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

Simple Explaination

[Dr. Bent]

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.

That's because in Soviet Russia, moon rovers learn about YOU!

Sorry...couldn't resist.

Pretty successful, until

[AtariAmarok]

They were pretty successful. The last pictures showed something like this on the lunar surface. After this, transmissions were cut off.

What are they teaching in schools today?

[thewiz]

I remember reading about these rovers when I was in GRADE school. Or am I carbon dating myself?

Re:Russia's first space rover

[Frymaster]

Russia's first space "rover"

the most interesting thing about all of this is that they remodeled the rover for earthside use under the brand name lada.

Wow. Another Russian First

[ahem]

I can't believe that the Russians beat us there. To think that they could have been the first to build a movie set and fake a lunar rover landing! I'm glad we were first to think of putting human actors on the set, though!

Re:Wow. Another Russian First

[ENOENT]

In Soviet Russia, rovers moon YOU!

That explained the suspension

[AtariAmarok]

"the most interesting thing about all of this is that they remodeled the rover for earthside use under the brand name lada.

Tested on the moon? This must explain the "bounce 20 feet in the air when you roll over a pebble" suspension.

Russian-named features on the dark side

[AtariAmarok]

Ever wonder why so many of the features on the dark side of the moon have Russian names? It's the same with many features on Mars, too.

It really is true. I'm in the Western Hemisphere right now, and it is light out. It so happens that many of the features in the northern part of the dark side of the Earth at this time also have Russian names. Imagine that!

We did learn about Lunokhod rovers in school

[Muhammar]

"Thanks to my American science education, I had never heard of this feat."

Don't be sad. Thanks to my soviet-era communist education, I was convinced in my school years that the Apollo maned missions to Moon are just an expenisve imperialist publicity stunt with no real scientific value.

Re:We did learn about Lunokhod rovers in school

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Don't be sad. Thanks to my soviet-era communist education, I was convinced in my school years that the Apollo maned missions to Moon are just an expenisve imperialist publicity stunt with no real scientific value.

And gee, they were almost right...

There's a Russian joke about it

[prostoalex]

When the Soviet Union wad ruled by Leonid Brezhnev, an extremely elderly person not capable of any mental activity furing his late years, there was a joke about Lunokhod and Brezhnev.

Airport in Germany. Soviet and German leaders meet. As the Germans come to the Soviet airplane, Brezhnev comes out, sniffs everyone from the German delegation, picks up some dirt off the ground, puts it in his pocket and returns to the airplane.

Few minutes later a Russian scientist apologizes: "We messed up and instead of Presidential visit program loaded up Lunokhod program".

Re:There's a Russian joke about it

[ghost4096]

There is another one: What is the difference between Soviet and Americans? The Americans use machines to fetch potatoes and use people to fetch lunar rock; The russiuan use people to fetch potatoes and and machines to fetch lunar rock.

Re:11 months!

[exp(pi*sqrt(163))]

sheer dumb luck?

Of course. Everyone knows that only Americans know how to build reliable space vehicles and only Americans deserve to get contracts for software engineering and everyone else in the world is just plain dumb.

"HOLY F*CKING SH*T, HOUSTON!!!"

[instantkarma1]

An imaginary quote from some Astronaut landing on the moon and tripping over one of these, not knowing about them.

His ass would be on monolith alert after that, no doubt!

Re:Hmm

[product byproduct]

The metric system?

Re:WTFipedia...

[Aardpig]

From looking at the Wikipedia history, it appears that the GNAA poster is at 82-32-36-56.cable.ubr05.azte.blueyonder.co.uk (82.32.36.56). This is a Blueyonder cable subscriber in the UK. I am currently hacking their computer.

Roverlords

[happyfrogcow]

yep, you guessed it...

I, for one, welcome our new Russian Roverlords.

Re:Hmm

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, Americans learn the metric system in school, they just don't use it.

Kind of like the French and personal hygiene.

You *do* realize

[porkchop_d_clown]

that Mars and the Moon aren't the same place?

The other Slashdot effect

[19usc2462bH]

The Wikipedia page has been slashdotted.

Under a list of protected pages, the Lunokhod program page is listed because page was listed on a /. story 26 minutes ago, has already been vandalized half a dozen times including insertion of goatsex links. Pakaran. 23:06, 10 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Re:Hmm

[Anonymous Coward]

theory of evolution?

Another one

[Poligraf]

After Americans put men on the Moon, Brezhnev calls for the cosmonauts and tells them:
- In order to win the space race, you will land on the Sun!
- But we'll burn there, Leonid Il'ich!
- Don't worry, the Communist Party's Central Commettee is not stupid! You'll fly there in the night! ;-)

P.S. Anyone can translate the anecdote about Challenger and "zalpy saljuta"?

Your uncle fell for that?

[raehl]

Everybody knows those pictures were just of a sound stage in Siberia.

Newsflash

[CXI]

This just in! Children are not being taugh all of the knowledge contained in the universe in school! When pressed for comment, the school said "Time is finite". We'll be sure to get more info on this conspiracy in the next hour, stay tuned!

Yet another one

[Uksi]

Jan 28, 1986, date of Challenger's launch.

The President of the United States gets a call from Russia's Prime Minister, Mikhail Gorbachev:

- Hello, President?
- Yes?
- Please accept our sincere apologies for Challenger's explosion!
- But it's scheduled to launch in 40 seconds!
- Oh? Ok, we'll call back!