November 17th 1970 Lunokhod lands on the Moon
The Americans used astronauts and moon buggies to explore the surface of the Moon. The Russians decided that they would send unmanned remote controlled rovers to the Moon. In much the same way that the surface of Mars is being explored today by the Curiosity rover.
The Lunokhod looks very strange by to-days standards however it was the first remote controlled robot rover to travel on an astronomical body beyond the Earth.
It looked like a giant saucepan on 8 wheels it was 2.3 meters long and carried many pieces of equipment to study the Moon. The Lunokhod landed in the Sea of Rains and during a 10 month mission on the Moon traveled about 6.5 miles. Over 20,000 photos from the surface of the Moon were taken.
In 1973 the Russians would put Lunokhod 2 onto the surface of the Moon.
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| Lunokhod 1 |
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