission.”
Now, in 2020, the Centaur appears to have returned to Earth for a brief visit.
Now Centaur, the higher tier rocket that helped lift the hapless spacecraft from Earth has been captured by our planet out of its orbit around the Sun
On November 8, 2020, it moved into the Earth’s sphere of gravitational domain, a region called the Hill sphere that extends approximately 930,000 miles from our planet.
This is where 2020 SO will stay for about four months before it escapes again into a new orbit around the Sun in March 2021.
Before leaving, 2020 SO will make two grand laps around our planet, with its closest approach on 1 December.
During this time, astronomers will take a closer look and study its composition using spectroscopy to confirm whether 2020 SO is indeed a Space Race artifact.
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