1/18/2006: Lunokhod 1

[Undertoad]

Luno-what? Until xoB suggested this item from the Astronomy Pic of the Day, I'd never heard of this thing.

33 years later, it might look like this:



...that's one of the Mars rovers that IotD watched in 2003. But much earlier, in 1970, the Russians sent up that black and white deal there, Lunokhod 1, the first unmanned explorer on the moon. (Or, obviously, on any body in outer space!)

It ran on solar cells and lived up there for almost a whole year. Comparing it to the modern rover, it's amazing to see what's the same - what decisions they made in a different culture in 1970, that were the same decisions in 2003. Turns out it's OK to have the wires on the outside, who knew?

This gent's page contains a few of the thousands of images sent back from Lunokhod.

So whose idea was it to put two cameras right on the front, looking all like eyes?

[Sundae]

The original one appears to have - usefully - a laser, a tiny tunneling device and a box of chocolates. But the new one wins for the tiger-stripe camouflage on one of its panels.

[axlrosen]

Looks like Robbie the Robot's girlfriend.

[ferkelparade]

Looks like Robbie the Robot's girlfriend.

Looks more like some female robot's boyfriend, if you catch my drift. That's not a laser cannon up there...

[glatt]

I'm glad this is today's image. I knew the Soviets sent unmanned missions to the moon, but never knew any details. The Lunokhod 1 was apparently very cool, and seems to have all the basic things you would want in a robot rover. This is another example of where the Russians beat the US in the space race. It took us decades to come up with a similar robot rover. Of course, one of our astronauts at the time could have simply walked up to this thing and kicked it over onto its back, since we had men on the moon when this thing was up there.

[Kitsune]

Originally Posted by Sundae Girl

...and a box of chocolates.

That wins. Thank you.

[seakdivers]

That thing at the top of the robot looks like one of those ping pong ball shooters! It also appears that it has a horizontal beer tap on the side, as well as a flask.... my kind of robot!

They need to put some playing cards in those spokes too.

[magilla]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

So whose idea was it to put two cameras right on the front, looking all like eyes?

It has to see where it's going- wouldn't want it to drive off a cliff, would you? And you need two cameras for stereoscopic vision. That's why arboreal critters (or their descendents, like us) have front-facing eye. It's really bad to misjudge the distance to that next branch...

Chris

[Pancake Man]

They've got some pimpn' hubcaps on that second one

[mlandman]

Is just a large version of those jiffy-pop aluminum foil popcorn poppers meant to be held over an open flame.

[Trilby]

I still like the Kitchen Carnival better. It deep fries, carmelizes and makes cotton candy! Right in your own home!

[srom]

the first thing it made me think of is jiffypop too. ha! swim in the popcorn!

[capnhowdy]

The lunar shots are interesting. I didn't even know the Soviets had done this. Overlook my ignorance.

I bet they made sure to carry full coverage insurance.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Despite looking like something from Jules Vern or Wild Wild West, the sucker worked very well.
Designed to operate for 3 lunar days (3 months), it actually worked (roved) for 11 months, traveled 10,540 m, transmitted more than 20,000 TV pictures, more than 200 TV panoramas,and also conducted more than 500 lunar soil tests.
Pretty impressive for an EZ-Pop pan.

[wolf]

We weren't told about it because we knew the Commies weren't capable of doing anything useful in space.

(I do kind of vaguely remember hearing something about it, but the event paled in comparison to the fact that we sent men before that tin can made it into space.)