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Forgotten Soviet Moon Rover Beams Light Back to Earth
- pavlov 15y agoI love the look of that Lunokhod rover. It reminds me of Russian author Victor Pelevin's wonderful satirical mini-novel "Omon Ra". The Soviet moon missions carried a heavy secret... There's a free English translation of Omon Ra available online: http://a7sharp9.com/Omon.html http://a7sharp9.com/Omon.html I don't know about the quality of this translation, but I'd absolutely recommend the book to anyone who's interested in post-Soviet Russia... And can stomach Pelevin's sprawling irony, which may be the only appropriate literary tool for approaching contemporary Russia :)
- jcr 15y agoI really liked the look of it as well, but the thing that got me thinking is how similar the wheels/suspension were to the NASA Opportunity and Spirit rovers.
- Tichy 15y agoThinking what?
- jcr 15y agoA bit rough but still a fair question. Obviously, the first thing I was thinking about was the similarity of the two wheel/suspensions designs. Next up, I was wondering about the engineering decisions which resulted in the designs being similar. The main question I have is, "What advantages did the multi-wheel designs have?" I think it must have something to do with trade-offs between mobility on the (theoretical) terrain and power consumption, but really, I'm just guessing. Whatever the reasons are for the similarities, learning the engineering and testing behind the two designs would be fascinating.
- paxswill 15y agoThe US rovers have used a rocker-bogie[1] system for their suspension. While the wheels look similar, the suspension on the Lunokhod almost looks like leaf springs. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocker-bogie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocker-bogie
- masklinn 15y agonah. Here's a detail of Lunokhod 3 wheels: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Lunokhod_detail.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Lunokhod_...
- flanther 15y agoIf I remember correctly, in this documentary "Tank on the Moon"[1], they said, one of the scientists who worked on the Lunokhod missions consulted with NASA for part of the design of the Mars rover around 1995. Apparently he worked on the wheel design, to help overcome grip and other factors on the Mars terrain. [1] http://science.discovery.com/tv/tank/tank.html http://science.discovery.com/tv/tank/tank.html
- Someone 15y agoGiven the time of these designs, one cannot rule out that it is more correct to say that there were 1.5 designs, not 2. Both parties involved tended to keep a close look on the competition.
- InclinedPlane 15y agoThe Lunokhod rovers have an unusual and unique appearance because they used pressure vessels to contain the electronics.
- StuffMaster 15y agoHoly pressure vessel batman! I did not know that and find it weird and fascinating.
- akdubya 15y agoAm I the only one who thinks it looks like a high-tech baby stroller?
- ck2 15y agoWow, without parachutes, how did they land that thing? Looks like a ancient ancestor of Spirit/Opportunity.
- Typhon 15y agoThey used airbags.
- masklinn 15y agoNope, thrusters, much like the Apollo landers.
- Arjuna 15y agoYou are probably thinking of the Mars Exploration Rover Mission (Spirit and Opportunity) landings on Mars. While airbags were deployed to protect both Spirit and Opportunity during landing, descent speed was managed by supersonic parachute and retrorockets.
- paxswill 15y agoOr even the Mars Pathfinder mission.
- Typhon 15y agoThe Luna 9 probe, which achieved the first-ever soft-landing on the moon, used air bags. http://www.astronautix.com/craft/lunae6.htm http://www.astronautix.com/craft/lunae6.htm Use of such is not incompatible with the use of retrorockets.
- Arjuna 15y agoThank you for the link regarding Luna 9; I did not know that. You originally said, "Use of such is not incompatible with the use of retrorockets. As a matter of fact, the latter are used first." Just to provide clarity, I was referring to the EDL (Entry, Descent, Landing) profile of Spirit and Opportunity. Their EDL profiles first deploy the airbags, then fire the retrorockets. http://marsrover.nasa.gov/mission/tl_entry1.html http://marsrover.nasa.gov/mission/tl_entry1.html Step 12: Airbags inflate Step 13: Retrorockets fire
- arethuza 15y agoApparently Lunokhod 2 is now privately owned by a certain "Lord British": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunokhod_2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunokhod_2
- chopsueyar 15y agoThis is such an interesting story. This guy has quite the gravity labratory. I like the analog rover, even if it doesn't run Python. What a difference 30 years makes.
- mcritz 15y agoSlighty deceptive headline. At first I thought it sounded like thus ancient robot was transmitting light to earth. Not so. It merely has a reflector that bounces earthbound researcher-gnereated laser photons back.
- adavies42 15y ago> For every 1018 photons shot at the moon, only a single photon returns to the telescope. Is that really 1018, or did 10^18 get mangled on its way onto the web?
- dalke 15y agoThe latter. There's no way that it's reflecting a million watts back to the Earth's surface (1/1018 of the main beam power). Or to put it another way, with a beam "footprint" of 2km across, and with the size of the rover rather less than 100 m across, there's no way it alone could return that high a percentage of the light sent to it.