Editing Ranger 1 (section)

== Spacecraft design ==

The spacecraft was of the Ranger Block I design and consisted of a hexagonal base {{convert|1.5|m|sp=us}} across upon which was mounted a cone-shaped {{convert|4|m|adj=on|sp=us}} high tower of aluminum struts and braces. Two solar panel wings measuring {{convert|5.2|m|sp=us}} from tip to tip extended from the base. A high-gain directional dish antenna was attached to the bottom of the base. Spacecraft experiments and other equipment were mounted on the base and tower. Instruments aboard the spacecraft included a Lyman-alpha telescope, a [[rubidium-vapor]] [[magnetometer]], electrostatic analyzers, medium-energy range particle detectors, two triple coincidence telescopes, a cosmic-ray integrating [[ionization chamber]], cosmic dust detectors, and solar X-ray [[scintillation counter]]s. There was no camera or midcourse correction engine on the Block I spacecraft.<ref name="nssdc1961-021A" />

The communications system included the high-gain antenna and an omnidirectional medium-gain antenna and two transmitters, one at 960.1 [[Megahertz|MHz]] with 0.25&nbsp;[[watt]]s power output and the other at 960.05&nbsp;MHz with 3&nbsp;watts power output. Power was to be furnished by 8680 solar cells on the two panels, a {{convert|57|kg|adj=on}} silver-zinc battery, and smaller batteries on some of the experiments. Attitude control was provided by a solid-state timing controller, [[Sun]] and [[Earth]] sensors, and pitch and roll jets. The temperature was controlled passively by gold plating, white paint, and polished aluminum surfaces.<ref name="nssdc1961-021A" />