Luna 17

Luna 17 was an unmanned space mission of the Luna program , also called Lunik 17. Luna 17 was launched from anearth parking orbit towards the Moon and entered lunar orbit on November 15 , 1970 . The spacecraft softly landed on the Moon in the Sea of Rains . The spacecraft had dual ramps by which the payload, Lunokhod 1 , descended to the lunar surface. Lunokhod 1 was a lunar vehicle formed of atub-like compartment with a large convex lid on eight independently powered wheels. Lunokhod was equipped with a cone-shapedantenna, a highly directional helical antenna, four television cameras, and special extendable devices to impact the lunar soilfor soil density and mechanical property tests. An x-ray spectrometer , an x-ray telescope , cosmic-ray detectors, and a laserdevice were also included. The vehicle was powered by a solar cell arraymounted on the underside of the lid. Lunokhod was intended to operate through three lunar days but actually operated for elevenlunar days. The operations of Lunokhod officially ceased on October 4, 1971, the anniversary of Sputnik 1 . Lunokhod had traveled 10,540 m and had transmitted more than 20,000 television pictures and more than200 television panoramas. It had also conducted more than 500 lunar soil tests.

Luna 17 continued the spate of successes in Soviet lunar exploration begun by Luna 16 and Zond 8. Luna 17 carried Lunokhod 1,the first in a series of robot lunar roving vehicles whose conception had begun in the early 1960s, originally as part of thepiloted lunar landing operations. This was the second attempt to land such a vehicle on the Moon after a failure in February1969. The descent stage was equipped with two landing ramps for the “ascent stage,” that is, the rover, to disembarkonto the Moon’s surface. The 756-kilogram rover stood about 1.35 meters high and was 2.15 meters across. Each of its eightwheels could be controlled independently for two forward and two reverse speeds. Its top speed was about 100 meters per hour,with commands issued by a five-man team of “drivers” on Earth who had to deal with the 5- second delay. The set ofscientific instruments was powered by solar cells (installed on the inside of the hinged top lid of the rover) and chemicalbatteries. After two midcourse corrections en route to the Moon, Luna 17 entered lunar orbit and then landed on the lunar surfaceat 03:46:50 UT on 17 November 1970 at 38°17' north latitude and 35° west longitude, about 2,500 kilometers from the Luna 16 sitein the Sea of Rains. The Lunokhod 1 rover rolled over the ramps and onto the lunar surface at 06:28 UT. The rover had an expectedlifetime of three lunar days but operated for eleven. During its 322 Earth days of operation, the rover traveled 10.54 kilometersand returned more than 20,000 TV images and 206 high-resolution panoramas. In addition, Lunokhod 1 performed twenty-five soilanalyses with its RIFMA x-ray fluorescence spectrometer and used its penetrometer at 500 different locations. Controllersfinished the last communications session with Lunokhod 1 at 13:05 UT on 14 September 1971. Attempts to reestablish contact werefinally discontinued on 4 October.

• Launch Date/Time: 1970-11-10 at 14:44:01 UTC
• On-orbit dry mass: 5600 kg

See also

• Lunokhod 1

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