Soviet Luna Missions Options

[PhilHorzempa]

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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

[ilbasso]

I think that has to be the first Russian image where I have actually been able to tell what I was looking at. Great work!!

[Guest_DonPMitchell_*]

I think that has to be the first Russian image where I have actually been able to tell what I was looking at. Great work!!

The biggest problem with Soviet images is that we see images damaged by generational loss. The Russians have a first-generation copy of analog or digital image data. Then it gets copied to film, then printed, then descreened and printed again in the West, then scanned by someone, and finally we have a horribly image.

Here is an example, Venera-9's panorama, as it appeares in many Western media, a USGS film recording from Russia, and properly processed original digital data:

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