Ranger IV was also equipped with a seismometer and radio transmitter, designed to be released in a small capsule from the rocket before impact and land on the Moon in sufficiently good condition to measure the frequency of natural earthquakes in the body of the Moon.

BBC: 1962: First US rocket lands on Moon

The DOI maneuver had to be terminated within 0.3 seconds of the planned 24.5 seconds to ensure that the spacecraft would not impact the moon (as indicated by the small strip of tape on the face of the timer).

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Dr Amy Mainzer, principal investigator on the Neowise (Near-Earth Wise observations) project at the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in California, said that "estimating the ages and origins of the asteroids should help us to correlate events on Earth and impact craters on the Moon with what is going on in the Solar System".

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The television pictures on board were designed to begin operating when the rocket came within 2, 500 miles (4, 023km) of the lunar surface - 40 minutes before impact - and then send an image of the Moon back to Earth every 13 seconds.

BBC: 1962: First US rocket lands on Moon