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Soviet Luna Missions
PhilHorzempa
post May 4 2006, 03:05 AM
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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?


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tasp
post May 4 2006, 12:52 PM
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Luna 23 and Luna 18 were apparently damaged by hard landings. I am just speculating, but perhaps the landing radar was confused by surface boulders and the retros cut out a little early.


Luna 15, I guess they are pretty sure was a sample return, crashed too. Considering the complexity of a sample return, a first attempt (is this known for sure?) might have gone awry in any number of ways. Considering the US Ranger series, (but not the Surveyors!), probably not too surprising.
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ljk4-1
post May 4 2006, 01:53 PM
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QUOTE (tasp @ May 4 2006, 08:52 AM) *
Luna 15, I guess they are pretty sure was a sample return, crashed too. Considering the complexity of a sample return, a first attempt (is this known for sure?) might have gone awry in any number of ways. Considering the US Ranger series, (but not the Surveyors!), probably not too surprising.


I saw a drawing of Luna 15 circa 1992 from the aerospace group that
used to put out annual reports on Soviet spacecraft and missions (could
someone help me with the name, please? Thanks.).

It looked exactly like Luna 16, which did land on the Moon and return
some surface samples successfully to Earth just over one year later.
Not a real surprise, but nice to know.

This Web site has what it labels to be an image of Luna 15, but can
anyone confirm this?

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/spacecraft/q0196.shtml

At least it wasn't a scenario out of the 1968 film Countdown where
Luna 15 was really a desperate manned attempt to beat the USA and
the Soviets ended up losing three cosmonauts.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062827/

The Soviets were also trying to beat Apollo 11 to the Moon and return
with some surface samples before the US did as a sort of coup. No
doubt rushing too fast in this part of the Space Race cost us all a little
bit of a different place to study from the Moon.

There is a very funny story created by Dwayne Day in 1999 detailing
how Luna 15 was NOT an unoccupied vehicle:

http://www.astronautix.com/astros/bormp504.htm

Don P. Mitchell has an incredible collection of Soviet lunar probe
images, including many from the two Lunakhods:

http://www.mentallandscape.com/C_Catalog.htm

This is not to ignore or downplay anyone else's collection of similar
images, it's just that Mitchell appears to have the most I am aware of.

There are already some other UMSF threads that discuss the Soviet lunar
missions and have images from them as well:

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...indpost&p=13362

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...findpost&p=9080

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...findpost&p=9101

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...indpost&p=11828

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...indpost&p=13688


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and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance.
I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard,
and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does
not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is
indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have
no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft."

- Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853

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Posts in this topic
- PhilHorzempa   Soviet Luna Missions   May 4 2006, 03:05 AM
- - BruceMoomaw   We had quite a detailed discussion of the Luna 4 t...   May 4 2006, 06:27 AM
- - tasp   Luna 23 and Luna 18 were apparently damaged by h...   May 4 2006, 12:52 PM
|- - ljk4-1   QUOTE (tasp @ May 4 2006, 08:52 AM) Luna ...   May 4 2006, 01:53 PM
||- - Dyche Mullins   QUOTE (ljk4-1 @ May 4 2006, 06:53 AM...   May 4 2006, 08:42 PM
||- - ljk4-1   QUOTE (Dyche Mullins @ May 4 2006, 04:42 ...   May 4 2006, 09:09 PM
|- - tedstryk   QUOTE (tasp @ May 4 2006, 12:52 PM) Luna ...   May 4 2006, 02:45 PM
- - gndonald   The Astronautix.com website has a good timeline of...   May 4 2006, 02:08 PM
- - gndonald   This is a follow up to my earlier post (see above)...   May 4 2006, 04:54 PM
- - Phil Stooke   Following up on a couple of points here... I'm...   May 4 2006, 06:34 PM
- - ljk4-1   In the early 1990s, Andrew Lepage wrote in the onl...   May 4 2006, 07:20 PM
- - BruceMoomaw   If you REALLY like Luna 15 conspiracy theories, Al...   May 4 2006, 10:34 PM
- - gndonald   Hopefully the last word on Luna 15 conspiracies. T...   May 5 2006, 03:19 AM
- - 4th rock from the sun   Finally I've finished one of my projects: m...   May 6 2006, 01:48 AM
|- - tedstryk   QUOTE (4th rock from the sun @ May 6 2006, 01...   May 6 2006, 02:59 PM
||- - DonPMitchell   Very cool. Where did you find a good picture of f...   May 7 2006, 02:45 AM
||- - 4th rock from the sun   QUOTE (DonPMitchell @ May 7 2006, 03:45 A...   May 7 2006, 11:05 AM
||- - DonPMitchell   QUOTE (4th rock from the sun @ May 7 2006, 04...   May 9 2006, 10:02 AM
||- - 4th rock from the sun   QUOTE (DonPMitchell @ May 9 2006, 11:02 A...   May 9 2006, 01:55 PM
||- - RJG   QUOTE (4th rock from the sun @ May 9 2006, 01...   May 9 2006, 07:54 PM
||- - 4th rock from the sun   QUOTE (RJG @ May 9 2006, 08:54 PM) MP3 is...   May 9 2006, 10:34 PM
||- - DonPMitchell   QUOTE (4th rock from the sun @ May 9 2006, 03...   May 10 2006, 12:32 AM
||- - ljk4-1   QUOTE (DonPMitchell @ May 9 2006, 08:32 P...   May 10 2006, 11:32 AM
||- - DonPMitchell   QUOTE (ljk4-1 @ May 10 2006, 04:32 A...   May 10 2006, 02:06 PM
||- - 4th rock from the sun   QUOTE (ljk4-1 @ May 10 2006, 12:32 P...   May 10 2006, 09:23 PM
|- - gndonald   QUOTE (4th rock from the sun @ May 6 2006, 09...   May 7 2006, 06:05 AM
- - Phil Stooke   Here is a mosaic of Zond 3 images which I made a w...   May 7 2006, 08:19 PM
|- - tedstryk   Very impressive. This Zond image is another favor...   May 7 2006, 10:37 PM
||- - DonPMitchell   QUOTE (tedstryk @ May 7 2006, 03:37 PM) V...   May 9 2006, 10:12 AM
||- - tedstryk   QUOTE (DonPMitchell @ May 9 2006, 10:12 A...   May 9 2006, 10:25 AM
|- - 4th rock from the sun   QUOTE (Phil Stooke @ May 7 2006, 09:19 PM...   May 10 2006, 11:45 PM
- - Decepticon   Thanks so much for posting that! I've bee...   May 11 2006, 01:21 AM
- - edstrick   I've wanted to play with the Luna 3 images for...   May 11 2006, 09:41 AM
- - 4th rock from the sun   Just to see how much of the Moon was covered by...   May 12 2006, 12:00 AM
- - DonPMitchell   Great Zond-3 mosaics! To answer you question ...   May 15 2006, 04:48 AM
- - Phil Stooke   4th Rock, I am very impressed with your Zond 3 mos...   May 15 2006, 06:42 AM
- - 4th rock from the sun   Thanks all for the info and kind words! I ju...   May 15 2006, 04:02 PM
|- - DonPMitchell   QUOTE (4th rock from the sun @ May 15 2006, 0...   May 15 2006, 04:35 PM
|- - Bob Shaw   Don: Perhaps, in your researches into the Soviet ...   May 15 2006, 06:43 PM
|- - tedstryk   QUOTE (Bob Shaw @ May 15 2006, 06:43 PM) ...   May 15 2006, 07:22 PM
|- - Bob Shaw   Interestingly, the Astronautix.com page has a pict...   May 15 2006, 08:49 PM
- - BruceMoomaw   One of the cartoons we saw earlier (or at least I ...   May 15 2006, 10:59 PM
- - DonPMitchell   Yes indeed, the Soviets used airbags to land on th...   May 15 2006, 11:57 PM
- - BruceMoomaw   Yeah, we discussed a lot of this over at (of all p...   May 16 2006, 01:23 AM
- - edstrick   I suspect that for the Luna-3 data, fourier or wav...   May 16 2006, 09:49 AM
|- - Bob Shaw   Don: Excellent information, thanks! I think I...   May 16 2006, 12:22 PM
||- - DonPMitchell   QUOTE (Bob Shaw @ May 16 2006, 05:22 AM) ...   May 16 2006, 03:20 PM
|- - DonPMitchell   QUOTE (edstrick @ May 16 2006, 02:49 AM) ...   May 16 2006, 02:35 PM
- - DonPMitchell   Here's a piece from Boris Chertok, describing ...   May 16 2006, 03:33 PM
|- - djellison   QUOTE (DonPMitchell @ May 16 2006, 04:33 ...   May 16 2006, 03:46 PM
|- - DonPMitchell   QUOTE (djellison @ May 16 2006, 08:46 AM)...   May 16 2006, 04:16 PM
|- - Toma B   QUOTE (djellison @ May 16 2006, 05:46 PM)...   May 16 2006, 04:19 PM
|- - Bob Shaw   B)-->QUOTE(Toma B @ May 16 2006, 05:19 PM...   May 16 2006, 05:47 PM
- - PhilHorzempa   Does anyone have images of the Moon produced by th...   May 20 2006, 04:07 AM
- - 4th rock from the sun   Back to the Luna 3 images... I wasn't happy wi...   May 21 2006, 09:01 PM
|- - Bob Shaw   Ricardo: Great work! Do you think any of tho...   May 21 2006, 09:09 PM
||- - 4th rock from the sun   QUOTE (Bob Shaw @ May 21 2006, 10:09 PM) ...   May 21 2006, 10:33 PM
|- - tedstryk   Beautiful!   May 21 2006, 09:24 PM
- - DonPMitchell   Beautiful work. If I ever can get my hands on the...   May 21 2006, 11:01 PM
|- - BruceMoomaw   QUOTE (DonPMitchell @ May 21 2006, 11:01 ...   May 23 2006, 01:19 AM
|- - DonPMitchell   QUOTE (BruceMoomaw @ May 22 2006, 06:19 P...   May 23 2006, 03:26 AM
|- - ljk4-1   QUOTE (DonPMitchell @ May 22 2006, 11:26 ...   May 23 2006, 01:42 PM
|- - DonPMitchell   QUOTE (ljk4-1 @ May 23 2006, 06:42 A...   May 23 2006, 03:33 PM
- - Phil Stooke   The Luna 19 and 22 cameras were not great from a s...   May 22 2006, 02:23 AM
|- - DonPMitchell   QUOTE (Phil Stooke @ May 21 2006, 07:23 P...   May 22 2006, 05:46 AM
- - Phil Stooke   Don, could you please fill in a few more details a...   May 23 2006, 03:46 AM
|- - DonPMitchell   QUOTE (Phil Stooke @ May 22 2006, 08:46 P...   May 23 2006, 05:22 AM
- - Phil Stooke   PhilHorzempa asked about Luna 19 and Luna 22 image...   May 23 2006, 06:53 PM
- - BruceMoomaw   There's been quite a lot written recently by B...   May 25 2006, 12:06 AM
- - 4th rock from the sun   Here's an updated Zond 3 mosaic. I did some re...   May 25 2006, 12:23 AM
|- - Ian R   Wow! Great work! Is that the eastern r...   May 25 2006, 03:23 AM
|- - ustrax   QUOTE (4th rock from the sun @ May 25 2006, 0...   May 25 2006, 08:31 AM
- - ilbasso   I think that has to be the first Russian image whe...   May 25 2006, 01:15 PM
|- - DonPMitchell   QUOTE (ilbasso @ May 25 2006, 06:15 AM) I...   May 26 2006, 06:54 PM
- - ljk4-1   Check this out - a scale model of Luna 24 complete...   Jun 3 2006, 06:33 PM
|- - DonPMitchell   QUOTE (ljk4-1 @ Jun 3 2006, 11:33 AM...   Jun 3 2006, 06:58 PM
|- - tedstryk   QUOTE (DonPMitchell @ Jun 3 2006, 06:58 P...   Jun 3 2006, 10:35 PM
- - PhilHorzempa   I have looked through this thread and other Luna t...   Jun 8 2006, 04:07 AM
|- - DonPMitchell   QUOTE (PhilHorzempa @ Jun 7 2006, 09:07 P...   Jun 8 2006, 05:26 AM
|- - PhilHorzempa   QUOTE (DonPMitchell @ Jun 8 2006, 01:26 A...   Jul 21 2006, 03:41 AM
- - DonPMitchell   The wealth of information is in Russian. There ar...   Jul 21 2006, 06:40 AM
- - Phil Stooke   I have just made a polar pan of Luna 13's land...   Sep 25 2006, 06:00 PM
|- - tedstryk   Cool...I did something similar with Luna-9 a while...   Sep 25 2006, 09:03 PM
- - DonPMitchell   Very cool. Can't wait to see your book, Phil.   Sep 26 2006, 12:15 AM
- - Phil Stooke   Thanks. Book update: It's finished. The last...   Sep 26 2006, 12:58 AM
|- - DonPMitchell   QUOTE (Phil Stooke @ Sep 25 2006, 05:58 P...   Sep 26 2006, 02:05 PM
- - Phil Stooke   Here's the Luna 9 counterpart. A rougher land...   Sep 26 2006, 01:31 PM
- - djellison   "I'd like to thank the members of UMSF wi...   Sep 26 2006, 01:34 PM
- - Phil Stooke   Don - just Word. Cambridge does all the page setu...   Sep 26 2006, 03:03 PM
|- - Ian R   Phil, Is there any chance you would consider auth...   Sep 26 2006, 06:09 PM
- - Phil Stooke   Oddly enough I have considered that. But unfortun...   Sep 26 2006, 06:14 PM
- - nprev   Need an extra writer for some utility work? I...   Sep 27 2006, 01:44 AM
- - edstrick   Phil... absolutely INSIST on final galley proofs. ...   Sep 27 2006, 09:22 AM
- - Phil Stooke   Good point, ed... and thanks everyone for your sup...   Sep 27 2006, 01:19 PM
|- - tedstryk   I hope that the Luna 16 and 24 panoramas are in th...   Sep 27 2006, 02:28 PM
- - Phil Stooke   Don Mitchell also reported that information about ...   Sep 27 2006, 09:46 PM
|- - tedstryk   Did you have any luck digging up Luna-20 imagery? ...   Sep 27 2006, 10:15 PM
- - edstrick   Didn't one of the Luna sample return missions ...   Sep 28 2006, 09:28 AM
- - Phil Stooke   Lunas 15, 16, 18 and 20 carried twin cameras mount...   Sep 28 2006, 12:15 PM
- - DonPMitchell   I was told by Arnold Selivanov that Luna-16 return...   Sep 28 2006, 02:35 PM
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