Cold War (1953–1962) human on the moon. The first of the Lunar missions was Luna 1, which launched on January 2, 1959. Its successful mission established the first rocket engine restart within Earth orbit and the first man-made object to establish heliocentric orbit. Luna 2, which launched on September 14, 1959, established the first impact into another celestial body (the moon). Finally, Luna 3 launched on October 7, 1959 and took the first pictures of the dark side of the moon. After these three missions in 1953, the Soviets continued their exploration of the moon and its environment in 21 other Luna missions.
Luna 2 radiation caused by charged particles. “The Geiger Counter carried on "Luna 2" had the primary scientific objective of determining the electron spectrum of the outer radiation belt. The instrument consisted of three STS-5 gas-discharge counters mounted on the outside of the hermetically sealed container, and would be powered by a 360 V battery”. The last instrument on Luna 2 was, “a three component fluxgate magnetometer similar to that used on Luna 1 but with the dynamic range reduced by a factor of 4 to -750 to +750 gammas so that the quantization uncertainty was -12 to +12 gammas.” Together the