16:31 07 November 2011
We now have more than half a century of space exploration behind us. The technology and design of spacecraft has advanced massively since we first managed to send an object out of the Earth's gravitational pull in 1959. Space Probes: 50 years of exploration from Luna 1 to New Horizons, a new book by Philippe Séguéla, tours through images taken of – or by – the robotic pioneers that have taught us so much about our neighbouring planets.
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A year after the 1969 success of the US crewed mission to the moon, the Soviet Luna 16 (pictured) was the first robotic probe to make it to the moon and return as safely as its human counterparts. This Soviet probe was launched on the Proton rocket, which is still being used today.
Luna 16 landed near the Mare Foecunditatis, the Sea of Fertility. The probe had two components: a larger, more stable descent stage and a smaller, more flexible ascent stage. With four landing feet, a landing radar, and an engine to slow the probe's approach on landing, the descent stage served as a launch pad for the ascent stage mounted atop it. The descent stage remained on the surface to transmit temperature and radiation data back to Earth.
(Image: RIA Novosti)