Ranger 2

NSSDC ID: 1961-032A

Description:
This was a flight test of the Ranger spacecraft system designed for
future lunar and interplanetary missions. Ranger 2 was designed to
test various systems for future exploration and to conduct scientific
observations of cosmic rays, magnetic fields, radiation, dust
particles, and a possible hydrogen gas "tail" trailing the Earth. 
Ranger 2 was of the Ranger Block 1 design and was almost
identical to Ranger 1. The spacecraft consisted of a hexagonal base
1.5 m across upon which was mounted a cone-shaped 4 m high
tower of aluminum struts and braces. Two solar panel wings
measuring 5.2 m from tip to tip extended from the base. A high-
gain directional dish antenna was attached to the bottom of the
base. Spacecraft experiments and other equipment were mounted
on the base and tower. Instruments aboard the spacecraft included
a Lyman-alpha telescope, a rubidium-vapor magnetometer,
electrostatic analyzers, medium-energy-range particle detectors,
two triple coincidence telescopes, a cosmic-ray integrating
ionization chamber, cosmic dust detectors, and scintillation
counters. 
The communications system included the high gain antenna and an
omni-directional medium gain antenna and two transmitters at
approximately 960-mhz, one with 0.25 W power output and the
other with 3 W power output. Power was to be furnished by 8680
solar cells on the two panels, a 53.5 kg silver-zinc battery, and
smaller batteries on some of the experiments. Attitude control was
provided by a solid-state timing controller, Sun and Earth sensors,
gyroscopes, and pitch and roll jets. The temperature was
controlled passively by gold plating, white paint, and polished
aluminum surfaces.