Lunokhod 1
On 17 November 1970 an interesting space craft landed on the
surface of the Moon. It carried the
first remotely controlled robotic lunar rover, Lunokhod 1. The Lunokhod looked
like a ‘giant saucepan on wheels’. For the next ten months the rover was driven
by operators in the Soviet Union, with the total distance traveled being about
10 km. For comparison, in six years of operation the Mars Exploration Rover
Opportunity has traveled about 12 km.
After landing, the rover drove down a ramp onto the lunar
surface and tested its eight wheels. The rover was driven by solar power during
the day; at night it parked and relied on thermal energy from a polonium-210
radioisotope heater to survive the cold (-150°C).
Lunokhod 1 sent back valuable data concerning the
composition of the soil, close up views of the local topography, and important measurements of the soil.
Contact was lost with the rover on September 14, 1971, a
second rover Lunokhod 2 would land on the Moon on 16th January 1973.
It would not be until 1997 that another remote controlled rover the Mars
Pathfinder would travel on another extra-terrestrial body.
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