Lunokhod Moon Rovers
Discussion
Simpo Two said:
That's excellent!Panamax said:
It was a great exhibition! Some fantastic gear on display. That Lunokhod looked like an old pressure cooker on wheels, and not much bigger.
I went to that. They were very touchy about photographing the lander. No idea why. It's not as if you're going to wear it out. The most striking to me was the 3 man Voskhod (?) on display which was unbelievably tiny. Seemingly far more so than Gemini which wasn't too roomy either.
The Venera missions are the most fascinating to me. A shame they're not far more famous.
bloomen said:
I went to that. They were very touchy about photographing the lander. No idea why. It's not as if you're going to wear it out.
The most striking to me was the 3 man Voskhod (?) on display which was unbelievably tiny. Seemingly far more so than Gemini which wasn't too roomy either.
The Venera missions are the most fascinating to me. A shame they're not far more famous.
I went too and really enjoyed it. There was a general ban on taking pictures - why I don't know.The most striking to me was the 3 man Voskhod (?) on display which was unbelievably tiny. Seemingly far more so than Gemini which wasn't too roomy either.
The Venera missions are the most fascinating to me. A shame they're not far more famous.
The Voshkod spacecraft was essentially a stripped out Vostok.
Only two Voshkod missions were ever made.
The first was Voshkod 1 which carried three cosmonauts. In order to fit them into a capsule designed for one man they had to take out the bulky ejection seat and replace it with three lightweight couches. The couches were also rotated 90 degrees, even though the control panel was left more or less in its original location. This meant that the cosmonaut in the right hand couch had the instruments at his side rather than directly in front.
Finally, to fit the three men into the cramped cabin, they could not wear the pressure suits worn on the previous Vostok flights. Instead they wore light wool "track suits" and soft communication hats and no helmets. If the cabin depressurised, they would have died - as happened later on Soyuz 11.
Voshkod 2 was different in that it carried only two cosmonauts. However, the capsule was fitted with an inflatable rubber airlock which permitted Alexei Leonov to conduct the world's first "spacewalk".
Voshkod was conceived purely as a response to NASA's 1962 announcement that they would be launching a two man spacecraft (Gemini) which would allow EVAs. Kruschev ordered Korolev, who was already working on his Soyuz design, to do a "quickie" redesign of Vostok to allow a three man crew (one more than Gemini) and a spacewalk (ahead of Gemini) and so allow the Soviets to claim they were ahead of the US.
Once the two objectives of Voshkod had been achieved, the spacecraft was never used again.
It put Korolev under tremendous stress and pressure and probably contributed to his early demise in 1966.
Some of the Lunokhod designers were pulled out of retirement in 1986 after the Chernobyl disaster. With their expertise, a couple of remote control rovers were built within 6 weeks. These were sent to the site to help with the cleanup, before they inevitably broke down.
Seen here shoveling highly radioactive debris off the reactor complex roof. It was light enough to operate up there and already had radiation hardened systems for Moon operations.
Human exposure was limited to only 90 seconds up there.
Seen here shoveling highly radioactive debris off the reactor complex roof. It was light enough to operate up there and already had radiation hardened systems for Moon operations.
Human exposure was limited to only 90 seconds up there.
Like the ply one, also on thingiverse for those with a 3d printer.. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2469351
Eric Mc said:
The Voshkod spacecraft was essentially a stripped out Vostok.
Only two Voshkod missions were ever made.
The first was Voshkod 1 which carried three cosmonauts. In order to fit them into a capsule designed for one man they had to take out the bulky ejection seat and replace it with three lightweight couches. The couches were also rotated 90 degrees, even though the control panel was left more or less in its original location. This meant that the cosmonaut in the right hand couch had the instruments at his side rather than directly in front.
Finally, to fit the three men into the cramped cabin, they could not wear the pressure suits worn on the previous Vostok flights. Instead they wore light wool "track suits" and soft communication hats and no helmets. If the cabin depressurised, they would have died - as happened later on Soyuz 11.
Voshkod 2 was different in that it carried only two cosmonauts. However, the capsule was fitted with an inflatable rubber airlock which permitted Alexei Leonov to conduct the world's first "spacewalk".
Voshkod was conceived purely as a response to NASA's 1962 announcement that they would be launching a two man spacecraft (Gemini) which would allow EVAs. Kruschev ordered Korolev, who was already working on his Soyuz design, to do a "quickie" redesign of Vostok to allow a three man crew (one more than Gemini) and a spacewalk (ahead of Gemini) and so allow the Soviets to claim they were ahead of the US.
Once the two objectives of Voshkod had been achieved, the spacecraft was never used again.
It put Korolev under tremendous stress and pressure and probably contributed to his early demise in 1966.
Interesting how the Americans focused on building their space exploration capabilities step by step, working towards what they would need for moon missions, whereas the Soviets spent several years just milking the original Vostok capsule/rocket with clever variants for propaganda wins - two spacecraft in orbit together, first woman in space, three men in one spacecraft, first spacewalk, etc. To the outside world it looked like the Soviets were maintaining their lead better than they were in reality.Only two Voshkod missions were ever made.
The first was Voshkod 1 which carried three cosmonauts. In order to fit them into a capsule designed for one man they had to take out the bulky ejection seat and replace it with three lightweight couches. The couches were also rotated 90 degrees, even though the control panel was left more or less in its original location. This meant that the cosmonaut in the right hand couch had the instruments at his side rather than directly in front.
Finally, to fit the three men into the cramped cabin, they could not wear the pressure suits worn on the previous Vostok flights. Instead they wore light wool "track suits" and soft communication hats and no helmets. If the cabin depressurised, they would have died - as happened later on Soyuz 11.
Voshkod 2 was different in that it carried only two cosmonauts. However, the capsule was fitted with an inflatable rubber airlock which permitted Alexei Leonov to conduct the world's first "spacewalk".
Voshkod was conceived purely as a response to NASA's 1962 announcement that they would be launching a two man spacecraft (Gemini) which would allow EVAs. Kruschev ordered Korolev, who was already working on his Soyuz design, to do a "quickie" redesign of Vostok to allow a three man crew (one more than Gemini) and a spacewalk (ahead of Gemini) and so allow the Soviets to claim they were ahead of the US.
Once the two objectives of Voshkod had been achieved, the spacecraft was never used again.
It put Korolev under tremendous stress and pressure and probably contributed to his early demise in 1966.
Eric Mc said:
I went too and really enjoyed it. There was a general ban on taking pictures - why I don't know.
I went in the last few days of the exhibition and by that time nobody was bothered about visitors taking photos - I didn't realise it had been banned earlier.Eric Mc said:
I went too and really enjoyed it. There was a general ban on taking pictures - why I don't know.
I working in Moscow in 2014 and went to the space museum there https://kosmo-museum.ru/visit?locale=en . I've also been fascinated by the Lunakhod so i took a picture and was immediately told off by one of the staff, who looked just like the Bond baddie in From Russia With Love who had blades in her shoes.So here it is the picture secretly smuggled out to the West so NASA can learn about it
Remember Lunokhod on the bbc news back in the day. Had a nice cartoon animation showing what it was up to. All these years later,how true was it?
We struggle to land any unmanned vehicle on the moon in 2024, 50 plus years later.
Due to no atmosphere and nothing to slow something down,its hard.
Lets accept the apollo missions worked due to some experienced flyboy using his judgement.
Are the 2 superpowers of the time scratching each others back here and covering for each other. Bit like religions do.
Are space wallahs stupider than they were in the 1960s -70s ?
Yes we can catch something that comes back down,but that soon gets old as its not really gone anywhere.
We struggle to land any unmanned vehicle on the moon in 2024, 50 plus years later.
Due to no atmosphere and nothing to slow something down,its hard.
Lets accept the apollo missions worked due to some experienced flyboy using his judgement.
Are the 2 superpowers of the time scratching each others back here and covering for each other. Bit like religions do.
Are space wallahs stupider than they were in the 1960s -70s ?
Yes we can catch something that comes back down,but that soon gets old as its not really gone anywhere.
hondajack85 said:
Remember Lunokhod on the bbc news back in the day. Had a nice cartoon animation showing what it was up to. All these years later,how true was it?
We struggle to land any unmanned vehicle on the moon in 2024, 50 plus years later.
Due to no atmosphere and nothing to slow something down,its hard.
Lets accept the apollo missions worked due to some experienced flyboy using his judgement.
Are the 2 superpowers of the time scratching each others back here and covering for each other. Bit like religions do.
Are space wallahs stupider than they were in the 1960s -70s ?
Yes we can catch something that comes back down,but that soon gets old as its not really gone anywhere.
You can't fake this stuff.We struggle to land any unmanned vehicle on the moon in 2024, 50 plus years later.
Due to no atmosphere and nothing to slow something down,its hard.
Lets accept the apollo missions worked due to some experienced flyboy using his judgement.
Are the 2 superpowers of the time scratching each others back here and covering for each other. Bit like religions do.
Are space wallahs stupider than they were in the 1960s -70s ?
Yes we can catch something that comes back down,but that soon gets old as its not really gone anywhere.
It would involve thousands of people all buying in and following the same plan.
Have you ever being involved with any kind of large scale project? It's like herding cats. Stupid ones.
hondajack85 said:
Remember Lunokhod on the bbc news back in the day. Had a nice cartoon animation showing what it was up to. All these years later,how true was it?
We struggle to land any unmanned vehicle on the moon in 2024, 50 plus years later.
Due to no atmosphere and nothing to slow something down,its hard.
Lets accept the apollo missions worked due to some experienced flyboy using his judgement.
Are the 2 superpowers of the time scratching each others back here and covering for each other. Bit like religions do.
Are space wallahs stupider than they were in the 1960s -70s ?
Yes we can catch something that comes back down,but that soon gets old as its not really gone anywhere.
What Apollo had was motivation, brains and unlimited money. They won the Moon. After that motivation faded, money waned and the world changed. Now after a bad spell space travel is moving to privateers.We struggle to land any unmanned vehicle on the moon in 2024, 50 plus years later.
Due to no atmosphere and nothing to slow something down,its hard.
Lets accept the apollo missions worked due to some experienced flyboy using his judgement.
Are the 2 superpowers of the time scratching each others back here and covering for each other. Bit like religions do.
Are space wallahs stupider than they were in the 1960s -70s ?
Yes we can catch something that comes back down,but that soon gets old as its not really gone anywhere.
Man could have been on Mars long ago, but not enough people wanted to do it.
hondajack85 said:
Remember Lunokhod on the bbc news back in the day. Had a nice cartoon animation showing what it was up to. All these years later,how true was it?
We struggle to land any unmanned vehicle on the moon in 2024, 50 plus years later.
Due to no atmosphere and nothing to slow something down,its hard.
Lets accept the apollo missions worked due to some experienced flyboy using his judgement.
Are the 2 superpowers of the time scratching each others back here and covering for each other. Bit like religions do.
Are space wallahs stupider than they were in the 1960s -70s ?
Yes we can catch something that comes back down,but that soon gets old as its not really gone anywhere.
The Chinese seem to be having great success with their current lunar landers and rovers.We struggle to land any unmanned vehicle on the moon in 2024, 50 plus years later.
Due to no atmosphere and nothing to slow something down,its hard.
Lets accept the apollo missions worked due to some experienced flyboy using his judgement.
Are the 2 superpowers of the time scratching each others back here and covering for each other. Bit like religions do.
Are space wallahs stupider than they were in the 1960s -70s ?
Yes we can catch something that comes back down,but that soon gets old as its not really gone anywhere.
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