MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th November, 2020) Russia's state space agency Roscosmos on Monday declassified a cache of documents related to humanity's first rover to explore another world: the Lunokhod-1.
Released to coincide with the 50th anniversary of its successful deployment on the surface of the moon, the documents depict years of research and development that went into the pioneering projects.
"State Corporation Roscosmos presents a new set of declassified materials about the development and launch of this unique space object. The selection contains ministerial and departmental documents, transcripts of production meetings, reporting documentation and fragments of correspondence between participants in the project with the leadership of the rocket and space industry," an introductory note on the Roscosmos website read.
Typewriter and hand-written accounts include decrees from the Central Committee of the Communist Party, correspondences between the USSR's Ministry of General Engineering and specialists, scientific studies and reports from field tests. A slew of photographs was also published showing lead engineers and researchers working on bringing the lunar rover to life.
Several transcripts include meetings chaired by then-Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and other members of the politburo.
The remote-controlled Lunokhod-1 was launched on November 10, 1970, and successfully deployed on the moon's surface six days later. It operated until September 30 of the following year, exceeding its planned mission by over three months. Over the course of 301 days, the rover traveled more than 6.5 miles and explored over 30,000 square miles of the lunar surface. It took ground samples in 25 locations and sent back to earth 211 panoramas and over 25,000 photographs.
The Lunokhod ushered in an era of rovers and landers that helped Soviet and US agencies study the surfaces of Mars and Venus. It was followed by the Lunokhod-2 in 1973, which exceeded its predecessor by all metrics.
