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''Luna 17'' (Ye-8 series) was an uncrewed space mission of the
''Luna 17'' continued the spate of successes in Soviet lunar exploration begun by '' Luna 16'' and Zond 8. ''Luna 17'' carried ''Lunokhod 1'', the first in a series of robot lunar roving vehicles whose conception had begun in the early 1960s, originally as part of the piloted lunar landing operations. This was the second attempt to land such a vehicle on the Moon after a failure in February 1969.
The descent stage was equipped with two landing ramps for the rover, to disembark onto the Moon's surface.
The rover stood about high and was across. Each of its eight wheels could be controlled independently for two forward and two reverse speeds. Its top speed was about , with commands issued by a five-man team of "drivers" on Earth who had to deal with the 5-second delay. The set of scientific instruments was powered by solar cells (installed on the inside of the hinged top lid of the rover) and chemical batteries.
After two mid-course corrections en route to the Moon, ''Luna 17'' entered lunar orbit and then landed on the lunar surface at 03:46:50 UT on 17 November 1970 at 38°17' north latitude and 35° west longitude, about from the Luna 16 site in the Sea of Rains.
The Lunokhod 1 rover rolled over the ramps and onto the lunar surface at 06:28 UT. During its 322 Earth days of operation, the rover traveled and returned more than 20,000 TV images and 206 high-resolution panoramas.
In addition, ''Lunokhod 1'' performed twenty-five soil analyses with its RIFMA X-ray fluorescence spectrometer and used its penetrometer at 500 different locations.
Controllers finished the last communications session with ''Lunokhod 1'' at 13:05 UT on 14 September 1971. Attempts to reestablish contact were finally discontinued on 4 October.
In March 2010, the
Zarya - ''Luna 17'' chronology
{{Orbital launches in 1970 Luna programme 1970 in the Soviet Union Soft landings on the Moon Spacecraft launched in 1970 1970 on the Moon Successful space missions
Luna program
The Luna programme (from the Russian word " Luna" meaning "Moon"), occasionally called ''Lunik'' by western media, was a series of robotic spacecraft missions sent to the Moon by the Soviet Union between 1959 and 1976. The programme accompli ...
, also called ''Lunik 17''. It deployed the first robotic rover onto the surface of the Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...
.
Launch
''Luna 17'' was launched from an Earth parking orbit towards the Moon and entered lunar orbit on 15 November 1970. The spacecraft softly landed on the Moon in theMare Imbrium
Mare Imbrium (Latin ''imbrium'', the "Sea of Showers" or "Sea of Rains") is a vast lunar mare, lava plain within the Imbrium Basin on the Moon and is one of the larger craters in the Solar System. The Imbrium Basin formed from the collision ...
(Sea of Rains). The spacecraft had dual ramps by which the payload, ''Lunokhod 1
''Lunokhod 1'' (Russian language, Russian: Луноход-1 "Moonwalker 1"), also known as Аппарат 8ЕЛ № 203 ("Device 8EL No. 203") was the first rover (space exploration), robotic rover lunar rover, on the Moon and the first to freel ...
'', descended to the lunar surface.
''Lunokhod 1'' was a lunar vehicle formed of a tub-like compartment with a large convex lid on eight independently powered wheels. ''Lunokhod 1'' was equipped with a cone-shaped antenna, a highly directional helical antenna, four teleray spectrometer
A spectrometer () is a scientific instrument used to separate and measure Spectrum, spectral components of a physical phenomenon. Spectrometer is a broad term often used to describe instruments that measure a continuous variable of a phenomeno ...
, an x-ray telescope
An X-ray telescope (XRT) is a telescope that is designed to observe remote objects in the X-ray spectrum. X-rays are absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere, so instruments to detect X-rays must be taken to high altitude by balloons, sounding rockets ...
, cosmic-ray detectors, and a laser retro-reflector (supplied by France) was also included. The vehicle was powered by a solar cell
A solar cell, also known as a photovoltaic cell (PV cell), is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by means of the photovoltaic effect.
array mounted on the underside of the lid.
''Lunokhod 1'' was intended to operate through three lunar days but actually operated for eleven lunar days (eleven Earth months). The operations of Lunokhod officially ceased on 4 October 1971, the anniversary of Sputnik 1
Sputnik 1 (, , ''Satellite 1''), sometimes referred to as simply Sputnik, was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program ...
, after having traveled over while taking pictures and performing numerous tests.
''Luna 17'' continued the spate of successes in Soviet lunar exploration begun by '' Luna 16'' and Zond 8. ''Luna 17'' carried ''Lunokhod 1'', the first in a series of robot lunar roving vehicles whose conception had begun in the early 1960s, originally as part of the piloted lunar landing operations. This was the second attempt to land such a vehicle on the Moon after a failure in February 1969.
The descent stage was equipped with two landing ramps for the rover, to disembark onto the Moon's surface.
The rover stood about high and was across. Each of its eight wheels could be controlled independently for two forward and two reverse speeds. Its top speed was about , with commands issued by a five-man team of "drivers" on Earth who had to deal with the 5-second delay. The set of scientific instruments was powered by solar cells (installed on the inside of the hinged top lid of the rover) and chemical batteries.
After two mid-course corrections en route to the Moon, ''Luna 17'' entered lunar orbit and then landed on the lunar surface at 03:46:50 UT on 17 November 1970 at 38°17' north latitude and 35° west longitude, about from the Luna 16 site in the Sea of Rains.
The Lunokhod 1 rover rolled over the ramps and onto the lunar surface at 06:28 UT. During its 322 Earth days of operation, the rover traveled and returned more than 20,000 TV images and 206 high-resolution panoramas.
In addition, ''Lunokhod 1'' performed twenty-five soil analyses with its RIFMA X-ray fluorescence spectrometer and used its penetrometer at 500 different locations.
Controllers finished the last communications session with ''Lunokhod 1'' at 13:05 UT on 14 September 1971. Attempts to reestablish contact were finally discontinued on 4 October.
In March 2010, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is a NASA robotic spacecraft currently orbiting the Moon in an eccentric Polar orbit, polar mapping orbit. Data collected by LRO have been described as essential for planning NASA's future human and robotic ...
photographed the landing site of ''Luna 17'', showing the lander and tracks of the rover. In April 2010, the Apache Point Observatory Lunar Laser-ranging Operation team announced that with the aid of these photos, they had found the long-lost ''Lunokhod 1'' rover and had received returns from the laser retroreflector
A retroreflector (sometimes called a retroflector or cataphote) is a device or surface that reflects light or other radiation back to its source with minimum scattering. This works at a wide range of angle of incidence (optics), angle of incidenc ...
.
See also
* ''Lunokhod 1
''Lunokhod 1'' (Russian language, Russian: Луноход-1 "Moonwalker 1"), also known as Аппарат 8ЕЛ № 203 ("Device 8EL No. 203") was the first rover (space exploration), robotic rover lunar rover, on the Moon and the first to freel ...
''
* Lunokhod programme
* List of artificial objects on the Moon
This is a partial list of artificial materials left on the Moon, many during the missions of the Apollo program. The table below does not include lesser Apollo mission artificial objects, such as a hammer and other tools, Laser Ranging Retroflect ...
* List of missions to the Moon
Missions to the Moon have been numerous and include some of the earliest space missions, conducting exploration of the Moon since 1959.
The first partially successful lunar mission was Luna 1 (January 1959), the first probe to leave Earth ...
References
External links
Zarya - ''Luna 17'' chronology
{{Orbital launches in 1970 Luna programme 1970 in the Soviet Union Soft landings on the Moon Spacecraft launched in 1970 1970 on the Moon Successful space missions