Lunar Orbiter program

The Lunar Orbiter program was a series of five unmanned Lunar orbiter missions launched by the United States in 1966 through 1967 with the purpose of mapping the lunar surface before the Apollo landings. All five missions were successful, and 99% of the Moon was photographed with a resolution of 60 m or better. The first three missions were dedicated to imaging 20 potential lunar landing sites, selected based on Earth-based observations. These were flown at low inclination orbits. The fourth and fifth missions were devoted to broader scientific objectives and were flown in high altitude polar orbits. Lunar Orbiter 4 photographed the entire nearside and 95% of the farside, and Lunar Orbiter 5 completed the farside coverage and acquired medium (20 m) and high (2 m) resolution images of 36 pre-selected areas.

The Lunar Orbiters had an ingenious imaging system, which consisted of a dual-lens camera, a film processing unit, a readout scanner, and a film handling apparatus. Both lenses, a 610-mm narrow angle high-resolution (HR) lens and an 80-mm wide-angle medium resolution (MR) lens, placed their frame exposures on a single roll of 70 mm film. The axes of the two cameras were coincident so the area imaged in the HR frames were centered within the MR frame areas. The film was moved during exposure to compensate for the spacecraft velocity, which was estimated by an electric-optical sensor. The film was then processed, scanned, and the images transmitted back to Earth.

• Lunar Orbiter 1
  • Launched August 10 1966
  • Imaged Moon: August 18-29 1966
  • Apollo landing site survey mission
• Lunar Orbiter 2[?]
  • Launched November 6 1966
  • Imaged Moon: November 18-25 1966
  • Apollo landing site survey mission
• Lunar Orbiter 3[?]
  • Launched February 5 1967
  • Imaged Moon: February 15-23 1967
  • Apollo landing site survey mission
• Lunar Orbiter 4[?]
  • Launched May 4 1967
  • Imaged Moon: May 11-26 1967
  • Lunar mapping mission
• Lunar Orbiter 5[?]
  • Launched August 1 1967
  • Imaged Moon: August 6-18 1967
  • Lunar mapping and hi-res survey mission