Lunokhod 1: first robotic rover on the Moon
Lunojod 1: primer vehículo robótico en la Luna
- Date
- 17 de noviembre de 1970 · confidence high
- Place
- Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
- Credited to
- Lavochkin (Alexander Kemurdzhian, VNIITransmash)
- Field
- Movement
What was discovered
A remote-controlled eight-wheeled vehicle that travelled about 10.5 km across the Mare Imbrium over 322 days. It was the first rover to operate on another celestial body.
It arrived aboard Luna 17. Its retroreflector was later used to measure the Moon's distance by laser; Lunokhod 1's signal was recovered in 2010.
What it led to
- experience of teleoperation with a delay of seconds
- Lunokhod 2 (1973) and the crewed lunar rovers of Apollo 15-17
- Mars rovers (Sojourner and later)