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| Tracks made by Lunokhod 2 in 1976 as the Soviets tested for variations in the local magnetic field while traversing around a small crater (25.764°N, 30.474°E) inside le Monnier crater, on the eastern edge of Mare Serenitatis. From LROC NAC observation M122007650R, LRO orbit 3114, February 28, 2010; 36.59° incidence angle, resolution 50 cm from 43.89 km [NASA/ GSFC/ Arizona State University]. |
Principal Investigator
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera
Arizona State University
On 15 January 1973, just one month after the successful Apollo 17 mission culminated the US Project Apollo, the Soviet Luna 21 spacecraft landed softly just 170 km north of the Apollo 17 site on the eastern margin of Mare Serenitatis.
A day later on 16 January the rover Lunokhod 2 disembarked and, on 18 January, with a full battery charge it circumnavigated and imaged its faithful lander and began its record-setting journey across the lunar landscape.
A day later on 16 January the rover Lunokhod 2 disembarked and, on 18 January, with a full battery charge it circumnavigated and imaged its faithful lander and began its record-setting journey across the lunar landscape.
The eight-wheeled rover was operated by controllers in Simferopol, Crimea, mainly using a mast-mounted TV camera and ‘joystick’ controls and roved the lunar surface for five Earth months, surviving four bitterly cold lunar nights (as low as -150 °C (-240 °F)) and racking up about 39 km (~24.4 miles) of traverse distance.
The original reported distance was 37 km, which made Lunokhod 2 the planetary rover traverse distance record holder! Along its traverse, Lunokhod 2 carried out a series of scientific experiments that were not well publicized in the United States. Today’s Featured Image shows a cross-like pattern of rover tracks made as Lunokhod 2 explored a small crater, making various scientific measurements.
The original reported distance was 37 km, which made Lunokhod 2 the planetary rover traverse distance record holder! Along its traverse, Lunokhod 2 carried out a series of scientific experiments that were not well publicized in the United States. Today’s Featured Image shows a cross-like pattern of rover tracks made as Lunokhod 2 explored a small crater, making various scientific measurements.
A typical Lunokhod operations crew included a commander, a navigator, a driver, an engineer, a radio/antenna operator, and one man in reserve.
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| Panorama taken by Lunokhod 2 at the crater shown in LROC NAC observation M122007650R (cropped from L2_D03_S03_P05m). The main experiments at this location were to test for changes in the local magnetic field due to the crater and characteristics of the regolith [Courtesy of Roskosmos and Russian Academy of Sciences]. |
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| Lunokhod 2 traverse overview, low resolution version of six NAC image mosaic (original 1.3 m pixel scale), Sun from the west (see also Abdrakhimov, 42nd LPSC 2011) [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University]. |
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| LROC NAC M122007650R, with portion of Lunokhod 2 rover tracks highlighted, where instruments gathered magnetometer measurements and did a triple traverse. Small circles can also be seen where the Lunokhod turned in place to take panoramic images [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University]. |
During the Lunokhod 2 mission, as the deputy leader of the Scientific Team and leader of the Geology Group, Dr. Alexander “Sasha” Basilevsky worked tirelessly to maximize the science return of the mission. Meeting this goal was not so easy because the Managing Group (Crew plus representatives of Lavochkin Association, which built the Lunokhods) was mostly thinking about demonstrating the roving and control capability of Lunokhod 2, and establishing a new distance record. Dr. Basilevsky recounts,
“So when moving south from the landing point, we crossed the mare area and reached a hilly terrain (low "highland" terrain). I was planning to study it and then to go north and then east towards a graben later called Fossa Recta. But the managing team did not like long sessions of TV stereo-imaging and other measurements, and they sent Lunokhod back to the north despite my protests.
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| Detail map of the SW portion of the Lunokhod 2 traverse. White box indicates the field of view shown at high-resolution in the LROC Featured Image released May 2014 [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University]. |
“So I called to Moscow to the head of my laboratory, Professor Cyrill Florensky, he called to Vice President of Academy of Sciences Academician Alexander Vinogradov, and Vinogradov called Sergei Kryukov, the Lavochkin Association director, and explained that the hilly terrain had to be studied. Kryukov agreed and called to the Lunokhod Control Center in Crimea where we were and said, ‘please, follow the suggestion of that guy Basilevsky.’
“Meanwhile Lunokhod 2 proceeded quite a long way. After the Kryukov call worked, the crew just turned the vehicle back and then drove along the track. That was safe and they could be fast. When Lunokhod 2 came back to the hilly terrain station we made several panoramas, and then drove back to north along the double track and again could be fast.
“So the result was good for both sides of the [issue]: For science: we studied [the hilly] terrain, and for the Managing Group: Lunokhod made a lot of meters.”
At the conclusion of the ‘tripled’ traverse segment, Lunokhod 2 had racked up about 17 km of odometry. Controllers then began the long eastward drive to Fossa Recta (‘Straight Rille’), crossing Fossa Inconspicua (‘Unnoticed Rille’) along the way. Magnetometer experiments were done along the tripled traverse to test for effects related to the mare-highland boundary, and later, on the east and west sides of Fossa Recta (see below). Other observations and measurements included soil compositional analyses using an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, soil mechanics experiments using a penetrometer, solar X-ray monitoring, a photodetector to detect UV light sources and the level of Earth-glow on the night-time Moon, laser ranging, 86 panorama photos, and some 80,000 TV pictures. The laser ranging retroreflector, a French instrument, is still in use today.
Fossa Recta Exploration
On its fourth lunar day of roving, Lunokhod 2 explored a linear depression (graben or rille), Fossa Recta. After approaching the depression, the Lunokhod was driven along a path leading away from its edge to measure any changes in the local magnetic field associated with the depression, and then back along the same path to the edge again. By reversing its direction and retracing its path, the effect of the Lunokhod, itself, on the magnetic signal could be determined and subtracted from the signal. A portion of the panorama taken by Lunokhod 2 when it approached the graben of Fossa Recta is shown below.
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| Part of the Panorama (L2_D04_S11_P09m) showing a portion of the Fossa Recta, stretching from north (left) to south (right) and a boulder field in the foreground. The sharp object on the left side of the panorama is the soil penetrometer [Courtesy of Roskosmos and Russian Academy of Sciences]. |
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