Ranger 4

Ranger 4 was a spacecraft of the Ranger program, launched in 1962. It was designed to transmit pictures of the lunar surface to Earth stations during a period of 10 minutes of flight prior to crashing upon the Moon, to rough-land a seismometer capsule on the Moon, to collect gamma-ray data in flight, to study radar reflectivity of the lunar surface, and to continue testing of the Ranger program for development of lunar and interplanetary spacecraft. An onboard computer failure caused failure of the deployment of the solar panels and navigation systems; as a result the spacecraft crashed on the far side of the Moon without returning any scientific data. It was the first spacecraft of the United States to reach another celestial body. Ranger 4 was a Block II Ranger spacecraft virtually identical to Ranger 3. The basic vehicle was , high and consisted of a lunar capsule covered with a balsawood impact-limiter, in diameter, a mono-propellant mid-course motor, a thrust retrorocket, and a gold- and chrome-plated hexagonal base in diameter. A large high-gain dish antenna was attached to the base. Two wing-like solar panels ( across) were attached to the base and deployed early in the flight. Power was generated by 8,680 solar cells contained in the solar panels which charged an 1 kWh capacity AgZn launching and backup battery. Spacecraft control was provided by a solid-state computer and sequencer and an Earth-controlled command system. Attitude control was provided by Sun and Earth sensors, gyroscopes, and pitch and roll jets. The telemetry system aboard the spacecraft, consisting of two 960 MHz transmitters, one at 3 W power output and the other at 50 mW power output, the high-gain antenna, and an omnidirectional antenna. White paint, gold and chrome plating, and a silvered plastic sheet encasing the retrorocket furnished thermal control. Because heat sterilization was suspected to have caused the malfunction of Ranger 3's computer, this procedure was dropped on Ranger 4.