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Coolest space mission that nobody remembers
Slashdot has a story today that jogged my memory. In 1970, the Russians landed a remote controlled rover called “Lunakhod 1” on the moon and drove it around for almost a year. It looked like a set of tractor wheels mounted on an old washtub - which is probably a reasonable guess about it’s actual method of construction. The name literally means, “moonwalker”, so while the Soviets did get an early lead on NASA in unmanned ambulatory space droids, they also planted the seeds of popular western culture which would eventually lead to the downfall of communism. Blowback.
February 11, 2004 | Permalink
Comments
"It looked like a set of tractor wheels mounted on an old washtub - which is probably a reasonable guess about it’s actual method of construction."
I guess the sarcasm here is not in a right place.
Lunokhod was really very advanced machine for its time.
Saying, that it looked like an old washtub means the same as saying that the Apollo LEM looked like a trashbin.
Posted by: critter | Feb 16, 2004 2:40:48 AM
It was extremely advanced for it’s time - in some ways, more advanced than Apollo. Saying that it looked like a washtub was meant to be endearing, not sarcastic. I’ve heard it referred to this way by people in the Russian Space Agency and I don’t think they were trying to insult the program. The old Russian space program’s ability to do impressive work with comparatively small budgets is respected the world over.
As for the Apollo LEM – it’s been called worse. I won’t get mad unless you start talking about which microphones NASA used to fake the moon landings.
Posted by: Phil Libin | Feb 16, 2004 8:52:06 AM
