Lunokhod-1, first space hybrid on the Moon

Lunokhod-1, the first unmanned lunar rover, landed on the moon November 17, forty years ago.
Photo: Chassis of Lunokhod-1 being tested.

The lunar rover’s creation and launch became an important part of lunar exploration. The rover was conceived at S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia {then Special Design Bureau-1 (OKB-1)} in 1965. The two lunar rovers were to explore lunar landing sites and act as radio beacons during the ship’s landing. The rover was also supposed to be used for transporting cosmonauts on the Moon’s surface.

Lunokhod-1, the first unmanned lunar and planetary rover, was designed to study the peculiarities of the Moon’s surface, radioactivity and electromagnetic radiation and the chemical composition and characteristics of the soil. Lunokhod-1 was created at Lavochkin Aircraft Design Bureau in Khimki under the supervision of Georgy Babakin, while the chassis were designed at VNIITransmash under the guidance of Alexander Kemurdjian.

NPO Lavochkin (then the Lavochkin Aircraft Design Bureau) and VNIITransmash (then VNII-100) were charged with designing the rover.
Photo: Lunokhod-1 chassis being installed at the assembly and test center.

The unmanned rover Lunokhod-1 was a space aircraft-off road vehicle hybrid, consisting of two parts: an eight-wheel chassis and an airtight equipment container.

The Proton-K three-stage boost rocket was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on November 10, 1970. It put the Luna-17 automatic station and unmanned lunar rover Lunokhod-1 into a near-earth orbit.
Photo: Lunokhod-1 being installed on the Luna-17 landing vehicle (photo reproduction).

Before it made one full orbit around the Earth, the rocket’s upper stage blasted the station toward the Moon. Having analyzed the environment, Lunokhod-1 rolled off its mount and down on to the lunar surface. The event took place at 9:28 am on November 17.
Photo: reproduction of Luna-17 automatic station landing on the Moon (above) and Lunokhod-1 landing on the Moon’s surface (below).

The rover operated smoothly for over 10 months. During that time the vehicle covered 10,540 meters, transmitted some 200 telephotometric panoramas and about 20,000 low-frame-rate television images to the Earth. The recording captured many interesting surface relief details: the images assisted in surface studies.
Photo: Trail of Lunokhod-1 on the Moon’s surface.

Lunokhod-1 was left on the Moon. Its exact whereabouts remained unknown to scientists for a long time. Forty years later, a group of physicists led by Tom Murphy from the University of California at San Diego managed to locate Lunokhod-1 in images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Photo: Rover chassis being tested.

Lunokhod-1 is the world’s first rover and is on display at the exposition at the Memorial Museum of Astronautics, opened after reconstruction, at Cosmonauts Alley at the Exhibition of National Achievement.