4throck
Enthusiast !
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2008
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"Why a manned Lunokhod? of course it is unmanned in their plans. "
I didn't explain well. It was unmanned BUT with the possibility of the cosmonaut riding / driving it. At least that was the original intent.
Don't know if any work was actually done regarding that configuration. But from the video I posted it seems that the early Lunokhod prototypes were just the weels and chasis with no clear instrumentation or power source.
There's more info here: http://eandt.theiet.org/magazine/2011/03/rover-v-lunokhod.cfm?SaveToPDF
"What is less well known is that Lunokhods were originally developed as part of this manned lunar programme. Just 40 per cent the
mass of the Apollo Lunar Module, the LK lander possessed limited redundancy. Responding to this potential unreliability, the idea
was to launch a spare unmanned lander first, along with a robot rover (originally designated 'Ye-8').
This rover would inspect the lander for damage, as well as serving as a radio beacon for the follow-up manned lander to home in on.
However, due to irregular lunar gravity, a precision landing might prove difficult. So the rover had another purpose, transporting the
cosmonaut to reach his back-up lander, if needed (carrying 24 hours' worth of life support).
Eventually, the rover was given additional tasks to prepare for a manned landing. Then, as the prospect of achieving this receded, the
Ye-8 programme took on a life of its own. Its lander was also modified for sample return missions. The first Lunokhod mission
launched on January 1969 – the rovers' profile would be higher, if one had beaten Neil Armstrong – but blew up a few seconds in.
Lunokhod 1 finally landed 18 months later.
Form followed function for this 2.3m-long 756 kg rover. Its bathtub body was a pressurised vessel – Russian engineers liked to keep
delicate electronics in air instead of vacuum. Resisting the bitter -150°C night and then the 120°C daytime heat was the key issue. So
Lunokhod 1 had a clam-like lid with solar panels to catch the Sun, exposing a radiator to expel waste heat. When the fortnight-long
night began, the lid closed, sealing in heat produced by a polonium-210 isotope."
I didn't explain well. It was unmanned BUT with the possibility of the cosmonaut riding / driving it. At least that was the original intent.
Don't know if any work was actually done regarding that configuration. But from the video I posted it seems that the early Lunokhod prototypes were just the weels and chasis with no clear instrumentation or power source.
There's more info here: http://eandt.theiet.org/magazine/2011/03/rover-v-lunokhod.cfm?SaveToPDF
"What is less well known is that Lunokhods were originally developed as part of this manned lunar programme. Just 40 per cent the
mass of the Apollo Lunar Module, the LK lander possessed limited redundancy. Responding to this potential unreliability, the idea
was to launch a spare unmanned lander first, along with a robot rover (originally designated 'Ye-8').
This rover would inspect the lander for damage, as well as serving as a radio beacon for the follow-up manned lander to home in on.
However, due to irregular lunar gravity, a precision landing might prove difficult. So the rover had another purpose, transporting the
cosmonaut to reach his back-up lander, if needed (carrying 24 hours' worth of life support).
Eventually, the rover was given additional tasks to prepare for a manned landing. Then, as the prospect of achieving this receded, the
Ye-8 programme took on a life of its own. Its lander was also modified for sample return missions. The first Lunokhod mission
launched on January 1969 – the rovers' profile would be higher, if one had beaten Neil Armstrong – but blew up a few seconds in.
Lunokhod 1 finally landed 18 months later.
Form followed function for this 2.3m-long 756 kg rover. Its bathtub body was a pressurised vessel – Russian engineers liked to keep
delicate electronics in air instead of vacuum. Resisting the bitter -150°C night and then the 120°C daytime heat was the key issue. So
Lunokhod 1 had a clam-like lid with solar panels to catch the Sun, exposing a radiator to expel waste heat. When the fortnight-long
night began, the lid closed, sealing in heat produced by a polonium-210 isotope."
