Lunokhod-1 was created in the design bureau of the Khimki Machine-Building Plant named after S. A. Lavochkin under the leadership of Grigory Nikolaevich Babakin. The self-propelled chassis for the Lunokhod was created at VNIITransMash under the leadership of Alexander Leonovich Kemurdzhian.
The preliminary design of the lunar rover was approved in the fall of 1966. By the end of 1967, all design documentation was ready.
The automatic interplanetary station Luna-17 with Lunokhod-1 was launched on November 10, 1970, and on November 15 Luna-17 entered the orbit of an artificial satellite of the Moon.
On November 17, 1970, the station landed safely on the Sea of Rains and Lunokhod-1 slid down to the lunar soil.
The control of the research apparatus was carried out with the help of a complex of equipment for monitoring and processing telemetric information based on Minsk-22 - STI-90. The lunar rover control center at the Simferopol Space Communications Center included the lunar rover control center, which consisted of control panels for the crew commander, the lunar rover driver and the operator of a highly directional antenna, workplace crew navigator, as well as the room for operational processing of telemetric information. The main difficulty in controlling the lunar rover was the time delay, the radio signal traveled to the moon and back for about 2 seconds, and the use of low-frame television with a picture change rate from 1 frame in 4 seconds to 1 frame in 20 seconds. As a result, the total delay in control reached 24 seconds.
During the first three months The planned work, in addition to studying the surface, the device also carried out an application program, during which it worked out the search for the landing area of the lunar cabin. After completing the program, the lunar rover worked on the Moon three times more than its originally calculated resource. During its stay on the surface of the Moon, Lunokhod-1 traveled 10,540 m, transmitted 211 lunar panoramas and 25,000 photographs to Earth. At more than 500 points along the route, the physical and mechanical properties of the surface layer of the soil were studied, and at 25 points, an analysis of its chemical composition was carried out.
On September 15, 1971, the temperature inside the sealed container of the lunar rover began to fall, as the resource of the isotope heat source was exhausted. On September 30, the device did not get in touch, and on October 4, all attempts to get in touch with it were stopped.
On December 11, 1993, Lunokhod-1, together with the landing stage of the Luna-17 station, was put up by the Lavochkin Association at Sotheby's. With the declared initial price of $5,000, the auction ended with $68,500. According to information Russian press, the buyer was the son of one of the American astronauts. The catalog stated that the lot "rests on the surface of the moon."
The mass of the planetary rover was 756 kg, the length with an open solar battery- 4.42m, width - 2.15m, height - 1.92m. Wheel diameter - 510mm, width - 200mm, wheelbase - 1700mm, track width - 1600mm.
On November 17, 1970, the station landed safely on the Sea of Rains. and "Lunokhod-1" moved down to the lunar soil. During the first three months of the planned work, in addition to studying the surface, the device also carried out an application program, during which it worked out the search for the landing area of the lunar cabin. After completing the program, the lunar rover worked on the Moon three times more than its originally calculated resource. During its stay on the surface of the Moon, Lunokhod-1 traveled 10,540 m, surveying an area of 80,000 m 2. It transmitted 211 lunar panoramas and 25,000 photographs to Earth. Max Speed movement was 2 km / h. The total duration of the active existence of the Lunokhod was 301 days 06 h 37 min. For 157 sessions with the Earth, 24,820 radio commands were issued. The passability assessment device worked out 537 cycles for determining the physical and mechanical properties of the surface layer of the lunar soil, and its chemical analysis was carried out at 25 points.
On September 15, 1971, the temperature inside the sealed container of the lunar rover began to fall, as the resource of the isotope heat source was exhausted. On September 30, the device did not get in touch, and on October 4, all attempts to get in touch with it were stopped.
A corner reflector was installed on Lunokhod-1. with the help of which experiments were carried out to accurately determine the distance to the moon. The Lunokhod-1 reflector provided about 20 observations in the first year and a half of its operation, but then its exact position was lost. In March 2010, Lunokhod 1 was discovered by researchers in LRO images. On April 22, 2010, a group of American scientists from the University of California at San Diego, led by Tom Murphy, reported that for the first time since 1971 they were able to get the reflection of a laser beam from the Lunokhod-1 reflector. The position of "Lunokhod-1" on the surface of the Moon: Latitude. 38.31870°, Longitude. −35.00374°.
Lunokhod - 1- the world's first planetary rover that successfully worked on the surface of another celestial body - the Moon.
Belongs to a series of Soviet remote-controlled self-propelled vehicles "Lunokhod" for lunar exploration, worked on the Moon for eleven lunar days. It was intended to study the features of the lunar surface, radioactive and X-ray cosmic radiation on the Moon, the chemical composition and properties of the soil.
It was delivered to the surface of the Moon on November 17, 1970 by the Soviet interplanetary station Luna-17 and worked on its surface until September 14, 1971.
- Two television cameras, four panoramic telephotometers;
- X-ray fluorescent spectrometer RIFMA;
- X-ray telescope RT-1;
- Odometer and penetrometer PrOP;
- Radiation detector RV-2N;
- Laser reflector TL.
The fact that Lunokhod-1 was lost became known during the next experiment on laser sounding of the Moon. This was announced by an employee of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Vladislav Turyshev.
The purpose of such experiments is to determine the distance to our natural satellite, which is gradually moving away - by about 38 millimeters per year. To do this, a powerful laser beam is sent from the Earth to the Moon, the reflected one is caught, and the time spent on the light traveling back and forth is recorded. And, knowing its speed, calculate the distance.
The beam is directed to the so-called corner reflector - a kind of open box with three mirrors fixed perpendicular to each other. Any beam that hits the mirrors is reflected exactly at the point from which it was fired.
Lunokhod-1 was equipped with a corner reflector. So, the Americans sent a beam at him. And nothing was reflected. They rummaged around the surface with a beam - again nothing. NASA is confused. The device seemed to disappear. But its coordinates are precisely known, the spot of the beam reaches several kilometers in diameter. It's hard to smudge.
Soviet Lunokhod proves that the Americans were on the moon
Soviet Soviet Lunokhod looks like a tiny dark speck Technique left on our natural satellite during the Soviet era has been discovered.
NASA specialists have opened access to a huge new array of photographs taken by the automatic probe Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter - it is now in orbit of the moon.
There are more than a hundred thousand pictures. On the former, made from a height of only 50 kilometers, enthusiasts found the landing modules of almost all American expeditions. Starting with the first - Apollo 11, held in 1969, and ending with the last - Apollo 17.
Now in the pictures from LRO they are looking for equipment left by the USSR - lunar rovers and automatic stations of the Luna series. And they find.
The other day, Canadian researcher Phil Knock from the University of Western Ontario announced that he had discovered the disappeared Soviet Lunokhod. What looked like a real sensation.
Our Lunokhod-1 really disappeared. In 1970, it was delivered by the automatic station Luna-17. After a series of successful experiments on reflecting laser pulses sent from the Earth, the self-propelled vehicle seemed to have disappeared. That is, the place where he stopped in the area of the Sea of \u200b\u200bRains is known for sure. And there are no answers.
For some reason, the Americans are trying to find Lunokhod-1, persistently searching the surface of the Moon with a laser beam. And it is difficult for them to miss - the spot area reaches 25 square kilometers. They don't find anything.
And the Canadian, as it turned out, discovered not the first, but the second device - Lunokhod-2. But he was not lost anywhere, he stands in the Sea of clarity. His reflectors are still functioning.
Unexpected Confirmation
Lunokhod 2 arrived together with Luna 21 in 1973. She landed about 150 kilometers from Apollo 17. And according to one of the legends, the device went to the site, where in 1972 the Americans were operating and driving their self-propelled carriage.
It seems that Lunokhod-2, equipped with a camera, was supposed to remove the equipment left by the astronauts. And confirm that they really were there. In the USSR, they still doubted, although they never officially admitted this.
Our self-propelled vehicle traveled 37 kilometers - this is a record for movement on other celestial bodies. He really could have made it to Apollo 17, but he caught loose soil from the rim of the crater and overheated.
In the picture Lunokhod-2 looks like a small dark spot. And if it were not for the traces of the wheels, then it would probably be impossible to find the device. Even knowing the coordinates.
The self-propelled vehicle of the Apollo 17 expedition looks just as vague. Although it is larger. The similarity - in the pictures - of both units, perhaps, indicates that both of them are on the moon. Ours is for sure. Nobody ever doubted this. But the Americans were suspected of falsification. Apparently, in vain. They were on the moon. At least in 1972.
Sources: savok.name, dic.academic.ru, selena-luna.ru, www.kp.ru, newsland.com
NASA specialists have opened access to a huge new array of photographs taken by the automatic probe Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) - it is now in orbit of the moon.
Do the pictures prove whether the Americans were on the moon or not? ..
There are more than a hundred thousand pictures. On the former, made from a height of only 50 kilometers, enthusiasts found the landing modules of almost all American expeditions. Starting with the first - Apollo 11, held in 1969, and ending with the last - Apollo 17.
Now, in the pictures from LRO, they are looking for equipment left by the USSR - lunar rovers and automatic stations of the Luna series. And they find.
The image clearly shows traces of "Lunokhod-2"
The other day, Canadian researcher Phil Knock from the University of Western Ontario announced that he had discovered the disappeared Soviet "Lunokhod". What looked like a real sensation.
Our "Lunokhod-1" really disappeared. In 1970, it was delivered by the Luna-17 automatic station. After a series of successful experiments on reflecting laser pulses sent from the Earth, the self-propelled vehicle seemed to have disappeared. That is, the place where he stopped in the area of the Sea of \u200b\u200bRains is known for sure. And there are no answers.
For some reason, the Americans are trying to find Lunokhod-1 by persistently "searching" the surface of the Moon with a laser beam. And it is difficult for them to miss - the spot area reaches 25 square kilometers. They don't find anything.
And the Canadian, as it turned out, discovered not the first, but the second device - Lunokhod-2. But he was not lost anywhere, he stands in the Sea of clarity. His reflectors are still functioning.
Apollo 17 landing site. The self-running crew is represented by exactly the same spot as Lunokhod-2
Unexpected Confirmation
Lunokhod-2 arrived together with the Luna-21 station in 1973. She landed about 150 kilometers from Apollo 17. And according to one of the legends, the device went to the site, where in 1972 the Americans were operating and driving their self-propelled carriage.
It seems that Lunokhod-2, equipped with a camera, was supposed to remove the equipment left by the astronauts. And confirm that they really were there. In the USSR, they still doubted, although they never officially admitted this.
Our self-propelled vehicle traveled 37 kilometers - this is a record for movement on other celestial bodies. He really could have made it to Apollo 17, but he caught loose soil from the rim of the crater and overheated.
Lunokhod 2 looks like a small dark spot in the picture. And if it were not for the traces of the wheels, then it would probably be impossible to find the device. Even knowing the coordinates.
The self-propelled vehicle of the Apollo 17 expedition looks just as vague. Although it is larger. The similarity - in the pictures - of both units, perhaps, indicates that both of them are on the Moon. Ours is for sure. Nobody ever doubted this. But the Americans were suspected of falsification. Apparently, in vain. They were on the moon. At least in 1972.
Apollo 17 lunar crew
Soviet station "Luna-20"
In January 1973, the Soviet space platform Luna-21 was launched, which delivered the Lunokhod-2 satellite to the surface of the Earth. The apparatus weighing 836 kilograms passed over the Moon for more than 40 kilometers. How the preparation for the flight and the expedition itself took place, said the head of the development of television systems for Soviet lunar rovers, an employee (RCS) Professor Arnold Selivanov.
"Lenta.ru": Arnold Sergeevich, how was the decision to create a mobile automatic station for lunar exploration made?
Selivanov: This is a government decision, the implementation of which requires a lot of money and a lot of time. Such big projects formed on very high level, significantly higher than the head of the space equipment development department, which I then worked for.
To make a lunar rover, it was necessary to separately develop the chassis - the chassis, the remote control system, the design of the landing platform - and solve many other unique problems. I can't say exactly when they started to solve these problems, but it happened long before the launch of the first lunar rover, while still alive.
Was it his project?
I think it can be said that it was Korolev who determined the ideology and began the selection of performers for individual parts of the apparatus. But others have already implemented it. The case of Korolev was continued by the chief designer Georgy Babakin.
In our organization, work was carried out under the general supervision of the chief designer Mikhail Ryazansky and the director.
We made the “eyes” of the apparatus - television systems for controlling the movement and capturing panoramas of the Moon, as well as radio systems for transmitting images, telemetry and control commands. In addition, we have created ground complex space communications and provided trajectory measurements during the flight and landing of the Luna-21 station.
Ballistics experts were able to point the station very accurately: the distance between the intended and actual landing points was only 300 meters - high accuracy for that time. This was the result of the work of specialized radio equipment and measurement techniques created at our institute.
How was the work?
It was emergency work, but in space projects it simply does not happen differently. We are always doing something new, and this new one must be launched within very tight deadlines, which are often dictated to us by celestial mechanics. It disciplines the team very well.
In addition, we were young, could endure high loads and felt our involvement in a very important matter - space exploration.
You said that you made the "eyes" of the lunar rover. What could they see?
Lunokhods had two television systems at once. One was for operational management apparatus. Her cameras were oriented in the direction of movement. The second one provided panning in two planes: in the horizontal plane of the lunar rover - for high-precision 360-degree topographic survey, and in the vertical plane, one camera was installed on the left and right sides - to solve navigation problems. By the way, the quality of panoramic images is quite consistent with the modern level.
The television system played a key role in controlling the movement of the apparatus. How difficult was it to establish high-quality interaction at the level of "man-machine"?
Lunokhod is a robot similar to modern radio-controlled toys that can be bought in children's store. The fundamental difference is that it is located on another celestial body at a distance of almost 400 thousand kilometers from the Earth.
The radio signal travels this distance in a little over a second. As a result, the total delay in the control loop of the lunar rover is significantly more than three seconds: about one second is spent on the arrival of a command from the Earth, about another second - on confirming the execution of the command by the lunar rover, and more than a second - on the actual execution of the command by the lunar rover, the reaction of the driver and actuators .
This can be compared to braking a car on a slippery road. You apply the brakes and the car continues to move forward for a while.
At a lunar distance, it is very difficult to create a high-speed radio link capable of transmitting moving images, like broadcast television. Instead of a dynamic television picture, the driver of the lunar rover watched only slides depicting the surface of the Moon, which changed at a frequency ranging from one slide in three seconds to one slide in twenty seconds.
How does it work in practice?
Let's say you need to move ten meters ahead, you send a command and wait for its execution, and only after a few seconds you see an image of a new surface area. So it's very easy to get into an emergency. The driver must constantly anticipate the development of events. This non-trivial task required special skills from drivers. They were practiced on Earth at special "lunodromes".
Did they reproduce lunar conditions?
There were two main lunodromes. At the stage of developing technical solutions, a mock-up of the lunar rover was tested, which moved in the hangar. It was suspended from special rubber ropes to simulate the lunar gravity, which is six times less than on Earth. In such a "weightless" state, the grip of the wheels became less, and then it was possible to understand how it would actually move on the Moon. So the behavior of the chassis was imitated, at first without television - we participated at this stage as observers.
Then, when the lunar rover had already been created, a small "lunodrome" was built in Simferopol, near the ground control center, literally in the yard. Everything is like today computer game: screens, joysticks. The delay in signal transmission has been modeled. There, the lunar rover was controlled not by radio, but by wire. He was driving, and a wire with a control panel followed him. At this stage, our cameras have already been used.
Both I and the staff of my department took part in the training, controlled the lunar rover on Earth. It was important to play the role of drivers ourselves in order to understand how the television control system works in these conditions.
How did the equipment that you made for Lunokhod-2 differ from Lunokhod-1?
On the first vehicle, two television cameras were mounted very low, so they could see only a small area of the surface in front of them. At first, everyone thought that it was very important to see what was directly in front of the lunar rover in order to consider smaller objects, not to miss any obstacles. Moreover, the image of more distant objects was given by four panoramic cameras - however, they did not work all the time. It was necessary to stop often to look around, which significantly reduced the speed of the first lunar rover.
These circumstances were taken into account on the second lunar rover: an additional camera was installed at the height of human growth. It turned out to be the most effective in real work. As a result, the image quality was much higher, the vehicle's speed and controllability increased significantly, and it covered a much greater distance in less time.
How was the driver chosen?
"Lunokhod" was controlled by more than one person. There were two crews. In addition to traffic control, there was another control loop. Since you cannot put a very powerful transmitter on Lunokhod-2, we had to make an antenna directed to the Earth with a narrow beam. The antenna was also on the drive. In some cases, when driving on uneven terrain, the direction of the antenna shifted significantly, and it was necessary to return it back to the desired sector. There was even such a position - the operator of a directional antenna, and there was a special second joystick to control it.
Thus, the crew consisted of five people: the driver, the commander, the navigator, the operator of the highly directional antenna and the flight engineer. All of them were specially selected for this purpose, they were psychologically prepared for management.
What was the psychological part of the preparation?
For example, one thought was constantly brought to them: “Dear comrades, keep in mind that you have been entrusted with an invaluable spacecraft, and therefore treat it very carefully, and at the slightest suspicion that an emergency will arise, turn it off.”
Between us, speaking, the stick was a little bent, and this led to stress. The drivers were in a tense state, and through certain time they had to be changed.
This was known in advance, so the management team had its own psychologists and doctors. Drivers had their blood pressure checked and their condition monitored. They were treated almost like astronauts.
Picked up people with perfect health?
Cosmonauts are selected more according to physical data, but here the flexibility of the nervous system was more important. It was necessary to be able to perceive this work. They picked up young officers - people who had never driven any kind of transport before. This is a very unusual method of control, so we proceeded from the fact that previously acquired skills and familiar automatisms did not surface. In the end, very good crews were created that did an excellent job.
Do you remember how you felt when your development started working on the moon? How it was?
An amazing feeling, but it quickly passes. In general, enthusiasm and enthusiasm were universal. When the lunar rover started working on the Moon, there were a lot of people who wanted to see how it all happens. Can you imagine how interesting it is? They say that the minister asked to be given the opportunity to "steer", and he was given such an opportunity. There were a huge number of lower-ranking chiefs who wanted to feel involved in the management of the lunar rover.
It couldn't hurt the mission?
The participation of strangers in the management was short-lived and rather symbolic: they were allowed to send one or two teams under the supervision of the crew, nothing more.
After the journey of the first lunar rover, it became clear that lunar conditions on Earth could not be completely imitated. Lunar soil - regolith - has very specific light-optical characteristics. At a certain angle, it reflects light well towards the light source. If the Sun shines exactly behind and at a small angle, then a bright spot is obtained in the near zone - high illumination and no shadows are visible.
You can make a mistake, and this puts the driver in a state of tension, he reduces the speed. In order for shadows to appear and the relief to be seen better, I had to turn a little. Appropriate recommendations were issued to those who laid the route before each session of movement, which lasted several hours. All the accumulated experience was used to modernize Lunokhod-3. Unfortunately, it remained in history as a museum exhibit.
Why is there no video from the moon?
We thought about it. From a technical point of view, then it was difficult, although possible, but today, in general, there are no problems. For example, the journey of Lunokhod-2 is reflected in more than 80,000 frames and 86 panoramas. Of these, you can make a beautiful documentary film about traveling on the surface of the moon. But at that time, such a task was not considered paramount ...
Now these frames are in the Archive of Space Information and are waiting for their director - if there is a desire and means.
Do you remember how Lunokhod-2 ended its journey?
At the end of its journey, "Lunokhod-2" got into a difficult "traffic situation". He had to overcome an old, badly damaged crater, which was common and had happened repeatedly earlier during his movement. But one feature appeared: an unusually large amount of regolith had accumulated at the bottom of this crater over many years. The wheels began to sink into the regolith, and Lunokhod-2 stalled. The situation is well known to ordinary drivers when the car gets stuck in sandy soil. We decided to go backwards.
