Luna 17

Luna 17 (Ye-8 series) was an unmanned space mission of the Luna program, also called Lunik 17.

Launch

Luna 17 was launched from an Earth parking orbit towards the Moon and entered lunar orbit on 15 November 1970. The spacecraft softly landed on the Moon in the Sea of Rains. The spacecraft had dual ramps by which the payload, Lunokhod 1, descended to the lunar surface. Lunokhod 1 was a lunar vehicle formed of a tub-like compartment with a large convex lid on eight independently powered wheels. Lunokhod was equipped with a cone-shaped antenna, a highly directional helical antenna, four television cameras, and special extendable devices to impact the lunar soil for soil density and mechanical property tests. An x-ray spectrometer, an x-ray telescope, cosmic-ray detectors, and a laser device were also included. The vehicle was powered by a solar cell array mounted on the underside of the lid. Lunokhod was intended to operate through three lunar days but actually operated for eleven lunar days (eleven earth months). The operations of Lunokhod officially ceased on 4 October 1971, the anniversary of Sputnik 1, after having travelled over 10.5 kilometers while taking pictures and performing numerous tests.

Armadillo Enterprises

Armadillo Enterprises, Inc., is a company established in 1995 as a distributor of musical instruments. They own the following:

Luna Guitars is a manufacturer and seller of stringed instruments (guitars, basses, ukuleles, mandolins, and banjos). The company was founded in 2005 by stained-glass artist Yvonne de Villiers under the umbrella of Armadillo Enterprises and headquartered in Tampa Florida. Luna guitars are notable for their unique ornamentation that is heavily influenced by Yvonne's glass work.

External links

Verdena

Verdena are an Italian alternative rock band originating from Albino, Bergamo. As of February 2015, they have released six full-length albums on Universal Music Group.

History

Alberto (guitarist) and Luca Ferrari (drummer) are brothers and have been playing together for 10 years. With the addition of Roberta Sammarelli (bassist), they formed the band Verdena. In 1999 they broke onto the scene with their eponymous debut, and began to perform concerts all across Italy. Their first single, "Valvonauta", received significant airtime on MTV and other music stations. Their style can be described as a mixture of rock, grunge and psychedelia.

Their second album, Solo un grande sasso, exhibited longer songs with more frequent guitar solos. The most important tracks of this album are "Spaceman", "Nova", "Starless" and "Centrifuga".

In 2004, Fidel Fogaroli joined the band as a keyboardist, appearing on the album Il suicidio del samurai. In 2006, Fidel left Verdena and the band returned to its original three-piece setup. The single "Luna", originally released on Il suicidio dei Samurai, was one of the band's most notable successes.

Moon

The Moon (in Greek: σελήνη Selene, in Latin: Luna) is Earth's only natural satellite. It is one of the largest natural satellites in the Solar System, and, among planetary satellites, the largest relative to the size of the planet it orbits (its primary). It is the second-densest satellite among those whose densities are known (after Jupiter's satellite Io).

The Moon is thought to have formed approximately 4.5 billion years ago, not long after Earth. There are several hypotheses for its origin; the most widely accepted explanation is that the Moon formed from the debris left over after a giant impact between Earth and a Mars-sized body called Theia.

The Moon is in synchronous rotation with Earth, always showing the same face with its near side marked by dark volcanic maria that fill between the bright ancient crustal highlands and the prominent impact craters. It is the second-brightest regularly visible celestial object in Earth's sky after the Sun, as measured by illuminance on Earth's surface. Although it can appear a very bright white, its surface is actually dark, with a reflectance just slightly higher than that of worn asphalt. Its prominence in the sky and its regular cycle of phases have, since ancient times, made the Moon an important cultural influence on language, calendars, art, and mythology.