Lunokhod Moon Rovers
Discussion
Simpo Two said:
That's excellent!Panamax said:
It was a great exhibition! Some fantastic gear on display. That Lunokhod looked like an old pressure cooker on wheels, and not much bigger.
I went to that. They were very touchy about photographing the lander. No idea why. It's not as if you're going to wear it out. The most striking to me was the 3 man Voskhod (?) on display which was unbelievably tiny. Seemingly far more so than Gemini which wasn't too roomy either.
The Venera missions are the most fascinating to me. A shame they're not far more famous.
bloomen said:
I went to that. They were very touchy about photographing the lander. No idea why. It's not as if you're going to wear it out.
The most striking to me was the 3 man Voskhod (?) on display which was unbelievably tiny. Seemingly far more so than Gemini which wasn't too roomy either.
The Venera missions are the most fascinating to me. A shame they're not far more famous.
I went too and really enjoyed it. There was a general ban on taking pictures - why I don't know.The most striking to me was the 3 man Voskhod (?) on display which was unbelievably tiny. Seemingly far more so than Gemini which wasn't too roomy either.
The Venera missions are the most fascinating to me. A shame they're not far more famous.
The Voshkod spacecraft was essentially a stripped out Vostok.
Only two Voshkod missions were ever made.
The first was Voshkod 1 which carried three cosmonauts. In order to fit them into a capsule designed for one man they had to take out the bulky ejection seat and replace it with three lightweight couches. The couches were also rotated 90 degrees, even though the control panel was left more or less in its original location. This meant that the cosmonaut in the right hand couch had the instruments at his side rather than directly in front.
Finally, to fit the three men into the cramped cabin, they could not wear the pressure suits worn on the previous Vostok flights. Instead they wore light wool "track suits" and soft communication hats and no helmets. If the cabin depressurised, they would have died - as happened later on Soyuz 11.
Voshkod 2 was different in that it carried only two cosmonauts. However, the capsule was fitted with an inflatable rubber airlock which permitted Alexei Leonov to conduct the world's first "spacewalk".
Voshkod was conceived purely as a response to NASA's 1962 announcement that they would be launching a two man spacecraft (Gemini) which would allow EVAs. Kruschev ordered Korolev, who was already working on his Soyuz design, to do a "quickie" redesign of Vostok to allow a three man crew (one more than Gemini) and a spacewalk (ahead of Gemini) and so allow the Soviets to claim they were ahead of the US.
Once the two objectives of Voshkod had been achieved, the spacecraft was never used again.
It put Korolev under tremendous stress and pressure and probably contributed to his early demise in 1966.
Some of the Lunokhod designers were pulled out of retirement in 1986 after the Chernobyl disaster. With their expertise, a couple of remote control rovers were built within 6 weeks. These were sent to the site to help with the cleanup, before they inevitably broke down.
Seen here shoveling highly radioactive debris off the reactor complex roof. It was light enough to operate up there and already had radiation hardened systems for Moon operations.
Human exposure was limited to only 90 seconds up there.
Seen here shoveling highly radioactive debris off the reactor complex roof. It was light enough to operate up there and already had radiation hardened systems for Moon operations.
Human exposure was limited to only 90 seconds up there.
Like the ply one, also on thingiverse for those with a 3d printer.. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2469351
Eric Mc said:
The Voshkod spacecraft was essentially a stripped out Vostok.
Only two Voshkod missions were ever made.
The first was Voshkod 1 which carried three cosmonauts. In order to fit them into a capsule designed for one man they had to take out the bulky ejection seat and replace it with three lightweight couches. The couches were also rotated 90 degrees, even though the control panel was left more or less in its original location. This meant that the cosmonaut in the right hand couch had the instruments at his side rather than directly in front.
Finally, to fit the three men into the cramped cabin, they could not wear the pressure suits worn on the previous Vostok flights. Instead they wore light wool "track suits" and soft communication hats and no helmets. If the cabin depressurised, they would have died - as happened later on Soyuz 11.
Voshkod 2 was different in that it carried only two cosmonauts. However, the capsule was fitted with an inflatable rubber airlock which permitted Alexei Leonov to conduct the world's first "spacewalk".
Voshkod was conceived purely as a response to NASA's 1962 announcement that they would be launching a two man spacecraft (Gemini) which would allow EVAs. Kruschev ordered Korolev, who was already working on his Soyuz design, to do a "quickie" redesign of Vostok to allow a three man crew (one more than Gemini) and a spacewalk (ahead of Gemini) and so allow the Soviets to claim they were ahead of the US.
Once the two objectives of Voshkod had been achieved, the spacecraft was never used again.
It put Korolev under tremendous stress and pressure and probably contributed to his early demise in 1966.
Interesting how the Americans focused on building their space exploration capabilities step by step, working towards what they would need for moon missions, whereas the Soviets spent several years just milking the original Vostok capsule/rocket with clever variants for propaganda wins - two spacecraft in orbit together, first woman in space, three men in one spacecraft, first spacewalk, etc. To the outside world it looked like the Soviets were maintaining their lead better than they were in reality.Only two Voshkod missions were ever made.
The first was Voshkod 1 which carried three cosmonauts. In order to fit them into a capsule designed for one man they had to take out the bulky ejection seat and replace it with three lightweight couches. The couches were also rotated 90 degrees, even though the control panel was left more or less in its original location. This meant that the cosmonaut in the right hand couch had the instruments at his side rather than directly in front.
Finally, to fit the three men into the cramped cabin, they could not wear the pressure suits worn on the previous Vostok flights. Instead they wore light wool "track suits" and soft communication hats and no helmets. If the cabin depressurised, they would have died - as happened later on Soyuz 11.
Voshkod 2 was different in that it carried only two cosmonauts. However, the capsule was fitted with an inflatable rubber airlock which permitted Alexei Leonov to conduct the world's first "spacewalk".
Voshkod was conceived purely as a response to NASA's 1962 announcement that they would be launching a two man spacecraft (Gemini) which would allow EVAs. Kruschev ordered Korolev, who was already working on his Soyuz design, to do a "quickie" redesign of Vostok to allow a three man crew (one more than Gemini) and a spacewalk (ahead of Gemini) and so allow the Soviets to claim they were ahead of the US.
Once the two objectives of Voshkod had been achieved, the spacecraft was never used again.
It put Korolev under tremendous stress and pressure and probably contributed to his early demise in 1966.
Eric Mc said:
I went too and really enjoyed it. There was a general ban on taking pictures - why I don't know.
I went in the last few days of the exhibition and by that time nobody was bothered about visitors taking photos - I didn't realise it had been banned earlier.Gassing Station | Science! | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff