| .....Luna
3, an automatic interplanetary station,
was the third spacecraft successfully
launched to the Moon and the first to
return images of the lunar far side. The
spacecraft returned very indistinct
pictures, but, through computer
enhancement, a tentative atlas of the
lunar farside was produced. These first
views of the lunar far side showed
mountainous terrain, very different from
the near side, and two dark regions which
were named Mare Moscovrae (Sea of Moscow)
and Mare Desiderii (Sea of Dreams). .....The
spacecraft was a cylindrically shaped
cannister with hemispherical ends and a
wide flange near the top end. The probe
was 130 cm long and 120 cm at its maximum
diameter at the flange. Most of the
cylindrical section was roughly 95 cm in
diameter. The cannister was hermetically
sealed and pressurized at 0.23
atmospheres.
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