Soviet Luna Missions |
Soviet Luna Missions |
May 4 2006, 03:05 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 172 Joined: 17-March 06 Member No.: 709 |
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I thought that it was time to start up a discussion of what we know, or would like to know, about the Soviet Luna Missions. To start off, I have heard many a reference to the landing system utilized by the early landers, such as Luna 9. However, I have yet to find a report, or even a diagram, that shows the sequence of events, or such details as the air bags. If such references do not exist, I hope that some of the UMSF community have Russian contacts that could lead us to the source material before it ends up in the dust bin of history. In addition, I heard of an effort several years ago to obtain ALL of the imagery from Lunakhods 1 and 2. Does anyone know if that effort was able to secure that data? Also, as far as Lunas 15, 18 and 23, the sample-return missions that didn't quite make it home, are there any official reports "out there" that detail what actually occurred to those missions? Or will we have to wait for the high-resolution images from the LRO to determine their fates? Another Phil |
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Guest_DonPMitchell_* |
May 15 2006, 11:57 PM
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Guests |
Yes indeed, the Soviets used airbags to land on the Moon. The main craft used an optical horizon and a radar altimeter to control its descent, with a retro rocket. The airbags were inflated, and when a long probe touched the Moon, the airbag was jetisoned. After it came to rest, pyrocharges blew the airbags away from the "automatic lunar station". If you look at the Luna-13 panoramas, you can see pieces of the spacecraft strewn about the landing site:
[attachment=5619:attachment] [attachment=5616:attachment] When Luna-9 was built by NPO Lavochkin, they used the basic plan of the Luna-5 to 8, but with a couple minor changes. The airbag was inflated later, after the radar and other instruments were jetisoned. Here is a picture of the pre-Luna-9 craft, identifiable because the gas bottle is on the right-side modules, which is ejected a while before landing, to save weight. Most of what you're see when you look at Luna-9 is the engine and its fuel tanks, with some equipment attached to the outside. The oxydizer tank is spherical, and the fuel tank below it is toroidal, typical Russian design esthetics. [attachment=5617:attachment] The cone-shaped protrusion on the front of the airbag is also indicitive of Luna-8, some funky extending device on the lander that was absent from Luna-9. Another difference is that the lander was pressurized in the earlier versions. The cycloramic camera looked out through a periscope inside a cylindrical glass window, somewhat like the Venera-9 camera. On Luna-9, the lander was open to vacuum, and a new higher-resolution camera was designed to operate in a vacuum. In fact, lots of pictures of "Luna-9" are actually pictures of the earlier vehicle. For example, the lander on display at the Engeriya Museum is Luna-8, naturally because they built those. At the Lavochkin Museum you will find the honest-to-god Luna-9. Here is a set of photos of Luna-8 (top row) versus Luna-9 (bottom row): [attachment=5618:attachment] The Mars-3 lander was somewhat different. They used a parachute and retro rocket, and the lander was encased in a foam shock absorber that was blasted off after it landed: [attachment=5620:attachment] |
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