User:Daviddje/sandbox

Orbiting Vehicle or OV, originally designated SATAR, was a series of American satellites operated by the US Air Force, launched between 1965 and 1971. Forty seven satellites were built, of which forty three were launched and thirty seven reached orbit. With the exception of the OV3 series, and OV4-3, they were launched as secondary payloads, using excess space on other missions. An orbiting vehicle that has a radar mapping functionality can completely map the moon where “optical photography” is restricted to parts below the solar illumination. Furthermore, it was confirmed by R.F. Schmidt that the mapping of “Venus” is also possible from an orbiting spacecraft that has an initial design of a radar mapping system. The purpose of this radar was to produce measurement of the surface. This radar can produce High-resolution map which can be compared to a photograph. Chain of five orbiting vehicles (spaceship) was sent to the moon for a photographic mission by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1965. The main purpose of these vehicles was to collect ```topographic``` data of the moon’s surface. Also, gathering data form these orbiting vehicles over some period of time will allow scientist to see the form of the moon and its mass distribution. Furthermore, information from these orbiting vehicles will greatly help scientists to understand the moon better. Also in late 1965, OV2-1 was assigned a mission to obtain data regarding the planet Earth. The spacecraft was located in an orbit called elliptical with an apogee of 2400nm and perigee of 300nm. The spacecraft was launched toward the end of 1965 as a secondary payload under the development of Titan III flight and continued to stay there for a year.

Orbiting Vehicle in Mars

Orbiting Vehicle was sent to Mars for mapping the surface of the planet and the result surprised the scientist by producing data indicating that Mars is actually flatter than what many scientist had imagined in the past. This was proven when scientist examined the result from the orbiting vehicles. The signals showed light and dark colour. The light colour indicating the flat surface of the planet and the dark colour indicating material that does not reflect well or mountainous terrain. The mapping specified more light areas then what was generally expected. A large part of the planet, Syrtis Major, showed dark areas through telescope, but showed light areas on the radar chart. However, Dr. Gillmore confirmed that it is too early to come to any conclusion. He also stated that the purpose of this experiment was to prove that signal can be bounced off far and rapidly-spinning objects. He also stated that “more pieces are expected to be added to the Martian map each time that planet comes relatively close to earth. Those times will be March 1965 when Mars will be 62 million miles away; April 1967, 54 million; May 1969, 42 million, and August 1971, 34 million”. (Anonymous, 1963).