Russian Rovers on the Moon

An Ignorant American writes "Perusing an Air & Space magazine the other day, I came across an article about Russian Moon Rovers during the space-race era. Thanks to my American science education, I had never heard of this feat. I asked around (friends and coworkers) and nobody else I've talked to has heard of them either. They were called 'lunokhod', and were the first of their kind. Unmanned, remotely operated rovers with basic instrumentation. Two were successfully landed on the Moon, each driving for many miles on the Moon's surface, returning tens of thousands of pictures. You can do a Google Search to start your education, or read what they have to say at Wikipedia on the subject (Wikipedia also has some external links.)"

Comments

11 months!

[glen604]

"Lunokhod 1 actually toured the lunar Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains) for 11 months in one of the greatest successes of the Soviet lunar exploration program" I wonder how they managed to get them to hold up (and be potentially useful) for that long? sheer dumb luck?

Re:11 months!

[Anonymous Coward]

Fuck you, redneck.

Not just American education...

[Lurgen]

... but Australian education too. A quick survey around the office revealed that Aussies missed out on this little fact too. Same with the UK. Makes you wonder just how much history gets edited to highlight the wonders of our American overlords...

Wow this is disturbing

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

I had never heard of this feat. I asked around (friends and coworkers) and nobody else I've talked to has heard of them either. They were called 'lunokhod'

You and your friend are not representative of the level of education in the US. If you were, this would be very disturbing, as it would mean the education system is, not a little, but extremely skewed. Any 30 second googling session would have told you Russians were more advanced than the United States in the space race at first, by leaps and bounds.

Re:Pretty successful, until

[Anonymous Coward]

Guess what you see every time you look in the mirror... a fucking retard trying to score with lame old jokes!

Re:Pretty successful, until

[Anonymous Coward]

That's what I just said to you, cocksmoker.

Re:Robots had another purpose

[The Bungi]

HAHAHAH!! Do you know how many Soviet cosmonauts and ground crew members died from the 1950's to the mid 1970's? Far more than US astronauts and crew my dear "they only sent robot" friend. And this is just counting the ones we know of, lest we forget how open the USSR was with these types of things as opposed to the western media. Shit, even counting test aircraft deaths related to the space programs. Here's a good example:

On October 24, 1960 the Soviet Premier, Nikita S. Khrushchev was boiling mad. Two launches to Mars on the 13th and 15th of October had failed while he was preparing to make a big propaganda speech at the United Nations bragging once again about the superiority of the Communist system. His appointed lackey, Field Marshal Nedelin, was told to launch a vehicle to Mars, or else. When the countdown reached zero, the huge SS-6 rocket did not ignite. Feeling the pressure from Khrushchev, Nedelin disobeyed all safety regulations concerning rocket misfires and sent the technicians out to work on the rocket. Korolev was extremely safety conscious and he argued with Nedelin about sending the engineers out to accomplish maintenance on the unstable space vehicle. In an action of bravado, Nedelin took his entire staff and some chairs to sit by the rocket as it was being inspected by the technicians. Korolev and a deputy Yangel went into a blast shelter to have a cigarette when the rocket exploded. Instantly, Nedelin, his staff, their chairs, and over 100 technicians on the rocket were incinerated in the worst accident in the history of the Soviet space program. Rather than admitting that such an event occurred, the Soviet Press claimed that Nedelin was killed in an aircraft accident. About once every month after the accident, three or four space technicians would have their obituaries in the press; it took thirty months for all the Nedelin disaster technicians to be officially recognized as dead. Such was the secrecy of the Soviet space program in the early years. At the Tyuratam Rocket Launch Facility there is now an obelisk with the names of the scientists and technicians who perished in "The Nedelin Disaster".

HAHAHAH!!! The Soviet Union cared more about life than the US? The Soviet Union?? HAHAHAHAAH!!!

Even accounting for recent US losses with the space shuttle, the Soviets/Russians have a very healthy lead.

So strongly I suggest you check your facts before posting your "omfg amerikans are so teh evil, i hate them" trash, or otherwise just shut the fuck up.

Re:Pretty successful, until

[Anonymous Coward]

Where the hell did you learn English, boy? In India? And if you had a clue, you'd know that one CANNOT MOD HIS OWN COMMENTS! Retard!

Re:Hmm

[KarMann]

Thanks, nimrod. Did you bother to check on what Wikipedia's style recommendations for units are? It wasn't in keeping with them before you "fixed" it, but I suppose I'll have to go through and fix it up both ways now.

Damn, I started reading this article in high spirits (no, nothing to do with anything I've been smoking), remembering what I knew of Lunokhod from way back when myself, and seeing a link to Wikipedia, where I've made considerable contribution. But dimwits really seem to be getting under my skin as I read on. For what it's worth, Doug, it's not just you that has me sounding so harsh and irate right now.

No secret here

[mdavis19]

Well gee, I had an American education too and I knew all about the Soviet Moon rovers and other Soviet space feats. Maybe you just weren't paying attention?

Re:Robots had another purpose

[KLP-2002]

Hey dick, learn to speak English first and then learn a something about the past, fucktard.

Russians did only half of the heavy lifting

[Anonymous Coward]

That the Russians did all the heavy lifting in WWII.

They only did half of the heavy lifting: the eastern front. They also ended up doing way too much: they conquered and brutalized the Eastern European countries almost as bad as the Nazis did.

The Russians took one of the worst beatings any country has ever received in a war without giving up.

Much of this beating was from the Russian leader (Stalin). He had soldiers who met troops from the free world (when the fronts closed at the end) executed and tortured.

Had the Russians had failed at Stalingrad, we would be living in a very different world today.

It would have been a much better world. The USSR would have fallen. Shortly after that, the Nazis would have fallen, and there would have been free countries from Ireland to Vladivostok, instead of stopping at the Iron Curtain.

WW2 was a war of aggression by Nazi Germany and the USSR. The Nazis were stopped, but the USSR managed to expaned and conquer many nations, permanently.

INSIGHTFUL?! He's an arrogant ass!

[doc_traig]

Come on, moderators! Some clown posts what amounts to nothing other than ridiculously sarcastic trash, and you mod it up?!

You can find these things called books at a place called a library.

It's unbelievable that anyone found this worthy of anything other than scorn. Pal, take your shitty attitude to some site that welcomes posts containing nothing but empty sarcasm.