Lunokhod Moon Robot

[iceman]

Russia's answer to the Mars rovers..

Well actually, well before the Mars Rovers! The Russians landed this beauty on the moon in 1970 and it explored the surface for 11 months!

It's amazing the similarity in look and features between this 1970's robot and the Martian Rovers exploring the red planet right now!

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060114.html

[h0ughy]

yes i saw that once on a documentary (cant remember what it was called) but it floored me as to the level of achievement the russians had with that and the world had no idea at the time because all eyes were on the US. Fantastic. Yes I think they wrote the book on landers.

[ving]

what did the moon rover achieve?

apart from 11 months of service that is. did it take pics?

[Volans]

Ving,

The Lunokhod did take quite a huge number of images. If you follow iceman's link to the APOD and then click on the "Lunokhod 1 toured" link in the text below the APOD that will take you to the Wikipaedia site regarding this robotic probe and there are some pics available. You could almost colour those images orange and believe you were looking at MER images!

What amazes me are all the exposed wiring bundles in the APOD image of the rover! Considering the rover lasted 11 lunar days, ergo 11 lunar nights, the rather chilly conditions at night would have caused havoc with the electronics - or so I would have thought. With the MER's they put all essential electronics into a "warm box" so they would not foul up during the Martian night.

Peter.

[ving]

thanks peter :)