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Lunokhod 1
This was not the outcome Korlev had hoped. There were conflicts between NATI and OKB-1, probably over concepts of vehicle design. The director of the institute, V. S. Starovoitov, assigned Alexander L. Kemurdgian, head of the the department responsible for new transportation modes, to lead the rover program, although the Institute did not yet have the approval to develop the lunar vehicle Kemurdgian formed a small committee of noted scientists and engineers to study the feasibility of designing and building such a vehicle which included I. I. Rozentsveig, V. I. Komissarov, A. V. Mitskevich and V. K. Michkiniouk. This was a completely new field of vehicle development and a separate entity within the Institute had to be created to handle it. In September 1963, Bureau 255 was formed that was specifically devoted to the field of interplanetary vehicle design. It's scope of activities would go far beyond the design of the vehicle itself. It would involve lunar soil mechanics studies, development of scientific instruments to study composition of the lunar soil, research into solar power of vehicle electrical systems, development of vehicle telecommunications which included vision systems, preserving the vehicle systems for extended periods of cold in the vacuum of space on the Moon, vehicle propulsion and steering mechanisms, among other areas. In addition, a lander would also have to be designed, developed and tested which could safely and with the lowest impact land on the lunar surface and deploy the rover.
Critical to the success of the mission was the rover's lander. The lander would provide a powered descent to the surface of the Moon. Once it had been verified the spacecraft had landed successfully and communications established, Lunokhod 1 would travel down one of two ramps on the lander and begin its mission. The landing site chosen was a section of the Mare Imbrium, the "Sea of Rains." This mission to the Moon was given the name Luna 17. The spacecraft was launched Baikonur Cosmodrome on November 10, 1970 aboard a SL-12 Proton booster. The spacecraft successfully entered lunar orbit on November 15. It began its power descent on November 17 and soft-landed at 03:47 UTC. Lunokhod 1 was operated by five men from mission headquarters, which included a commander, a navigator, a driver and two engineers. It was designed to operate for three lunar days, but the scientific team succeeded in keeping it operating for eleven lunar days--the equivalent of 10 months. In that time, Lunokhod 1 traveled more than 10.5 kilometers, returned 20,000 TV pictures, 200 TV panoramas and conducted more than 500 lunar soil tests. Lunokhod 2
The Luna 21 spacecraft with Lunokhod 2 was launched on January 8, 1973 aboard a SL-12 Proton launcher. The rover's destination was the Mare Serenitatis, where Luna 21 landed in LeMonnier Crater on January 15th. The Soviets again proved their grasp of orbital mechanics and ability to design and build spacecraft capable of soft landing on the Moon. Lunokhod 2 took TV images of its landing site, then the mission team gave the rover the command to descend the ramp to the lunar surface on January 16. The rover was positioned so its solar panel was oriented to fully charge its batteries. On January 18th, 1973, Lunokhod 2 took TV images of the lander and the landing site before the mission team descided the best direction for exploration for the rover to take. Its mission was to take measurements of the light to determine if it was possible to make astronomical observations from the lunar surface, measure solar x-rays and local magnetic fields, conduct further experiments on the lunar soil to understand its mechanical properties, and perform laser ranging experiments between the Moon and the Earth. The mission team had every confidence Lunokhod 2 would
match or even surpass the longevity of Lunokhod 1. In four months' time,
it covered nearly 40 kilometers from its landing site, traversing areas divided
by rilles and rolling terrain. The harsh environment finally took its toll
on the rover, but it the fog of the Cold War, the reason for the rover's demise
was never revealed. However, the rover's laser retroreflector is still called
upon by stations on Earth for laser ranging. Lunokhod 2 had successfully
beamed back 86 panoramic images and over 80,000 TV images. The
experiements performed were equally fruitful. Lunokhod 3
A third Lunokhod was built but was never launched. There were modifications to the rover's main body and improved TV camera system. Lunokhod 3 is now on display in the NPO Lavochkin Museum (shown above, left.) |
The Soviet robotic lunar
roving vehicles, Lunokhod 1 and Lunkhod 2, were the product of the
Russian Mobile Vehicle Engineering Institute (VNIITRANSMASH). The
Institute was formed in1949 as a scientific and engineering center to
investigate and develop military tracked ("catepillar") vehicles and
tanks. The Soviets were emboldened by their progress in space exploration
in the late 1950s. S. P. Korolev, Chief Designer of the Special Design
Bureau OKB-1 at the Institute, submitted Resolution 715-296 to the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on June 26, 1960 requesting
research and development of a robotic lunar roving vehicle. In response, the
Central Committee charged the Moscow Scientific Motor-Transport Institute (NATI)
with the creation of the chassis for this proposed lunar vehicle. 
In
February 1965, the Military and Industrial Commission (VPK) under the Council of
Ministers of the USSR gave the the task of designing and building this vehicle
to VINIITRANSMASH. Years of intense design, development, testing,
manufacturing and flight validation followed. The final vehicle featured
eight wheels with wire spokes and a drive motor within each wheel hub, a main
body with a truncated cylinder design, a sampling arm on the front, a survey
camera, a penetrometer, a cosmic ray detector, an x-ray spectrometer,a laser
reflector, fixed stereo camera lenses on the lower front of the vehicle,
directional and omni-directional antennas and the rover's distinctive large
circular top panel that opened up 180 degrees to permit the solar panel to power
the vehicle. The rover's weight was 756 kilograms. The rover was given the name Lunokhod 1, which in Russian means
"moon walker."
Lunokhod
2 was very similar in appearance to Lunokhod 1, but there were improvements in a
number of areas. The two original TV camera lenses on the front of the rover
received rectangular sunshades to dramatically reduce glare. There was the
addition of a third TV camera mounted higher and further forward. This
Lunokhod was heavier at 840 kilograms. With the lander, the combined
weight was 1814 kilograms.