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How the CIA 'kidnapped' a Soviet moon probe during the space race
- mlindner 2y agoScott Manley (space youtuber/astronomer/Apple employee) four years ago did a good video on this event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoE4m8RqOWs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoE4m8RqOWs
- iJohnDoe 2y agoRussian Moon Rovers. Impressive for 1970 and 1973. Lunokhod 1, during its 322 Earth days of operations, travelled 10.5 km (6.5 miles) and returned more than 20,000 television images and 206 high-resolution panoramas. In addition, it performed twenty-five soil analyses with its RIFMA x-ray fluorescence spectrometer and used its penetrometer at 500 different locations. Lunokhod 2, operated for about four months, covered 42 km (26 miles) of terrain, including driving into hilly upland areas and rilles. Lunokhod 2 held the record for the longest distance of surface travel of any extraterrestrial vehicle until 2014. It sent back 86 panoramic images and over 80,000 television pictures.
- cr125rider 2y agoIt traveled further than that though? Is that million of miles?
- Forbo 2y agoSurface operation, not distance to the moon.
- KineticLensman 2y agoThats 42 km on the lunar surface
- ljf 2y agoAs a child in the 80s, one of my teachers had a stack of 70s kids science magazines for rainy lunch times. One of them had a section in Lunokhod and also on some sort of pressurised diving suit. I'd seek those magazines out and stare at them for ages - they both seemed so exciting and remarkable. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunokhod_programme https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunokhod_programme When I got interested in the Lunokhod a few years ago I tried to find footage of the video feed that was sent back, and only found a grainy gif compiled from some of the images - I don't think any live footage was recorded, or if it was I don't believe it was made public. Seemed so amazing, remotely driving a vehicle on the moon, at that time.
- nradov 2y agoThe diving suit picture was probably a JIM suit. It was revolutionary because it wasn't pressurized. The suit interior remained at 1 atm so the diver wasn't affected by higher pressures (neurological effects and decompression sickness). https://navalunderseamuseum.org/jim-suit/ https://navalunderseamuseum.org/jim-suit/
- ljf 2y agoYou are entirely correct - I have lost whole afternoons to similar sites: https://cyberneticzoo.com/early-underwater-manipulators-and-robots/ https://cyberneticzoo.com/early-underwater-manipulators-and-... Machines/suits/robots like these really tickle part of my brain.
- OutOfHere 2y agoThis is not exactly something to be proud of.
- RCitronsBroker 2y agoHard agree. it’s sad to see that the funding for leading edge science has dried up considerably after the "cold" war ending, but this is a very unfortunate perspective to look at scientific progress.
- labster 2y agoIf you think a little IP theft makes an entire country evil, I’d hate to know what you think of China. Note: OP edited his comment
- jmprspret 2y agoYeah, they're evil too. As if saying one is evil means that the other isn't? Come on...
- OutOfHere 2y agoI just think there should be consistency between which laws apply to the country and which apply to its citizens. If IP theft is okay for the country, it should be okay for its citizens too.
- exe34 2y agothe laws aren't for the benefit of the citizens, they're there for benefits of the rich. does it make more sense now? that way you can have both spying being okay and sharing books being evil.
- ffgjgf1 2y agoTo be fair IP law initially and too a large degree still were mainly meant to prevent your country’s citizens from stealing from other citizens/residents. Presumably that would result in lower overall productivity. Stealing IP from other countries is just pure profit though..
- gbanfalvi 2y agoThere was a great episode on the Failure to Launch podcast on the 28th of June that goes into detail on how the theft took place. https://x.com/launch_failure/status/1806667561129447739 https://x.com/launch_failure/status/1806667561129447739